Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- The Paintings and Drawings of John Dos Passos: A Collection and Study
- Introduction
- Paintings and Drawings Included in this Volume: A Descriptive List
- Preface to Section 1: Early Work 1918–20
- Preface to Section 2: The Middle East and Morocco 1921–22, 1926
- Preface to Section 3: Paris 1921–25
- Preface to Section 4: New York 1920–24
- Preface to Section 5: New York: Nudes 1920–23
- Preface to Section 6: Theater Designs 1925–28
- Preface to Section 7: Mexico 1926–32
- Preface to Section 8: Later Work 1930–70
- Preface to Section 9: Portraits
- Preface to Section 10: Sea Fronts and Harbors
- Preface to Section 11: Still Lifes
- Preface to Section 12: Studies in Motion
- Preface to Section 13: Abstractions and Other Experimental Modes
- Words and Images: The Visual Art of John Dos Passos
- The Artwork of John Dos Passos
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
- Plate section
Preface to Section 12: Studies in Motion
from The Paintings and Drawings of John Dos Passos: A Collection and Study
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- The Paintings and Drawings of John Dos Passos: A Collection and Study
- Introduction
- Paintings and Drawings Included in this Volume: A Descriptive List
- Preface to Section 1: Early Work 1918–20
- Preface to Section 2: The Middle East and Morocco 1921–22, 1926
- Preface to Section 3: Paris 1921–25
- Preface to Section 4: New York 1920–24
- Preface to Section 5: New York: Nudes 1920–23
- Preface to Section 6: Theater Designs 1925–28
- Preface to Section 7: Mexico 1926–32
- Preface to Section 8: Later Work 1930–70
- Preface to Section 9: Portraits
- Preface to Section 10: Sea Fronts and Harbors
- Preface to Section 11: Still Lifes
- Preface to Section 12: Studies in Motion
- Preface to Section 13: Abstractions and Other Experimental Modes
- Words and Images: The Visual Art of John Dos Passos
- The Artwork of John Dos Passos
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Like many painters and sculptors, Dos Passos was attracted by the problem of how to communicate a sense of movement in an art form that is essentially frozen in space and time. Figures 59, “Dancers at a Nightclub”; 60, “Boxing Nudes”; and 61, “Fishermen at Work” display, in paintings differing widely in subject matter, his efforts toward resolving this difficulty. The night club in figure 59 is crowded with figures whose contorted bodies (the musicians) and raised arms and swaying bodies (the dancers) imply frenzied movement in response to the beat of the music. The boxers in figure 60 are more stylized attempts to render an effect of motion. The circle of boxers suggests a movement of each pair of boxers around the circle, and each boxer in the complete pair at the painting's center is at a specific phase of their engagement. The boxer on the right is pressing forward, hands cocked; the one on the left is in a defensive position, shoulders hunched and arms close to the chest. Figure 61 displays the intensity of a specific work moment as four fishermen haul in a net. The focal point of the painting, the men straining at their task, is carefully framed by the sea above and nets and deck below. The legs of the four men communicate the strength of their effort; those of the two men to the right have almost left the deck as they use them to gain traction as they haul. [DP]
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- Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2016