Movement and light in today's art
Movement and light in today's art
Man's ideas about movement have varied considerably through the ages. In turn he has feared it and has longed to halt its flight; he has wished to take part in it, then to analyse it, and finally to make use of it. Ever since prehistoric times the artist has tried to give visual expression to movement, and seeking ways to represent it, he has been torn between the urge to arrest each changing scene that met his eye and the wish to breathe new life into the vision he had just set down. Increasing powers of analysis brought greater knowledge; fresh materials became available for the artist's use, and movement began to find expression in new ways.
So we should not be surprised today to witness the emergence of Kinetic art, i.e. the use of mechanical, or "visual" and "natural" movement, and to find others who are reviving the sporadic studies of a few pioneers, such as the American, Thomas Wilfred, the Hungarian, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and the Russian composer, A.N. Scriabine, all of whom made a very direct use of light in art to give an impression of actual movement. Scriabine had rays of coloured light projected as an accompaniment to his symphony, Prometheus, and Wilfred designed an instrument he called the Clavilux; by "playing" on its keyboard he cast moving shapes and colours on a screen.
In our own day the most important work with light and real movement is being done in painting by an American, Frank J. Malina, and in sculpture by a Frenchman, Nicholas Schöffer.
Nuclear fission, cybernetics and the whole range of scientific discoveries are making a deep impact on the outlook of the average person; their effect on the artist is no less marked. And it is against this background of modern science and its relationship to the basic preoccupations of art, that it is interesting to examine the new role played by light and movement.
What actually are the latest developments in this field of art? What objections to their work do these artists have to face? And how are these criticisms answered?
Frank Popper
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