Dynamism and painting

A dynamic image portrays a sense of movement- either vectors are moving or pointing in different (even contradictory) directions, or there are many diagonals.
Or there might be extreme contrasts of light and dark and of color.
All of these strategies create a sense of movement.

Here is some work I think shows dynamism. Try to find paintings or prints you are unfamiliar with.
Art books at the library are great for that.
Artists in the first half of the 20th century particularly evoked a sense of tension, excitement and dynamism in their work -- sometimes this was positive, other times, as in the Egon Schiele painting in Digital Foundations, not so positive feeling.

Most of the examples below are early modernist- first half of 20th century.

Constructivist film

Untitled by Etel Adnan

Broadway Boogie Woogie, by Piet Mondrian

Constructivist Composition by Lajos Kassak

Jammin at the Savoy by Romare Bearden

Film posters from revolutionary Soviet Union

NY Waterfront by Stuart Davis

Two more images by American painter and collagist
ROMARE BEARDON (1911-1988)

These combine lines and planes of color with collaged photorealistic images. There is no sense of horizon or real space; all the elements are combined and juxtaposed as a composition. 




Below: 19th Century painter Henri Toulouse Latrec- Thanks for the idea from Rebekah.

Posted here is one of the paintings, and then a print in which he goes through the same process of reducing detail in the shape in order to achieve a flat look- that we are doing with Illustrator.

 This flat look was inspired by Asian woodblock prints as below right.
This was a new way to represent the world for westerners.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, Albi 1864–1901 Saint-André-du-Bois)
Divan Japonaise 1892–93. Lithograph printed in four colors, wove paper

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE KIND OF JAPANESE WOODBLOCK ART THAT MID 19TH CENTURY PAINTERS IN FRANCE (ESPECIALLY) WERE LOOKING AT. THIS IS Poet and Mt. Fuji - Kabuki - Osaka Print by Yoshitaki Utagawa 1841-1899

Hide Little Children- a painting from the 1960s by Faith Ringgold (1930)