Workshop of the Master of Osservanza (Sano di Pietro?), The Meeting of St. Anthony and St. Paul\
Solved the problem of how to tell a story in a single painting by merging a series of episodes into one picture
The story begins in the upper left-hand corner
St. Anthony sets out across the desert to seek St. Paul
Next, in the upper right
St. Anthony encounters a mythical creature called a centaur
It culminates in the bottom right
The two saints finally meet and embrace
This linear method is still used by artists, comic-book writers, and designers who want to tell a story or express the passing of time
Nancy Holt, Solar Rotary
Examines cycles of time in her works
Many of Holt’s sculptures intertwine the passage of time with the motion of the sun
Solar Rotary is designed to express meaning from shadows cast throughout the year
The work features an aluminum sculptural “shadow caster” perched on eight poles high above the center of a circular concrete plaza
Is oriented so that shadows cast by its central ring encircle notable dates set into the surrounding concrete plaza
Thomas Edison and W. K. Dickson, Fred Ott’s Sneeze
The duration, or length, of this film is 5 seconds
The tempo, or speed, is 16 frames per second
The intensity is high because the activity is sudden and strong
Has a limited scope because it is confined to a simple activity
The setting is Thomas Edison’s studio
The chronology can be seen in the still frames
Gianlorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne
Illustrates a story from ancient Greek mythology in which the sun god Apollo falls madly in love with the wood nymph Daphne
As Apollo reaches Daphne, Peneius transforms his daughter into a bay laurel tree
To convey the action, Bernini uses diagonal lines in the flowing drapery, limbs, and hair
At the pivotal moment in the story, the scene is suddenly frozen in time
Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
Balla paints a series of repeating marks to give the impression that we are seeing motion as it happens
He paints the dog’s tail in eight or nine different positions to communicate movement
The composition gives viewers a sense of ongoing forward motion even though the paint on the canvas is perfectly still
Jenny Holzer, Untitled
Uses the illusion of motion to enhance her text-based presentations
Although the text does not actually move, it appears to spiral up the ramped circular atrium of the museum
Tiny LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are illuminated and then switched off in an automated sequence
The intermittent flashing of lights creates an illusion of a scrolling series of letters and words
Bridget Riley, Cataract 3
During the 1960s, painters experimented with discordant positive-negative relationships
There is a noticeable sense of movement when we look at Cataract 3
It appears there is an overall vibrating motion
Riley understands that the natural oscillation of the eye, combined with the passage of time, makes us feel a sense of motion
Zoetrope, 19th century
Stroboscopic motion was used in a zoetrope, in which a series of drawings was placed in a slotted cylinder
When the cylinder was spun, the viewer could see an image appearing to move
Inventions like the zoetrope were early forms of animation
Walt Disney Pictures, frame from Finding Nemo
The movie is compiled from individual frames that were computer-generated using 3-D modeling software
The animator can make changes to the images and then produce all the individual frames in a sequence that the computer plays in rapid succession
This succession of images is combined with other scenes and eventually committed to film or digital media
Still from Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity
“Movie” is an abbreviation of “moving picture”
Double Indemnity was one of the first films that used sharply contrasting modeling, angled shadows, and lighting effects to create a sense of emptiness
The shadows create a sense of tension and foreboding by getting us to focus on each of the couple’s deliberate movements
Blue Man Group
From the 1980s the Blue Man Group performed in ways that integrated humor and music for passersby on the streets of New York
They used sound and mime, relying on bodily movements to communicate ideas without speech
Alexander Calder, Untitled
Kinetic sculpture has evolved during the twentieth century and is a notable example of art that moves
Alexander Calder invented the mobile
The mobile relies on air currents to power its movement
Untitled uses a small motor, powering counterbalanced abstract elements that move independently of each other
The result is a constantly changing visual form
Lange, Migrant Mother Time and Motion in Photography In the span of a few minutes, Lange went from showing the family in the environment in which they lived- a tent-to the intimate portrayal of an individual
By looking at this series, the process of selection becomes clear
Lange chose specific moments to capture, and from those moments she further selected the one she felt most effectively communicated what she thought was most true
Lange retouched the negative to crop out the hand
Because this photograph was meant to be an objective portrayal, the change was kept secret at the time, and has since been considered controversial
Adam Zaretsky and Julia Reodica, Workhorse Zoo
Have “grown” and performed works that include living things
The artists’ intention was to draw attention to the pros and cons of animal research
Ron Lambert, Sublimate (Cloud Cover)
He created a large transparent plastic environment in which water endlessly evaporates and condenses
Shows how the rhythms of nature become a measure of natural time