Ballerina = Elica = Mare (1915)

Severini, Gino (1883-1966)

Ballerina = Elica = Mare (Dancer = Propeller = Sea)
1915
Oil on canvas, 75.2 x 78.1 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Like other artists associated with Italian Futurism, Severini was fascinated by the interactions of movement and matter and the dynamic speeds of the modern world. In his manifesto Plastic Analogies of Dynamism (191314), written just before this work was painted, he describes the sensory and visual “analogies” that resonate across seemingly unrelated objects, from a dancing girl to a rushing express train to abstract forms. Here, he uses the same shapes and colors to convey the movements of a dancer, a spinning airplane propeller, and the roiling sea. The painting’s unusual diamond shape—the only example in Severini’s oeuvre—enhances the disorienting effect of simultaneous motion. (MET)