MoMA

All Works	All Departments	All	All Artists
On View Recent Acquisition Highlights E-Cards With Images	Architecture and Design Drawings Film Media and Performance Art Painting and Sculpture Photography Prints and Illustrated Books	2000s 1990s 1980s 1970s 1960s 1950s 1940s 1930s 1920s before 1920	A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Aino Aalto [1] Alvar Aalto* [23] Eero Aarnio [1] Magdalena Abakanowicz* [3] Matthew Abbott [1] Lida Abdul [1] Adolf Abel [2] Robert Abel [1] Raimund Abraham [13] Ivor Abrahams [1] Marina Abramovic [2] Gerald Abramovitz [1] Angel Abreu [2] Tomma Abts [2] Rodolfo Abularach [37] Acconci Studio, New York [1] Vito Acconci* [25] Bogdan Achimescu [1] Franz Ackermann [9] Milton Ackoff [1] Norman Ackroyd [2] Scoli Acosta [2] Valerio Adami [2] Clinton Adams [21] Dennis Adams [1] Robert Adams [72] Allan Adler [1] Dankmar Adler [1] Deborah Adler [1] Samuil Adlivankin [1] Pic Adrian [1] AEDS Ammar Eloueini Digit-all Studio [1] Aesthetics + Computation Group [2] Afro (Afro Basaldella) [1] Aftograf [2] Agam (Yaacov Agam) [1] Peter Agostini [1] Olympe Aguado de las Marismas [2] George Agule [1] Eija-Liisa Ahtila [1] Otl Aicher (also known as Otto Aicher) [21] Edgar Ainsworth [1] Airstream, Inc. [1] Werner Aisslinger [3] Doug Aitken [12] Ai Weiwei [7] Lucas Ajemian [2] Akzo Nobel Geosynthetics Company, Asheville, NC [1] Ricci Albenda [4] Anni Albers* [134] Josef Albers* [63] Beatrice Albert [1] Rafael Alberti [1] Franco Albini [1] Ivan Le Lorraine Albright [1] L. (Alfred Lewin Copley) Alcopley [1] Pierre Alechinsky* [195] Brian Alexander [1] Peter Alexander [4] Sophie Alex [11] Carlo Alfano [1] Elizabeth Alford [1] Laylah Ali [2] Shay Alkalay [1] Wobbe Alkema [4] William Allan [1] Harry Allen [5] Herbert Allen [1] Rebecca Allen [2] Terry Allen [1] Woody Allen [2] Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft (A.E.G.) [1] Jennifer Allora [1] Alloy Ltd. Total Product Design [1] Efrain Almeida [1] Almo, New York [1] Svetlana Alpers [6] Glen Alps [16] Alsop Ltd., London, England [1] Alsterfors, Sweden [1] Henry Altchek [1] Gerhard Altenbourg [1] Hobie Alter [1] Kai Althoff [14] Harold Altman [3] Natan Al'tman* [5] Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [2] The Aluminum Cooking Utensil Co., New York, NY [5] Manuel Alvarez Bravo [29] D-L Alvarez [4] Francis Alÿs* [10] Jim Amaral [1] Emilio Ambasz* [17] Barbara Ambrosz [1] Gregory Amenoff [3] Woody van Amen [1] American Optical Corp., Southbridge, MA [1] American Steel & Wire Co., Worcester, MA [8] Florencia de Amesti [1] Carlos Amorales [1] Emma Amos [1] Mauricio Amster [1] William Anastasi [5] Michael Anastassiades [1] El Anatsui [1] Anchor Tool Co., USA [1] Stephen Ancona [1] Victor Ancona [1] Jiþi Anderle [1] Gunnar Aagaard Andersen [1] Karin Schou Andersen [1] Alex Anderson/The New York Times [1] Charles S. Anderson [2] Hurvin Anderson [8] James Anderson [1] Jerry Anderson [2] J. S. Anderson [2] Laurie Anderson [4] Reed Anderson [1] Mamma Andersson [2] Joe Andoe [2] Tadao Ando* [10] A. Andreas [1] Henning Andreasen [3] Carl Andre* [15] André Giraud & Brousseau, Limoges, France [3] Laura Andreson [1] Benny Andrews [3] Sybil Andrews [3] Hilde Angelfoss Øxseth [1] L. Angerer [1] Olli Aninbaum [1] G. Annekoff [1] Iurii Annenkov* [2] Franco Annoni [1] Giovanni Anselmo [5] Antenna Design [1] Horst Antes [9] Ant Farm [7] William Anthony [2] Eleanor Antin [4] Stephen Antonakos [4] Janine Antoni* [1] Michelangelo Antonioni [1] Garo Antreasian [18] Richard Anuszkiewicz [3] Siegfried Anzinger [3] Masuteru Aoba [1] Ryoko Aoki [17] Philippe Apeloig [17] Polly Apfelbaum [2] Karel Appel [7] Kevin Appel [2] Ida Applebroog* [4] Apple Computer, Inc. [7] Apple Industrial Design Group [8] Arabia, Wärtsilä Ab, Helsinki, Finland [3] Ron Arad [7] Junichi Arai [3] Shusaku Arakawa [11] Roscoe Arbuckle [1] Howatt Archery [1] Aleksandr Archipenko* [21] Architecture and Vision [1] Archizoom Associati* [1] Egmont Arens [1] Philip Argent [2] Siah Armajani [1] Arman* [19] Stephen Armellino [1] John Armleder [19] John Taylor Arms [1] François Arnal [2] Robert Arneson [2] Per Arnoldi [8] Carla Arocha [2] Corrado Aroldi [1] Danilo Aroldi [1] Darren Aronofsky [1] David Aronson [1] Jean (Hans) Arp* [37] Otto Arpke [1] Alexandre Arrechea [3] Folke Arstrom [1] Arteluce S.A., Milan [1] Artko [1] Richard Artschwager* [34] Eve Aschheim [5] Charles Robert Ashbee* [1] Ray Ashley [1] Teppo Asikainen [1] David Askevold [3] Göran Åslin [2] Erik Gunnar Asplund* [35] Anthony Asquith [1] Geneviève Asse [2] Martin Assig [5] Associated Spring Raymond Barnes Group, Inc., Dallas, TX [1] assume vivid astro focus [6] Sergio Asti [7] Jorre van Ast [2] AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ [1] Dana Atchley [1] Atelier de Creation Graphique [1] Atelier Martine, Paris, France [1] Eugène Atget* [58] John Atherton [1] Anna Atkins [1] Conrad Atkinson [1] Terry Atkinson [6] Jean-Michel Atlan [1] Charles Atlas [3] The Atlas Group/Walid Raad [1] Laurence Attali [1] Dotty Attie [1] Shimon Attie [2] Eija-Liisa Attilah [2] Carl Auböck [7] Carl Auböck [1] Charles Aubry [1] Abel Auer [1] Frank Auerbach [4] James Auger [1] Stephan Augustin [1] Gae Aulenti* [1] George Ault [1] Paul Auster [1] Authentics artipresent GmbH, Germany [1] Richard Avedon* [15] Milton Avery* [6] Kiyoshi Awazu [5] Alice Aycock* [6] Arthur A. Aykanian [1] Ay-O [3] Belkis Ayón [1] Luis Cruz Azaceta [2]

Select a Term:
View Art Terms Abstract Expressionism Abstraction Action Painting Aquatint Art brut Art Deco Arte Povera Art Nouveau Arts and Crafts Movement Assemblage Automatism Bauhaus Black Mountain College Blauer Reiter Brücke Camera obscura Canvas Carte-de-visite Cast Cobra Collage Conceptual art Concrete art Constructivism Cubism Cubo-Futurism Dada Decalcomania Drawing Drypoint Dye transfer Easel painting Enamel Engraving Entartete Kunst Etching Expressionism Fauvism Fluxus Formalism Frottage Futurism Gouache Graphite Hatching Illusionism Impasto Impressionism Ink Inpainting Installation Kitsch Lead Limited edition Linocut Lithography Mass production Merz (i) Metaphysical Art Minimalism Mobile Model, architectural Model, artist's Modernism Modernity Monochrome Monotype Mural Nabis Neo-Impressionism Neon Neo-plasticism Objet trouvé Op art Original print Orphism Papier mâché Pastel Patina Performance art Perspective Photogravure Photo League Photomontage Photorealism Photo-Secession Pictorial photography Pigment Plastic Plinth Pointillism Pop art Poster Post-Impressionism Post-modernism Primitivism Prints Proof Propaganda Ready-made Realism Regionalism (movement) Relief Resin Screenprinting Sketch Skyscraper Snapshot Social realism Stencilling Studio Suprematism Surrealism Symbolism Tempera Triptych Varnish Video art Vorticism Watercolour Woodcut Young British Artists Close Art Terms

2009

Balla, one of the founding members of Futurism,spent much of his career studying the dynamics of movement and speed. The subject of this painting is the flight of swifts; black wings whir before a window. Inspired by photographic studies of animal locomotion such as those by French physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey, Balla created an image of motion pushed close to abstraction. The wings each represent a different position in a trajectory of motion, and the bird’s body is rendered as a diagrammatic line. Here Balla looks to science to establish a new, modern language for painting.

The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 72

"All things move, all things run, all things are rapidly changing," wrote the Futurists, one of them Balla, in 1910. Elaborating on Cubism's experiment in fracturing forms into planes, the Futurists further tried to make painting answer to movement: while the Cubists were concentrating on still lifes and portraits—in other words, were examining stationary bodies—the Futurists were looking at speed. They said: "The gesture which we would reproduce on canvas shall no longer be a fixed moment in universal dynamism. It shall simply be the dynamic sensation itself."

The backdrop to this painting is fixed architecture—a window, a drainpipe, a balcony—but the arcs that snake across the foreground are pure rush. The shapes of the swifts (are there four or forty of them?) repeat in stuttering bands, but their substance seems to evaporate: melting into light, the birds are lost in the paths of their own swooping soar. "Dynamic sensation," in Balla's time, was newly susceptible to scientific and visual analysis. Balla knew the photography of Étienne-Jules Marey, which described the movements of animals—including birds—through closely spaced sequences of images; Swifts emulates Marey's scientific visual analysis, which, in Balla's time, subjected "dynamic sensation to scrutiny," but adds to it a sense of exhilarated pleasure.

THE COLLECTION

Giacomo Balla. (Italian, 1871-1958)

Swifts: Paths of Movement + Dynamic Sequences

Giacomo Balla (Italian, 1871-1958)

2009

The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 72

The Museum of Modern Art

THE COLLECTION

Giacomo Balla. (Italian, 1871-1958)

Related Links

Works:

About:

Department:

Classification:

Date:

Art Terms:

Resources:

Permalink:

E-card:

Swifts: Paths of Movement + Dynamic Sequences

Giacomo Balla (Italian, 1871-1958)

2009

Publication Excerpt: The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 72

The Museum of Modern Art

MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 72