Motion
The third dimension-motion-is the
one that has changed most with the
introduction of temporality to painting.
While painters and sculptors had long
attempted to suggest movement in their
static works, the development of a true
visual art of movement awaited the
invention of film. Some important
painters were ready as soon as film
appeared on the scene. We have already
encountered Leopold Survage, who was
extremely interested in introducing
movement to his painting. He produced
more than 200 watercolor sketches that
represented key ideas for an abstract film,
though it was never produced.
The Dadaist and Constructivist painter
Hans Richter had been making paintings
that suggested music with titles such as
Cello, Prelude, Fugue, Rhythmus 23, and
Orchestration of Color. Many of the
works were long scrolls in which forms
were developed along thematic lines as
they move from one end of the scroll to
the other. Working with Viking Eggeling
in the years between 1919 and 1922,
Richter focused on developing movements
from simple elementary patterns through
all kinds of counterpoint variations. As
from they worked on making elementary
forms and colors dynamic and on
orchestrating them, they became aware of
the possibilities of cinema. "We had
arrived at a cross-road, the scroll looked at
us and it seemed to ask for real motion.
That was just as much a shock to us as it
was a sensation. Because in order to
realize movement we needed film" [26].
Early attempts to convert Prelude into
a film left Richter unsatisfied. "After our,
as it appeared to me, unsuccessful
attempts to set scrolls into motion, I
recognized that the problem of film lies
essentially in the articulation of time and
only very secondarily in the articulation of
form. The more I delved into the
phenomenon of film, the move convinced
I was that articulated time, namely
rhythm, is to be regarded both as the
elementary dimension of film and its inner
structure" [27]. So with film, rhythm
took on added meaning for the visual
artist.