#contextualtheory

[tobyhoten]

Study:

Mercury Passing Before the Sun, Giacomo Balla, 1914

In Giacomo Balla's Mercury Passing before the Sun as Seen through a Telescope, a combination of futurist and cubist techniques are used to convey multiple perspectives of a single event. By overlapping interpretations of viewing Mercury passing the Sun through a smoke-glass telescope and the naked eye, Balla successfully displays spatial movement, as well as the sensation of experiencing the event in the same way he did. Balla was an enthusiastic amateur astronomer, studying celestial movement and portraying Mercury passing the Sun as accurately and scientifically as a Futurist style could allow. Balla developed a number of versions of this piece, sketching out the arrangement of the shapes and lines and their relationships throughout at least twelve works, demonstrating great commitment to the final piece, and his great interest in cosmogony. The version considered Balla’s definitive piece is currently held at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, a city Balla exhibited in many times in his career. Mercury Passing before the Sun as Seen through a Telescope was originally painted using a strong purple-red colour, but it has unfortunately faded in colour over time to a more peach tone. Employing some Cubist techniques, Balla is able to paint Mercury’s entire spatial journey across the sun in one image, overlapping a number of perspectives. Using a rather aggressive colour scheme, filling the painting with a now faded deep red, Balla conveys the heat of the sun, as well as the strain on the eyes when looking at it, even when through a smoke glass. Balla also paints light blue triangles at calculated intervals, representative of the clear sky, and offering the viewer a less aggressive area to the picture. A dark helix appears to emerge from the orange sun, spiralling through the picture to possibly suggest the rotation of planets, as well as the rays of the sun. Whilst not the leading focus, or most captivating element of the painting, a white star shape stretches from the top left of the work, extending points to the other corners. This is yet another depiction of the sun itself in the painting, complimenting and merging with the view of the sun through the telescope. The green elements suggest a conical shape emerging, heading upward to the representation of Mercury, to suggest either the telescope itself, or its effects bordering the view through it. It is not a stretch to interpret the varied triangular colour patches of greens and blues as representations of the effects of retinal overstimulation, which leads to imprints playing in the field of vision. Looking directly into the sun would cause such an effect, which would then appear to overlap Balla’s vision, leading to a combination of colours such as these. Because of this, whilst the colours may seem to be a purely aesthetic choice, there is a realistic element to the chosen shades. As the retinas are exposed to a higher degree of light than usual, they will begin to strain and attempt to compensate for this, allowing Balla to convey these sensation through a careful choice of colour, opaque and transparent planes, and blurred borders. Interestingly, it is possible to identify, within the margin of four and a half hours, the moment, or moments that Balla has represented in the painting. Mercury began its transition across the sun at 10:24 on November the 17th, 1914, and completed the journey at 13:50, inspiring Balla to produce this piece on the way.

[tobyhoten]

As part of a recent job interview, I was required to deliver a sales pitch for an artwork. I was allocated Amber Bay by Paul Corfield, and this is what I got from the artwork.

Nostalgia. That’s the feeling this painting radiates. The muted foreground colours contrast and compliment the light work as the sun sets on an aged, distant fond memory of a country landscape. Corfield shares this blurred but treasured memory with the viewer and conveys this sense of whimsical optimism as he invites us to appreciate the pastoral elements of the Dorset landscape, but also the moments of tranquil joy that we all have in our pasts, however faint or small they might be. This little glimpse into Corfield’s reflections on the location that meant so much to him invite us to think about our own small, personal instances like this – a moment in your life that you can look back on happily. Even if you don’t remember all the exact details, like Corfield’s embellishment of the location shown, the feeling of nostalgia can do more for the viewer than any accuracy. 

You might not think of Corfield as a self-taught artist considering how well composed the painting is just on a technical level – with a good sense of space around each key element, and background details to add depth, the eye is drawn in a clear direction before being encouraged to explore, much like Corfield would have done as a youth in this setting. The winding path takes your eyes right to the red door of this cosy little cottage, and from that centre, you might want to visit the golden forest in the background, stop by the sheep in the field on the way, spend some time watching clouds roll away, see the sailboat drifting on the calm ocean, all the while close enough to this cosy little sanctuary in the dead centre of the canvas. As for brightness, this is a contrasted work, giving it the general advantage of fitting in with pretty much any surrounding. In a greyscale neutral coloured room, it’ll draw just the right amount of attention without too many loud colours, but in a busy colourful room, it’s a pleasant scene to draw you in. The sense of nostalgia that this painting offers is exactly the kind that will be remembered for the rest of your life. This is the kind of painting that kids will remember when they’re all grown up, giving them an anchor to their memories. This is Corfield’s goal, and he has succeeded.