Finding the strength and the energy to start 2022 after almost two years of pandemic is not easy, but art, as usual, can help. So, let's start the new year with Gino Severini's "Dynamic Hieroglyph of the Bal Tabarin" (1912).
In this painting Severini captured the dynamism of the 20th century by painting a scene from a Parisian nightclub in his unique style. The dancehall scene looks indeed splintered, shattered into fragments and elements: in the centre of the painting we can see a blonde woman in a swirling purple dress and a dark-haired woman as well. Severini conveys their movements by fragmenting the forms composing their figures and repeating them. Abstract curves and angles are also employed to create the movements of the purple dress.
Other elements can also be detected - Martini glasses, a cat, the elaborate hat of a woman, a nude woman riding a pair of scissors, a mustachioed man wearing a monocle, black suit, tie, and top hat, the tuning pegs of a bass (cropped tops of musical instruments were intended to give the viewer a sense of being present in the audience and looking over the musicians at the stage), and a few words as well, with "polka" and "valse" (waltz), pointing at the painting's subject.
Yet, it's not just about hedonism, as current events were probably symbolized by a North African man riding a camel, a reference, according to some critics, to the Turco-Italian War of 1911, and flags conveying sentiments of nationalism.
The style with those fractured forms, chaotic shapes and brilliant colours, calls to mind the Futurists' interest in capturing the dynamism of motion, but Severini also employed collage elements like the decorative sequins shimmering on the purple dress (the painter used this technique also in other works to create a multisensory experience) and looked at Cubism with those fractured planes creating a kaleidoscope-like effect.
In the painting there's all the buzzing energy or the modern city with its crowds and its electricity. Brilliant colours contribute to create a vibrant whirling force that embraces the viewers turning them into members of the nighclub crowd. This frenetic scene represents pure, frenzied excitement. Looking at it feels a bit like spinning and then suddenly stopping and seeing all the room rotating around us, a feeling of confusion akin to entering a new year full of brand new challenges, fears and anxieties, questions that may find answers or that may remain unanswered. So, let's start the new year with these dynamic forces in mind. Happy New Year to us all, may 2022 bring us health, happiness and peace.
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