Abstract Speed + Sound
{{Short description|Painting by Giacomo Balla}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Abstract Speed + Sound
| other_language_1 = Italian
| other_title_1 = Velocità astratta + rumore{{cite web|title=Giacomo Balla: Abstract Speed + Sound (Velocità astratta + rumore)|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/300|publisher=Peggy Guggenheim Collection|access-date=20 July 2016}}
| image = GBallaArt.jpg
| image_upright = 1.6
| alt = Abstract Speed + Sound (1913–14) by Giacomo Balla
| artist = Giacomo Balla
| catalogue =
| year = 1913–14
| completion_date = {{start date|1914}}
| type = oil paint on millboard
| subject = abstract
| height_metric = 54.5
| width_metric = 76.5
| metric_unit = cm
| imperial_unit = in
| museum = Peggy Guggenheim Collection
| city = Venice{{cite web|title=Abstract Speed + Sound|url=http://www.wikiart.org/en/giacomo-balla/abstract-speed-sound-1914|website=WikiArt|access-date=20 July 2016}}
| accession = 76.2553.31
| owner =
}}
Abstract Speed + Sound (Italian: Velocità astratta + rumore) is a painting by Italian Futurist painter Giacomo Balla, one of several studies of motion created by the artist in 1913–14.
Description
The painting evokes the sensation of the passing of an automobile, with crisscrossing lines representing sound.{{cite book|last1=Day|first1=Gail|editor1-last=Wood|editor1-first=Paul|title=The Challenge of the Avant-garde|date=1999|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-07761-0|pages=217–218|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7iyNgXe0erwC&pg=PA217|chapter=The Futurists: transcontinental avant-gardism}} It may be the second in a triptych narrating the passage of a racing car through a landscape, beginning with Abstract Speed (Velocità + paesaggio) (1913) and ending with Abstract Speed – The Car Has Passed (1913). The three paintings share indications of a single landscape, and each painting is continued onto its frame.
Inspiration
Balla chose the automobile as a symbol of speed, reflecting the statement of Futurist founder Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's 1909 first manifesto: "The world's splendor has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed... A roaring automobile...that seems to run on shrapnel, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace."
Legacy
The painting is said to have captured the ideals of Italian Futurism.{{cite book|last1=Carr|first1=Maureen A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAmKAwAAQBAJ|title=After the Rite: Stravinsky's Path to Neoclassicism (1914–1925)|date=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199742936|page=18|access-date=20 July 2016}} It was featured on the 1980 British television series 100 Great Paintings, which presented five paintings from each of 20 thematic groups.{{cite web|title=Top 100 Masterpieces|url=https://www.toperfect.com/100-Great-Paintings.html|access-date=20 July 2016|website=Toperfect}}
The Philadelphia Museum of Art houses an apparent study for the painting, a {{convert|23.5|×|33|cm|in|abbr=on}} work in watercolor and graphite.{{cite web|title=Velocità astratta + rumore (Abstract Speed + Noise)|url=http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/279333.html?mulR=76248309%7C3|publisher=Philadelphia Museum of Art|access-date=20 July 2016}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{Giacomo Balla}}
{{Futurism|state=collapsed}}
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