Speed

Love these colors!

From Italian Futurism to Abstract Expressionism and beyond, there has been a powerful urge to capture movement in a medium antithetical to its expression. The rapid technological and industrial advancements of the twentieth century inspired many painters to try to capture the velocity of their times (notably, the Italian Futurists). Then the massive social changes of the second half of the twentieth century (coupled with the specter of complete authoritarian rule brought on by the Axis powers in World War II) inspired a new generation of artists (notably the Abstract Expressionists) to make the movement inherent to freedom the defining feature of their work. Gina Werfel’s Speed beautifully falls into the latter category. It is told in dashes, daubs, and gestures of acrylic that dance across the canvas in an elegant and unchoreographed spectacle. However, the lack of choreography does not imply a lack of cohesion. Instead, each form is given the freedom to move individually instead of in preordained order.