Formal Rhythms

The works on view here all suggest movement—not only depicting or capturing bodies in motion but also emphasizing movement through formal choices, materials, and techniques. Some artists in this section express the dynamism and energy of movement using color and gesture while oscillating between recognizable and abstract forms. Others include movement in their art-making processes, transferring materials from one place or surface to another. Each of these artistic strategies is a metaphor for how identities are shaped by constant transformation.

Night Strobe

Denzil Forrester (b. 1956, Grenada; lives in Cornwall, United Kingdom) Oil on canvas In the late 1970s and 1980s, in the dark, smoky nightclubs of London, Denzil Forrester would sketch scenes over a pile of paper, recording these clubs’ energies, lights, and movements. Working quickly—each drawing took only the length of a single song to make—Forrester completed upward of forty drawings each night. Forrester translated some of these drawings into dynamic paintings, such as Night Strobe. In the shadow of Margaret Thatcher’s racist and xenophobic Britain, the club, with traces of carnival and booming with dub, blues, reggae, and dancehall, was a crucial space of belonging.

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Breast, Navel, Eye,

Candida Alvarez (b. 1955, Brooklyn, NY; lives in Chicago, IL, and Baroda, MI) Lithograph on Somerset soft white paper Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago

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Bartica

Frank Bowling (b. 1934, Bartica, Guyana; lives in London, United Kingdom) Acrylic paint and silkscreened ink on canvas Sheldon Inwentash and Lynn Factor, Toronto

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