Kinesthetics, Virtual Reality, and a Study of a Dog (1953) | CO

Portrait of George Dyer Talking (1966)

Like much of his work, Study of a Dog (1953) by the Irish-born British artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is a poignant capture of the uncertainty and transience of movement in abstracted space. Much of his work contends with the liminal space between the distorted and the just recognizable, placing a considerable focus on the suspension of human form and essence in uncertain spaces that evoke strong and often unsettling themes of isolation, vulnerability, and anguish. In this particular work, Bacon shifts focus to the almost featureless, phantom-like form of an animal in motion—a dog trotting along an uncertain path in a desolate, abstract void.

The Futurist movement is invariably tied to a unique obsession with the dynamic capture of movement in—specifcialy with regard to time and rhythm. This work by Giacomo Balla—one of the founding members of the Futurist movement—provides perhaps a less sinister example of the capture of the spontaneous motion of a dog (and its owner). The flurry of motion from the truncated legs of the little dachsund evokes a whimsical, pleasant sense of frivolity accompanying the endearing stachatto of the animals' quickened movement.

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912) Giacomo Balla