Painting: Etude Golden Arrow by Edward Judd

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Etude Golden Arrow by Edward Judd

From the Modern Beauty? The Aesthetics of Perceptual Simultaneity exhibition of the Florida International University Frost Museum, I have chosen to study the painting Etude Golden Arrow II (translated “Study Golden Arrow II,” pictured above) by French-Canadian artist Edward Judd. Judd painted this piece (20 x 25.5 inches) in his birth country of France circa 1931 under the style known as Synchromism. The painting is a depiction of a train known as Golden Arrow speeding along the tracks, past signaling lights, and past the perspective of the viewer. The setting of the composition is a French train track beneath an early morning sky.

Synchromism was the first American Avant Garde artistic movement started in early 20th century Paris by two expatriated artists from the United States, Morgan Russell of New York (1888-1953) & Stanton MacDonald-Wright of Virginia (1890-1973). Artists of the time were always working on new and inventive ways to show the importance of the movement. The two young artists met in Paris and established this movement on the influences of Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, and the Post Impressionists movement, which is the idea of color superseding the importance of the subject. They were able to evolve these post-impressionist ideals by implementing the use of Musical Theory, which is a style in which music and sounds would define certain hues and shades in their painting to represent movement, emotion, and expression. Music can be broken down into elements like rhythm, form, and structure while the same can be done with art, and this style bridges the gap between the two disciplines. Russell and MacDonald-Wright incorporated Musical Theory into their artworks in a simi...

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...nd beam effect from the composition with the lighter hues in order to create the visual experience from frozen light in the piece.

Works Cited

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Synchromism (art movement)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/578271/Synchromism (accessed April 9, 2014).

2 Harmon, Alison. "Paris in the 1930s: Art and History." Crossing on SS Normandie. http://www.fordham.edu/normandie/artdeco/AH3%20ParisInThe1930s.html (accessed April 9, 2014).

3 "DoverLock and Key of the Kingdom." The Golden Arrow. http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/transport/golden_arrow.htm (accessed April 10, 2014).

4 "Etude Golden Arrow II [Study Golden Arrow II]." Wolfsonian-FIU. http://www.wolfsonian.org/explore/collections/etude-golden-arrow-ii-study-golden-arrow-ii (accessed April 9, 2014).

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