Movements 1913

Marsden Hartley made this oil on canvas painting called 'Movements', it's a square shape with a bunch of abstract symbols crammed in together. I can imagine Hartley in his studio, slinging paint around, trying to find the essence of, well, movement! There are zigzags, arrows, and what looks like mountains. I wonder if he was thinking about the landscape and how things travel across it? The colours are vibrant and punchy – reds, yellows, blues – all fighting for attention. Look at that big, black shape in the middle. Is it a figure? A mountain? It looms over everything, anchoring the composition. There is this wild energy, like he’s trying to capture something fleeting and hard to grasp. Hartley was always experimenting, pushing boundaries, and talking to the other painters. He was part of a whole community of artists, all trying to figure out how to see the world in new ways. What do you see when you look at it? Maybe something different every time, huh?