Motorcycle 1918

Curator: Here we have John Singer Sargent's 1918 pencil drawing, titled "Motorcycle." Editor: It looks… precarious. Like the drawing itself could just disassemble into lines. There's a delicacy to the sketch that seems at odds with the subject. Curator: Delicate but also dynamic, I think. He captured a sense of forward motion even though it's static. Sargent created this while he was working as a war artist during World War I. He wasn't focused on the battles so much as the machinery and support systems of modern warfare. Editor: I'm interested in that. I keep thinking about the cycle of violence and how technology became so intrinsically linked to its continuation, even glamorized perhaps. There's this gleaming front wheel suggesting something seductive about this...machine of war? Curator: Sargent wasn't alone; the Italian Futurists were obsessed with speed, mechanics, and modern life. There's an almost classical, geometric quality to the spokes and forks, but the rough handling of the pencil marks brings it into modernism. Editor: You know, looking at this straight on perspective of the motorcycle. I see a Cyclops – one big round eye. Given the historical context, that symbolism cannot be ignored. Cyclops was a brute figure from Greek Mythology with great ferocity. I suppose in a way it represents not only what wars cause but the ferocity of its machine. Curator: Fascinating. The front-on view definitely gives it that singular focus, doesn’t it? Like it's charging ahead single-mindedly. Editor: Well, Sargent gives us an interesting symbolic machine that reveals as much beauty in what destroys, don’t you think? Curator: Yes, I'm leaving here thinking a lot more about the links between mechanization and art than I had anticipated. Editor: Absolutely, Sargent is definitely offering the eye an uncanny image, full of unexpected insights!