Maître Tom, le nageur du Nat

When I watch Tom and Victoria practice, 

I don't notice anything odd about their appearance 

in the water; I take the distortion for granted.

But when I tried to draw Tom, I found the distortions 

needed explanation: No, his arms aren't really 

all weenified, his legs and body aren't that thick; it's just 

the way the light is reflected by the moving water.

While working on the drawing, I was reminded 

of Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon, 

the painting that inspired the artist's development

of Cubism. The debut of this painting in 1907

marked the birth of modern art. From my art history

classes, I understood that Cubism was, in part,

an effort by the artists to flatten perspective and

to keep the viewer's eye moving continually

around the composition. I didn't try to "flatten"

the perpective at all, but the distortions made by 

the water certainly force one to keep looking

around the picture, making it move.

Braque in Speedway

No, I don't go looking for them. 

The images just jump in front of me and 

force me to take their pictures. I was walking along

 West 15th Street in Speedway not long ago, happily looking at

all of the older homes that have been renewed and restored,

when this image, reminding me of a painting 
by Cubist artist Georges Braque just seemed to be 

standing curbside, begging for my attention.

Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Marcel Duchamp were

were searching for new ways to portray three-dimensional

forms on a two-dimensional surface, sort of looking for

a way to show the viewer different viewpoints of the same

object in one picture. One of the other things the artists researched

was to find a way to show movement and speed in their paintings.

The paintings familiar to almost every college student

that show this are Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2

and Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907
Oil on Canvas. Museum of Modern Art, NYC

Really, what particular movement in 20th Century art could be 

more appropriate to find in Speedway? Most of the artists' work 
during this period was done, beginning in Paris, from 1908 

to about 1919 -- years during which the Indianapolis 
Motor Speedway was constructed, opened, 

and the first Indianapolis 500-Mile Races were held.

Nude Descending a Staircase,
No. 2, 1912. Oil on Canvas.
Philadelphia Museum of Art