Three Speeds
Claude Flight British
Not on view
Three Speeds is closely related to Flight's linocut Speed, which was made the same year; in both works, Flight portrayed a quotidian experience of urban living—that of commuting—and endowed it with modernist qualities. Here, the celebrated double-decker bus is more streamlined than in Speed, reduced to alternating stripes of red and white, with signage and other distractions eliminated. Its sleekness and size convey a sense of motion (or its potential) and efficiency in moving large groups of people, even though only the driver is shown and the bus appears to be stopped. Gathered on the street are small groups of people, presumably awaiting transportation. As the lines they fall into recede into the distance, their forms become increasingly reductive, creating a sense of anonymity and interchangeability.
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