Street Singers
Here, Flight created an image of sound made visible, expressed by curved lines radiating from the singers’ mouths. Their powerful voices rather than any physical movement of their bodies are what bend the surrounding structures into the fragmented, billowing forms that fill the composition. Edward Wadsworth’s earlier Vorticist image of a similar subject (Street Singers, 1914, MMA 2019.592.27) seems static by comparison, the three machine-like figures—rendered in tones of black and gray—appearing still, self-contained, somber, and almost sculptural. Flight, by contrast, created a prismatic effect by layering colors from four blocks (yellow, blue, red, and black) into vibrant decorative patterns, perhaps in reference to the joyful serenade of his singers.
Artwork Details
- Title: Street Singers
- Artist: Claude Flight (British, 1881–1955)
- Date: 1925
- Medium: Color linocut on Japanese paper
- Dimensions: Sheet: 16 3/4 × 13 3/4 in. (42.5 × 34.9 cm)
Image: 12 5/16 × 10 5/16 in. (31.2 × 26.2 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Leslie and Johanna Garfield Gift, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and David T Schiff Gifts, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, Dolores Valvidia Hurlburt Bequest, PECO Foundation and Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, and funds from various donors, 2019
- Object Number: 2019.592.8
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Claude Flight
ca. 1922
Claude Flight
ca. 1926
Claude Flight
1935–55
Claude Flight
1930s
Claude Flight
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