Spring with Machine-Age Noise

Description

This painting is part of a series, Machine Age Noise, painted before Graves left the U.S. in 1958 for Ireland. "I was overwhelmed by the onrush and outrage of machine noise on the earth and, oh God, everywhere in the air." For Graves it represented the noise of "jets, chain saws, freight trains, trucks, bulldozers" sweeping over a grassy patch. See Time, Jan. 25, 1960, p. 72.
A self-taught painter, Morris Graves sought to capture both a sense of the natural world and the dynamism of modern life, sometimes in conflict. This work is from the "Machine Age Noise" series, created in response to the cacaphony of machine sounds that drove him from his home in Seattle in 1958, eventually to settle in Ireland. As the artist remarked, "I was overwhelmed by the onrush and outrage of machine noise on the earth and, oh God, everywhere in the air." For Graves, the series represented the noise of "jets, chain saws, freight trains, trucks, bulldozers" that drowned out the tiny sounds of nature that he felt were "essential nourishment." These paintings contrast a row of delicate plant life with repetitive, gestural strokes that not only impart a sense of rhythmic movement, but also evoke the strident auditory atmosphere that Graves felt marred existence.
(A. Dixon, 20th Century Gallery installation, June 1999)