Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson
Study for ‘Returning to the Trenches’
(1914–15)
Tate
Kinaesthesia is the sense that detects bodily position, weight or movement of the muscles, tendons and joints of the body. In art the term has come to be used in relation to art that deals with the body in movement.
It was first associated with futurism, which sought to champion the dynamism of the modern age by depicting people and things in motion.
The performances of the American choreographer Merce Cunningham can also be described as kinaesthetic, because his dancers are concerned with the exploration of space through the body’s movement. In 1973 Trisha Brown used the Manhattan skyline as a stage for her performance Roof Piece in which dancers transmitted movements to other dancers standing on roof tops across New York.
