Looking Closely & Talking Art: Military by Marsden Hartley
A visual exploration of color, line, light, and space
In the series, we use the visual elements of an artwork to explore its aesthetic expression independent of its art-historical context or the artist’s biography.
In Hartley’s Military, the first thing you notice is that the canvas is filled with blocks of squares and rectangles, alongside a few semi-circles, trapezoids, and diamonds. Each block contains different details: patterns, symbols, text, numbers, a floral motif, or solid fields of color. The color palette is rich and deep, with hues of white, black, red, navy blue, green, and yellow. While the deep, rich hues arrest the viewer’s eye. However, overlapping blocks quickly move it to adjacent areas, creating constant movement.
Although the painting evokes a grid, there are no straight lines running across its length or width. Instead, the structure is alluded to by the borders of the overlapping blocks layered on top of one another. Several blocks are partially covered by others, creating a layered effect that adds depth and volume.
The composition contains a few repeating motifs. Larger forms at the bottom mirror three small semi-circles at the top. Recurring diamonds, trapezoids, and blocks populate the composition. The blocks, with their varying details, create a richness of variety. Shapes like the slanted diagonal lines, semi-circles, and two downward rectangles with smaller rectangles inside link the blocks together and unify the composition.
The canvas is taller than it is wide, naturally drawing our gaze downwards. As we reach the bottom, this motion is interrupted by semi-circular shapes that bounce our eyes back up the canvas. The magnitude of the upward bounce is emphasized by the three concentric circles that echo the ripples created when a pebble is flung into a river. By repeating the circular forms and giving them a longer arc and wider annulus relative to their counterparts above, Hartley creates a strong reverberation to counter the composition's vertical pull.
The blocks are tightly packed with no negative space on the canvas. This dense arrangement intensifies the rhythm of the artwork’s darting motion, making it feel more kinetic. Even the white areas, which could serve as resting spots, are not static. Instead, they suggest motion. They are painted with fluid brushstrokes that follow wavy or curvy lines. On a closer look, the white areas reveal a black coat of paint underneath, adding to their liveliness.
Similarly, the colored blocks — red, yellow, navy green, and blue — have layers of black peeking through that enrich their tones. In a few blocks, we see specks of red: Do they suggest a red coat underneath or paint drips left by the artist? In the lower right corner, the artist has applied black over a blue base, creating a rich, deep navy blue that bleeds into the surrounding black fields, producing subtle shadow variations while staining the adjacent yellow.
Apart from the visual qualities and the use of form, let’s consider how the artist uses the blocks to convey the illustrative aspects of the painting. Some blocks contain familiar patterns and symbols, such as a checkerboard design and a red cross sign. Others contain patterns, symbols, or signs unfamiliar to me. Still, using the recognizable symbols as a guide, we can infer that many, if not all, of the blocks carry embedded meanings, even if their significance isn’t immediately apparent.
If we consider each block as a unit, the painting becomes a network of embedded meanings. Quick brushstrokes and color bleed from one block into the next, embodying fluidity and movement. As our eye darts from block to block, meanings overlap and interact, creating a layered, shifting pattern. Hartley’s use of color, lines, and symbols suggests that meaning isn’t fixed in one place. On the contrary, it flows between units, allowing each block to express multiple and shifting expressions over time. These evolving relationships, coupled with the bounce at the edges, result in a dense, pulsating energy. Given the painting’s grid-like structure, it’s a contradictory but fascinating effect.
Rather than a collection of isolated symbols, Hartley expresses an interconnected pattern of active meanings that are constantly moving and transforming. Meaning is grasped not just by examining each block but also by taking in the dynamic energy that pulsates across the painting.
Notes
To be honest, when I first saw the painting, it felt a bit staid. However, as I looked more closely at its plastic means — color, light, line, and space — I was surprised to uncover its dynamic energy. The key to this discovery was the overlapping blocks and, more importantly, the semi-circles. Once I identified the function of the semi-circles, I couldn’t help but see ping-pong balls darting across the surface.
The layering technique, discussed in paragraph 2, in which volume is built up with overlapping shapes, reminds me of the brushwork of French Artist Paul Cezanne, who used intersecting rectangular planes of color to add dimension.
This project is supported by the Barnes Foundation and the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellowship Program (AHFP), which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
