L’objet en mouvement: Early Abstract Film

Presented in conjunction with “Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art,” this exhibition comprised a selection of abstract films from the 1920s discussed by essayists in the third issue of Cercle et Carré’s journal. Members of Cercle et Carré identified these early films as initial steps toward achieving an entirely abstract cinema — a nonrepresentational mode of expression based purely on movement. Films included Fernand Léger’s “Le Ballet mécanique” (1924), Man Ray’s “Emak-Bakia” (1926) and Viking Eggeling’s “Symphonie diagonale.”