Like many painters and sculptors, Dos Passos was attracted by the problem of how to communicate a sense of movement in an art form that is essentially frozen in space and time. Figures 59, “Dancers at a Nightclub”; 60, “Boxing Nudes”; and 61, “Fishermen at Work” display, in paintings differing widely in subject matter, his efforts toward resolving this difficulty. The night club in figure 59 is crowded with figures whose contorted bodies (the musicians) and raised arms and swaying bodies (the dancers) imply frenzied movement in response to the beat of the music. The boxers in figure 60 are more stylized attempts to render an effect of motion. The circle of boxers suggests a movement of each pair of boxers around the circle, and each boxer in the complete pair at the painting's center is at a specific phase of their engagement. The boxer on the right is pressing forward, hands cocked; the one on the left is in a defensive position, shoulders hunched and arms close to the chest. Figure 61 displays the intensity of a specific work moment as four fishermen haul in a net. The focal point of the painting, the men straining at their task, is carefully framed by the sea above and nets and deck below. The legs of the four men communicate the strength of their effort; those of the two men to the right have almost left the deck as they use them to gain traction as they haul. [DP]