Why Are Wheels So Widely Used in Art and Design?

Wheels have been part of our lives since around 4000 BCE, but you might not have noticed how big an impact they’ve had in the world of art and design. What are some of the key points that have made these objects so widely used by artists and designers over the centuries?

Their Practical Uses Inspire Art and Entertainment

The first crucial point about wheels is that they’re highly practical. The invention of the wheel changed the course of human history in a way that few other objects have managed, by letting us move heavy objects more easily and travel long distances more quickly. This helps us to understand why some of the earliest pieces of rock art and cave drawings in India show wheeled chariots being drawn by animals. Jumping forward to the modern day, we can see wheels being used in artwork, such as when a group of British artists (John Wilson, Stefan Marner, Stephen Simpson and Richard Rowan) turned motorsports tyres into colourful works of art.

The rota fortunate was the name given to the early wheel of fortune, which people from Babylon to Rome and beyond believed could predict the future and decide our fates when spun by the Goddess Fortuna. So, it’s no surprise that it’s seen in many pieces of art such as in Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum Illustriumencyclopaedia. These days, we can see similar wheels used in the design of games of chance such as the way you can spin a wheel to see which casino welcome bonus you collect here. Using a spinning wheel with segments marked on makes for an interesting, random type of bonus offer. This is also part of the widespread use of wheels in live casino games like Monopoly Live and Crazy Time Live, where a human dealer spins the wheel in a thematically designed studio.   

They Give a Sense of Movement and Progress

Wheels are particularly useful when an artist wants to add a sense of life and movement to their creations. Paintings of fairs and amusement parks with Ferris wheels have long been popular in different cultures and parts of the world, showing how these wheels add life and fun to any scene. The Vienna wheel in the Prater stands close to 65 metres tall and is regarded as one of the most beautiful Ferris wheels on the planet, so it’s no surprise to discover that many artists travel here and attempt to capture its beauty on canvas. The London Eye has also been painted, sketched and drawn in many different ways, giving us a fresh perspective on the UK’s capital.

Wheeled vehicles offer another possibility for showing the beauty and practicality of wheels, with many pieces of art showing cars, trucks and other vehicles. Another approach sees designers pour their creativity into art cars like Marcel Wanders’ VW Beetle-based Antelope or Banksy’s Triumph GT6 MkIII. Wheels are sure to continue playing an important part in the world of art and design. The truth is that very few man-made objects have provided us with such huge practical benefits while also opening a whole world of entertainment and art p