I chose the video Dada and Surrealism because I wanted to learn a little more about these styles than what was described in the text. I never really understood pieces like this and where they got their inspiration. These artist considered Dada a state of mind or jumbled up feelings that took over the world of art. The text refers to this an “anti-art” style. Ironically Dada mean yes yes in Russian. It is interesting that it came about in a revolt of sorts against WWI and the nonsense going on in the world. It led artist to create their own nonsense. The video discusses works by Kurt Schwitter and how he would take everyday objects and arrange them in a new way or in an unfamiliar arrangement, as did surrealist Man Ray in pieces like La Fortune. This is the basic concept behind dada and surrealism. Hanna Hoch, another Dada artist, shows her views of the jumbled up world at the time in her piece Cut with the Kitchen Knife. Although the piece looks like a thrown together random collage, she had carefully sketched out and gave consideration to every piece and its placement. Dada artist felt it was important to combine art with technology. Sometimes this meant including photographs in their art. Dadaism seems to branch from the artist frustration with politics and the world around them. Although the viewer may not be able to make sense of a piece simply by looking at it, the artist can most certainly explain the emotion and meaning of a piece.
Surrealism is another “off the wall” style that came about after Dada. As the Living with Art text explains it is a style that takes into account dreams, the bizarre, and the unconscious such as Salvador Dali’s The Burning Giraffe. It came about during the studies of Sigmund Freud. Dali’s pieces are very dismal with erotic fetishes. He uses a lot of symbolism, such as the crutch representing support and drawers which hold personal secrets. His work is the extreme of surrealism. The video also speaks of surrealist, Joan Miro and his unique use of everyday items. Things like birds are placed in the water with fish. Colors are used in unnatural ways. People and animals become rounded shapes sometimes mimicking or based off traditional historical paintings.
This video opened my mind to this type of art that I formally looked at with confusion. Although it’s still not a style I personally care for, at least now I understand how it came about and why these artist work in this manner. It gives them an outlet for their emotions through their artwork. The mysteriousness of the pieces may have even added to the release of these frustrations. Both the text and video referred to this type of work as poetry, not of words but of images.
I chose to watch the video on expressionism, again because I wanted to learn more about this emotional art style and what brought this unique method about. This seems to be another style that doesn’t make sense by just looking at it. A deeper understanding of the artists feelings in which they were trying to portray is needed. The video goes into detail describing certain artists and their works. It shows how colors and objects are often used symbolically and for emotional effect. Color is given a life of its own, not simply to become another object. Even people are used to represent relationships and sex roles based on how they are portrayed in each piece. Objects including people are often not drawn to scale. They are either large/small or body parts my be out of scale with other parts and can show deformity. Sometimes political expressions are exhibited.
The Scream is one of expressionism’s most popular paintings done by Edward Munch. He was taking a walk one night and not feeling well. Around him he sensed a scream and so he painted what he felt. He portrays the clouds as blood because the sun was setting at the time and the clouds appeared red. The scream he felt is portrayed in the center as a somewhat faceless person. Faces are often obscured and more abstract because they are meant to tell a feeling not be a specific person. Shapes are used to create objects as opposed to using specific lines with realism. Expressionist art is a protest of sorts to the historical art that glorified man. It takes on characteristics of other styles as well like cubism. This style does not show fine detail for realistic look but rather quick brush strokes and exaggerated images. Many of the artists of this style seemed to have had emotional difficulties, such as depression or anxiety. Some had nervous break-downs and/or committed suicide.
The most important thing I learned from this video is that each and every piece has a story to tell. With this type of work a viewer needs to know the history at the time of the piece, the feelings of the artist, information about other pieces from the artist and other inspirations in order to truly understand the message a piece may be conveying. Each viewer may interpret a piece in a different way depending on what feeling and opinions they may have.
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