SURREALISM

SURREALISM

This blog is for academic purposes in the partial fulfilment of ACHG 200 Assignment 1 at the Design Department, Pearson Institute of Higher Education.

Surrealism is an avant-garde movement that began in the early 1920s that released the creative potential of the unconscious mind which made paintings seen or placed together with a contrasting effect (juxtaposition).

HISTORY

This movement started around 1920's in Europe after World war 1. It combined elements of Dada and cubism to create something new to the world. Poets and writers however were the first people to have it out in the world. However André Brenton is known as the "Pope of Surrealism." (Charles Moffat, 2011).

André Brenton explained surrealism as "psychic automatism in its pure state by which one proposes to express - verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner - the actual functioning of thought." This meant that most artists went over the reasoning and phobia of getting their unconscious mind (The Art Foundation, 2017). Later on, these techniques became automatism  that made artists forgo conscious thought and embrace chance when creating art (The Art Foundation, 2017).

"The Interpretation of Dreams" was one of the most influential books to the surrealists in 1899. This book was written by Sigmund Freud who justified the importance  of dreams and the unconscious as valid revelations of human emotion and desires hence a basis for theoretical Surrealism thus each artist doing their paintings basing on their own recurring dreams or/and unconscious mind (The Art Foundation, 2017). 

Main artists involved in this movement were:
-Andre Breton (1896-1966) -Antonin Artaud (1896-1948)

-Joan Miro (1893-1983)
-Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
-Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
-Max Ernst (1891-1976)
-Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) -Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) -Rene Magritte (1898-1967)
-Yves Tanguy (1900-1955)
-Frida Kahlo (1907-54) among others. 

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (Mamta Bhatt 2016).

This is the most famous or well known painting in the history of Surrealism. It is the iconic ode to time according to Salvador. His inner workings of subconscious are reflected by the dripping clocks and also show that time as we know it is meaningless.

MODERN PAINTING.

(Jacek Yerka, 2012)

The above painting is by Oleg Shuplyak and was done in 2011. In this painting, you get to see different series of compositions forming one beautiful face on a landscape. The houses on the right with the trees form a face  which is also the left eye of the the main face in the painting. The woman on the left with a child kneeling form the left eye and lastly the a woman in the center with a man playing a harp and a tree forming the mouth and nose.
According to my view, the painter tried to reflect the sadness because of a breakup thus the woman in the center and on the left woman with a child on the left. He shows a sad man that tries to hide his face hence looking at the back playing his harp.
So he displayed his message properly.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Surrealism has helped me as a graphic designer to be creative through unconsciousness and making it real through illustrating. This has also also made me more creative in the world of design since there is no limit or restrictions of art.

SOURCES

Charles Moffat, 2011. Art History Archive.The Origins of Surrealism. Online. Available at:
http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/Origins-of-Surrealism.html
Accessed on: 28/04/2017

The Art Foundation, 2017. The Art Story. Surrealism. Online. Available at:

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm
Accessed on: 28/04/2017

Mamta Bhatt 2016. All that is interesting. Surrealism Art: Seven Iconic Surrealist Artists and Paintings. Online. Available at:

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/most-iconic-surrealist-paintings
Accessed on: 28/04/2017

Jacek Yerka, 2012. Cuded. 20 Inspirational Surreal Paintings. Online. Available at:
http://www.cuded.com/2012/10/20-inspirational-surreal-paintings/
Accessed on: 28/04/2017

DADAISM

This blog is for academic purposes in the partial fulfilment of ACHG 200 Assignment 1 at the Design Department, Pearson Institute of Higher Education.

History

Dada means 'hobbyhorse' or the exclamation "Yes-Yes" (Artyfactory, 2017).
It all started in February 1916 at a city's Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich where a group of artists that were opposing the cultural values that led to the World War 1 (David K., 2015).
There were a number of artists associated with this movement and there were:-
-Hugo Ball
-Tristan Tzara
-Marcel Janco
-Richard Huelsenbeck
-Jean (Hans) Arp
-Raoul Hausmann
-Hannah Höch
-John Heartfield
-Kurt Schwitters
-Johannes Baargeld
-Johannes Baader
-Max Ernst
-George Grosz
-Hans Richter
-Francis Picabia
-Man Ray
-Marcel Duchamp.

Dada challenged the political, social and cultural values of that time, the elements of music, art, dance among others were embraced. It created a climate in which art values were unrestricted hence anti-art.Dadaists had automatism, chance, photomontage and assemblage as their techniques. It then later influenced the development of Surrealism, Action Painting, Pop Art, Installations, Happenings and Conceptual Art (Artyfactory, 2017).

Historical painting

MAX ERNST (1891-1976)
'The Chinese Nightingale' 1920 (photomontage)

The above image is a photomontage called the 'The Chinese Nightinggale' and was done by Max Ernst in 1920. Ernst created a visual poetry from unconscious associations of juxtaposed images (Artyfactory, 2017). So basically his style was more of a collage whereby he combined human limbs  of a woman, with a fan and a bomb below them, a terrified eye   hence he communicating something. So his main intention with this image was defusing  the natural fear of bombs as seen in above.

Modern painting

Victoria Rick, 2014.

The above image is by Victoria Rick and is a photomontage.You can see that it was cut out of different pieces to come up with a story for example, the people in the bottom left side of the image are sitting on a street bench, then there is a library being left side, the center shows ancient buildings likely to be in London and a man walking. According to me, this image what happens in London as a city.

Conclusion

In seeing what this movement did, it has helped me as a designer to be able to communicate my artwork in a strong and very effective  way for example use of a collage to come up with what I feel and can be seen and understood by the viewers.

Sources

David Koenig, 2015. The Dada Movement. Online. Available

https://www.dadart.com/dadaism/dada/020-history-dada-movement.html

Accessed on 16/04/2017

Artyfactory, 2017. The Dadaism. Online. Available

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm
Accessed on 16/04/2017

Victoria Rick, 2014. Playing with dimensions. Online. Available

https://victoriarick.wordpress.com/category/photomontage/
Accessed on 16/04/2017

EXPRESSIONISM

Expression is the action of making known ones's thoughts or feelings.

HISTORY

This movement started around 1905 -1925. So expressionism was a term used to indicate or show the use distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect or look and feel. So in other wards, artists here did not depict objects the way they were but what they thought or felt according to them emotionally (Administration, 2017).
There was judgment of work since artists at this era made paintings from there emotional points of view instead from what they saw physically. This made their paintings become more of the artist's character expressed with feelings rather than analyzing compositions (The Art Story, 2017).

There were two manifestos and these were:

1. Die Brucke

This was a German expressionism formed in Dresden around 1905 (Art Story, 2017). So their paintings were more of figurative distortions, they also worked directly on the image and chose color according to the mood they were in and lastly worked aggressive on the brush strokes whilst using un naturalistic colors to the canvas .

2. Der Blaue Reiter

This started from Munich in German as an abstract counterpart to Die Brucke's distorted figurative style. His paintings were mainly focusing on the idea that color and form had concrete spiritual values. So he also had a paintings that expressed the way felt and saw music hence showing his unique approach to form (The Art Story, 2017).

"THE SCREAM" BY EDVARD MUNCH, 1893 

This is a painting done by Munch called "The Scream." When you look at the painting, it shows his emotions in a way that you see an alien like person terrified and screaming on the bridge. The painting is also exaggerated in way of his style of drawing whereby  it involves swirls especially as seen in the sky and the water.

Modern painting.

Painting by Ford Smith 2010-2016

The painting above is done by Ford smith. In this painting , you can see that he is inspired by the expressionism movement expressing the the tree leaves in a circular form, and also the handling brush strokes in the sky in whilst form. The colors of his painting done depending on his mood hence this being a modern painting of expressionism.

Sources

Administration, 2017. Art movements. Online.Available at:

http://www.artmovements.co.uk/expressionism.htm

Accessed on: 06/04/2017

The Art Story, 2017. The Art Story: Expressionsm. Online.Available at:

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm

Accessed on: 06/04/2017

The Art Story, 2017. The Art Story: Der Blaue Reiter. Online.Available at:

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-der-blaue-reiter.htm

Accessed on: 06/04/2017

The Art Story, 2017. The Art Story: Der Blaue Reiter. Online.Available at:

http://www.harmonyangels.com/Expressionism.html

Accessed on: 06/04/2017