Essays on Surrealism

Not everybody knows what does the term “Surrealism” mean, what it consists of and what it`s appealing to. This art movement has always been associated with something unclear and mysterious; there has always been a riddle within the strange images and colors that were asking you to solve it and find your personal meaning of it. The genre wasn`t always popular among the masses, and the surrealists weren`t as well; however, the one among the other was always famous and well-known through all over the world, he has produced more than 1,500 works including paintings, Continue reading...

Voluptuous Mors

It is a matter of prominent curves running through a black veil that flows beneath them. A game between the lights and the angles. Seven models position themselves to form a skull as the artist stands on the side with an alarmed gaze. Salvador Dali, a Spanish painter, partners with photographer Philippe Halsman to create a surrealist human skull (1951). The image depicts Dali standing next to the models with an "enfreaked gaze” as Ann Millett would write. He is looking at the possible third spectator, implying that there is something in the image that should be looked at Continue reading...

Introduction

In the 19th and 2oth centuries, artists found new ways of representing their work that was opposed to the conventional way in which art was done. Many of them developed new styles that incorporated modern art which sought to highlight the aspect of postmodernism in the ways of life of the people. Such art was different from what was identified in the centuries that were prior to the 18th, especially what was the case in the renaissance. The artists curved art and offered continuity if what their predecessors had left, but only did so with a sense of freedom Continue reading...

- Explain Tolstoy’s view of art as consisting in the communication of emotions. Would Tolstoy consider Salvador Dali’s paintings to be art? Explain your answer, one way or the other.
Tolstoy’s viewed art as an expression of an artist’s feelings of emotions that tend to drive them towards undertaking the noble cause of art in the simplest of ways. This state of emotion can then be passed on to the audience in equal measure. Feelings of admiration, fear, or love can be communicated through art as perceived by Tolstoy and essentially be communicated to the Continue reading...

Introduction

The ideas and art of Marcel Duchamp that occurred in 20th century had possibilities of influencing other artists that succeeded him. The uniqueness of Duchamp artistic process associated with surrealism and Dadaism remained influential to his succeeding artists. The concept of readymade altered the understanding of artists regarding the object of art. Duchamp refused to accept the existing standards of art hence leading to the development of a newly recognized style. Duchamp left a profound impact to the oeuvre of artists who succeeded him later in the century (Kuenzli, Rudolf, Francis and Naumann, 55). As will be analyzed in Continue reading...

Francis Bacon was born in 1909 and he died in 1992. Bacon was a figurative artist, but his figures were always violently and bizarrely distorted. He often painted the figures of people that went to the pubs in London’s Soho district. He liked to paint people he felt were tormented souls, his twisted representations depicting their inner torment. Similarly, Bacon often painted twisted and distorted self-portraits.
Bacon’s work is often associated with surrealism and the Old Masters, even though he’s considered a contemporary artist. He borrows from surrealism and photo and film distortion. He is known Continue reading...

I went to the Art Institute of Chicago and saw the exhibit Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938. I chose to read the introduction card first and afterwards felt like I knew more about the background of this exhibit and of the artist Rene Magritte. This exhibit shows the Belgian artist Magritte’s works of the 20th century which I feel are extraordinary and unforgettable images. The museum chose to focus on the artist’s most profoundly inventive and experimental years. When I first walked into the exhibit I felt like there could be some blues music playing Continue reading...

Introduction

Photography, undoubtedly more than any other medium, is symbolic of the nature of the modern western societies and is widely practiced. Photography is often employed in various fields including manufacturing, business, mass communication, art, science, as well as recreational purposes. Ansel Adams argued “people do not take a photograph; they make it.” Adams contends that it is important to put much effort while taking an image (Bryant 1996 p 29). Photographs are primarily concerned with appearances and through photos, the past blends well into the present (Bryant 1996 p 24). It is through images captured by the camera that Continue reading...

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Art and literature have been prevalent right from the pre-historic times. There were cave paintings, which evolved and formed certain practices of art. In certain cultures, types of art forms became prominent, leading to creating a legacy of its own. When writing became a nomenclature, literature also surfaced in various forms. First it was in the form of religious books, history writing and then into various other ways. As the society evolved, various Continue reading...

In the world of art -- especially painting -- the name Salvador Dali is synonymous with surrealism. Dali painted dreams on canvas that gave birth to new vistas -- landscapes of terror and amusement where time stood at a standstill, and viewers are lured into the fantastic, more-than-real world that Dali forged from his daily existence. Dali stood at the vanguard of the Surrealist movement, and his paintings now fetch upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Born on May 11, 1904, in Figueres, Spain, Dali exhibited artistic talent -- and notable eccentricities -- from an early age. Dali Continue reading...

Characteristics of the surrealist movement-Surrealism, the cultural movement that developed in the early 1920’s was characterized by art, writing and politics that aimed to bring an end to the contradicting realms of dreams and reality. The surrealist movement was not solely about art and writing but was also about politics. Surrealism as a political force developed into Trotskyism, anarchism and communism. One important element of the surrealist movement was that the surrealists considered their work as a manifestation of their philosophies-the works were just artifacts. Another characteristic of the surrealist movement was that the artists were free to Continue reading...

Paper 1, Draft 1

The Dream from Surrealists
Surrealism depicts a cultural concept with visual art and writings in the 1920s. The artwork sought to distinguish dreams and reality in the painting techniques that permit an unconscious expression. The artists that apply this technique consider their work as an element of the philosophical movement. Andre Breton claims that surrealism is a revolutionary movement that creates strange illusionary objects. Surrealism develops from Dada activities in the course of First World War in Paris, France. The artistic concept spread to other parts of the world to affect the philosophy, film, music, and visual arts. Artists Continue reading...

The word Surrealism can be used to refer to a given style of literature and art that was developed in the 20th century. The art stressed on the non-rational or subconscious importance of imagery that is arrived at by exploitation of chance impacts or automatism and unexpected juxtaposition. The term also refers to a cultural movement that commenced in 1920s. The movement was best known for their performances in writings and visual art workings. The paper discusses the movement of surrealism and their works in the history of literature and art.
The main aim of forming the movement was Continue reading...

There are many reasons that artists choose to create art, but one of the many reasons that they choose to do so is to encourage the persistence of cultural or personal memories. While not all artists paint, sculpt, or recreate memories from their pasts, many artists do use elements of memory and memories from their past to create works of art that memorialize and speak to the past. This may be a personal history, or it could be a cultural or global history-- many of the works of art created after the first World War, for instance, are concerned Continue reading...

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With the arrival of cinema as an artistic medium, a bunch of movements arose to portray emotions and themes through different techniques in filmmaking. One of the most important movements of the 1920’s is the surrealism movement. The Surrealism movement is described as a cultural movement that began in the early 1920’s. The reason behind the movement was to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality” (Barnes, 2001). Before the movement included film, it was a medium of art that mostly contained illogical, wild, and strange creatures in paintings. Once film and Continue reading...

Tennessee Williams is one of the best-known playwrights from the mid-twentieth century, becoming famous for his work The Glass Menagerie in the year 1944. Although Williams would go on to create a variety of different pieces of literature and a number of stage classics, The Glass Menagerie remains one of his most well-known and well-loved pieces. Much of Williams’ work was later adapted for use in the cinema, and the movies made about his classic pieces became popular as well. Born to an overbearing father and a typical “southern belle” mother, Williams was a sickly child who tended towards Continue reading...

Introduction

Paul Klee was born on 18th December, 1879 in Munchenbuchsee, Switzerland. He was influenced by and participated in a variety of movements, which included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was an Art teacher in Germany up to 1933, when his work was declared indecent by the National Socialists (Biography.com 1). However, Klee contributed a lot in the field of Art as discussed below.
In 1908, Klee painted a figure study which was entitled “The Artist (Poet/Painter).” This title indicated that by this time Klee had a dual identity but towards the end of that year, his professional goals were Continue reading...

1. Benjamin is amused by the fact that the collector builds a lot of amusement through creating a link and a storyline by linking generations or history. This means that the collector aims at re-modeling or reflecting a certain object so as to provoke a memory among people such that there is a connection. Through provoking one’s memory or history, people form a bond or a link between things such that an image represents an idea or something of substance. Benjamin explains that there are three types of memories that can be evoked: intentional memory, voluntary memory and Continue reading...

Considered today one of the greatest Surrealist artists, René Magritte is also the most well known Belgian painter of the 20th century (Arnason and Prather, 320). He was born in 1898 and during his lifetime he did not enjoy the fame of other surrealists like Dali, as he chose to live most of his life as a quiet middle class man (Powers). He worked in the advertisement industry and apart from a brief period of three years (1927-1930) where he lived and worked in Paris with the French Surrealists, he had his home in his native Belgium (Arnason and Continue reading...

In this poem, a committed lover goes on to wish the most heavenly things for his ladylove from the innermost core of the heart. Yeats pours his emotions into the cauldron of this beautiful poem and the reader is left with goose bumps after absorbing the exquisiteness of the emotion of love.
In the first five lines, Yeats goes on to express the surreal things with which he wishes to adorn her. The lady is no less than treasure for the passionate lover. His dreams unfurl their wings of desire and the reader is also left lost in a Continue reading...

Abstract

Strongly influenced by Freud’s theories about the structure and the workings of the human psyche, the surrealist movement dived deeply into the exploration of the unconscious – hoping to find the essence of the human mind and spirit in an alternative reality. Salvador Dali is one of the main representatives of this movement – his works constantly defied the boundaries of reality and imagination. He was a prolific artist, always in search of new ways of creative expression. Due to his personal background, he was always attracted to the world of fantasy, which made him very suitable for the surrealist Continue reading...

The First World War was a traumatizing event that caused people and artists to question the veracity of traditional values. Having experienced tremendous distress, people were thrown into a state of anxiety, which was marked by their struggle to find meaning in life. Society itself seemed to have succumbed into a state of cosmic insecurity, fueled by the bitterness and the disillusionment of the war. Individual and national psyches were marked by important, even radical changes, which the artists at the time, including the surrealist painters, successfully incorporated into their artworks. They embraced everything that was new, experimental and Continue reading...

Introduction:

F Scott Fitzgerald is perhaps one of the finest authors from the so called Jazz Age which was dotted and permeated by excellent writers throughout. His short story ‘The Diamond as Big as the Ritz’ is a typical enunciation from this era but which also looks back at the nostalgia of the Civil War where there is also a reference to the leader of the so-called Ku Klux Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest.  The author uses a lot of emotive language and also inserts a number of metaphors into the novel which paint Braddock as an arrogant and deeply proud Continue reading...

Art refers to the use of both human imagination and creative skill to typically express ideas in a visual form. The visual form that results fulfills the aesthetic principles that depict beauty. It is something that is beyond ordinary significance. This may be a painting, a sculpture, a drawing, a picture or any other that falls in this category. Throughout history, art has been used to serve certain political ends and also tackle political issues by addressing political themes in their expressions. Several happenings in history compelled artists to make political statements using their art as a way of Continue reading...

Emergency is set in the emergency department of a hospital. In this interesting and unique tale, readers are introduced to an unreliable narrator and his equally questionable friend. Both in reality and as a result of drug induced hallucination, Johnson exploits the use of place in both setting up and accentuating the themes of the story.

The narrator has been working in the hospital as a clerk for the last few weeks. He had his friend, Georgie, abuse drugs, and Georgie takes them illegally from the medical supplies in the hospital. The nature of the story lends itself to Continue reading...

Born in 1904, Salvador Dali grew up in the Spanish province of Catalonia during one of the most tumultuous periods in all of human history. Although Spain remained neutral in what was then called the Great War, but would turn out to be the lesser conflict in terms of horror in the twentieth century, the young Dali would still have been aware of the horrors of mustard gas, of the worldwide influenza epidemic that started in 1918, as well as the worldwide economic depression of the 1920’s and 1930’s. As with many artists in all media during Continue reading...

The 1943 painting The Jungle by Wifredo Lam is an Afro-Cuban piece that incorporates substantial elements of Santeria and Vodou religions. At the same time, there are many political and stylistic elements that make it just as important a piece as its religious ties. What it says about modern Afro-Cuban tourism and culture allows the viewer to harken back to the simple spirituality of Santeria, glorifying it as an alternative to a hurried, secular lifestyle.

The painting is very tropical at first glance, with many colors that are typical of that environment (harsh greens and blues, as well as Continue reading...

INTRODUCTION

The Spanish painter Salvador Dali was one of the most idiosyncratic and interesting figures of the 20th century, not just for his painting, but for his overall personality and behavior. He was often called eccentric and flamboyant, almost to the detriment of his work. However, despite his odd nature, it cannot be denied that his surrealist paintings carry significant meaning and purpose, as well as incredible aesthetics behind them.

This is no less true in his 1954 painting Crucifixion Corpus Hypercubus, which depicts a rather unique version of Christ on the Cross, combining complex quantum mathematics Continue reading...

"Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy – the joy of being Salvador Dali – and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things this Salvador Dali is going to accomplish today?" His personality causes a lot of controversy: God given talent for painting and odd personality. These qualities helped him to become Salvador Dali, as one of the greatest and the most eccentric painters in the world and one of the most important figures of the Surrealists of the 20th century. The influence of Dali on Surrealism was enormous. "P.Halsman: Dali, what is surrealism? Dali: Continue reading...

Abstract

Modernity and Post modernity are the two social, political, economic and cultural phases in respectively 20th and 21st centuries. The initial phase of cinema was much influenced by phase of modernity and the later was influenced by the aspects of post modernity. The paper tries to analyse these modernity and post-modernity in cinematic context. For this comparative analysis the researcher has taken two cinematic works. The initial focus of the paper is the study of the term modernity with its elements. These elements have been analyzed in the context of Charlie Chaplin’s cinematic work. The paper then discusses Continue reading...

The world of Marcel Duchamp’s artwork and influence on the modern art.

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Art180- Modern Art History

2519 words
There have been many famous and excellent artists in the twentieth century. Their art works are famous until now not only in their country but also all over the world and a lot of current artists follow them.Even though they do not exist now any more and their art works are pretty antique, they influence on current artists a lot.Some of artists are very famous so people,who are even not related to art, know their name at least. Marcel Duchamp is one of them. Many people say “There is no innovate art after Marcel Duchamp.” Continue reading...

Salvador Dali painted The Persistence of Memory in 1931, and today it is regarded among the 20th century’s most acclaimed and remembered paintings. This painting served as a means of introducing Surrealism in conventional America. The reason this painting has always been increasingly appealing, and has both encouraged and perplexed analysis and explanation is because Dali has effectively combined the dreamlike and the everyday, the illogical and symbolic, technology and nature. Even the hardness and softness in the painting create confusion. However, according to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), these “baffling” qualities of the painting, especially the Continue reading...

Introduction

Hans Bellmar and Cindy Sherman are great photographs whose photographs change the photo industry and influence it in a variety of ways.

HANS BELLMER BIOGRAPHY

Hans Bellmer born on 13 March 1902 in a Kattowitz city, which by then was in the German Empire, but now is Katowice of Poland is a well-known German artist for the pubescent female dollies that he created in the mid-1930s. He started the doll project to be in conflict with fascism of Nazi’s by announcing that his work will not back new German public. A sequence of occasions in Bellmer’s personal life is what Continue reading...

Tuesday June 10

The three revolutions that started Modern Age are the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution.
2. What is the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason?

Enlightenment is characterized by a shift to a more rational and scientific approach to religious, political, social, and economic issues.

3. Neoclassicism: Oath of Horatii – Name 3 characteristics

The three characteristics were clarity of form; sober colors; and shallow space.

4. Romanticism: What is the “attitude of this movement”? Use either The Third of May or The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons and state something about light, paint application and the subject matter.
Romanticism involves imagination and emotion as more valuable than reason. It also perceives that nature is less corrupt than civilization, and that human beings are essentially good.
Continue reading...

Analysis of the Underpinnings of the Conceptual Art Movement

Introduction
The Conceptual Art Movement challenged prevalent notions of what art should be as exemplified by artists including Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse as well as Richard Irving, and contemporary Conceptual artist Richard Este discussed in this academic evaluation. Conceptual artists originally rebuffed the name given the body of heterogeneous groupings of their work depicting a wide variety of types and styles of art (Green 200l). By 1970, the Conceptual Art Movement rejection of traditional definitions of art set their work apart internationally. Still controversial in the 21st century, this document provides an analysis of the underpinnings of Continue reading...

There has to be meaning and ideology in advertising, otherwise the advert would be mute. This essay seeks to decode the meaning of the advertisement put up by Burger King. This advertisement is a live embodiment of the myth of surrealism and the cultural image that individuals have placed upon certain topics. A myth can serve a vital purpose in advertising. It enhances the product development and quality of the state of product in the market. It is evident that this advertisement seeks to advertise about Burger king and ensure that the society is aware of the product.
This Continue reading...

Abstract

The paper looks into an analysis of “The Dream” by Pablo Picasso and why this art work should be considered an example of "new media art". There are details in the essay regarding the artist, his bio, and the history and controversies related to the artist and his work. Most importantly, the essay looks into as to why the work of the artist and his practices are an example of "new media".

Introduction

There is no denying that the artistic genius of Pablo Picasso has influenced the modern and contemporary art and in unequaled scale. His creative output comprises of Continue reading...

Almost God-Like

Although for various generations dramatic forms of tragedy and comedy were universally comprehensible and their subsequent embodiment in various literary and expressive art works were clear, contemporary world perception had changed to the extent that reality became so complicatedly tragicomic that narrative art had to review the very essence of tragedy and comedy and pay more attention to their mixture. Various cinema critics might argue that classical Hollywood perception of tragedy and comedy remains the same and does not violate the rules of those dramatic forms. However, contemporary cinematograph witnesses the phenomenon of Roberto Benigni’s comedy and subsequent Continue reading...

Introduction

Before the discovery of Atget’s photography, photographs were not known as a form of documentary. Eugene Atget, who was an only child and an orphan from the age of five, started photography as a profession when he was forty years old. This is after he had been a sailor and an actor. Atget’s work was not recognised until later by an American called Man Ray who introduced his work to the world thus making it popular and famous. Eugene Atget is known as the founder of modern photography and street photography. This is because his focus was Continue reading...

This essay is about to tell us how do the fantastic and fictional worlds and images correspond to the real life of the living people, how their culture and traditions are depicted in the works of the artists, writers and film directors and how the images of art pieces reflect and form the life of modern people. Here we are going to describe the outstanding examples of the modern literature and find out how they highlight the world and the people with their beliefs and hopes, their feeling and thoughts. These will be the "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" Continue reading...