Project 1 Exercise: Exploring modern art

Project 1 Exercise: Exploring modern art

Surrealism:

-          Began in 1920s

-          Surprise and unexpected ways of presenting a subject

-          Developed form Dadaism

-          Wanted to free people from false rationality

-          Dream analysis was a bag part of the movement – believed that dream was a big part of art

Surrealism and politics and social change:

-          Artistic idea and political change is what they wanted

-          free revolution

-          anti-colonial revolution

-          Embraced anarchism?

The Golden Age of Surrealism:

-          Dali and Magritte were the most famous artists from the Golden Age

-          Recreating normal objects into an environment that isn’t usual for it and then moving it away from its original purpose and creating new meaning with it

-          Combination of depictive, psychological and as said above the estrangement of objects, abstract

Examples of Surrealistic Art:

Rene Magritte (1964) The Son of Man (oil on canvas) Private Collection

Image from  http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/images/ReneMagritte-The-Son-of-Man-1964.jpg

(Accessed 4 Jan 2012)

Rene Magritte’s art has been used for book cover, CD covers, postcards; it has even been used in advertisements for brands like Huge Boss.  His art look familiar as almost everybody has already seen bits and pieces of his work – he is famous for using apples as a dominant feature in his paintings as well as not showing the face of the person he is drawing.

For example:

Rene Magritte (1928) The Lovers  (oil on canvas) New York: Museum of Modern Art

Image from http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/921/w500h420/CRI_215921.jpg (Accessed 4 Jan 2012)

Creating some sense of intimacy but that being separated by the fabric covering up their heads – separation of intimacy – what did he want to say? Maybe they wanted to be lovers but weren’t allowed to be lovers? Maybe those two were a couple, maybe married but they kept things from each other that might be why there is no real intimacy. Hiding true feelings/ identities? Is there something that they are both not saying – or not allowed to say? Does is represent death?

After doing some research: Magritte’s mother drowned when he was still young and he watched her body being fished out of the river – a nightgown was covering her face. That might explain why in a lot of his paintings faces are covered up by some sort of object whether it be fabric, apples, flowers, et cetera. Magritte didn’t agree with the explanation of trying to cope with his mother’s death he only pointed out that his images were visual art of mystery/nothing/dream – Magritte wondered if people are reading too much into art – instead of just letting it be art they interpret images and sculptures.

References:

Web pages:

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3692&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man_(Magritte)

Bibliography:

Murray, P. And Murray, L. (1997) Dictionary of Art and Artists. Revised 7^th ed. London: Penguin Group

The next exercise that I’ve been working on was the “Finding affinities” one and I have to say that it looked easy at first but when I started looking at ground plans I realised that it would be more than I thought it would be. I finally found a ground plan that satisfied me and because while reading in the big book about architecture and the International style I had laid an eye on the Villa Savoy and it was great that I found a ground plan to work with – I enjoyed looking at paintings, sculptures and furniture. This was actually the first time I actually looked into furniture a little more and I found it very interesting what I found – for example finding the Astor Hotel magazine rack was great I love the design and it fits perfectly in the living room of the Villa. What I also enjoyed was the difference between the art that was displayed in the public areas of the house e.g. foyer, living room, terrace and the difference to the paintings that were hanging in the mast bedroom and the dressing room where the paintings became more abstract and colourful. I enjoyed this exercise but I also found it quite hard as it was something where I wasn’t a 100% sure of what I was doing. But I feel like it would be great to actually see the art pieces that I chose hanging/standing in the Villa Savoy. I am actually not completely satisfied with my report about the house - that's why I am thinking about doing it again...