Modern Art, Day 275 April 2013

Surrealism, Part II

Dali, “Persistence of Memory,” 1931 Surrealists such as Max Ernst had an interest in Freudian theory

o The bird was a totemic motif for Ernst Breton kicked Dali out of the Surrealist group in 1942 for

enthusiastically supporting Hitler Surrealist titles sometimes evoke poetic meaning, sometimes they just

add to the complexity of the work

Magritte, “The Air and the Song/The Treason (Perfidy) of Images,” 1928/9 automatic techniques: doodling, where you don’t exercise control or

thought over the art and just draw without deliberation

Ernst, “The Great Forest,” 1927 memory of childhood lying in bed looking at a panel of false wood

o half-asleep, he began to think he was seeing images in the wood wood is created by frotage (rubbing) and gratage (scraping) puts a “cosmic moon” form in the back

Miro, “The Hunter (Catalan Landscape),” 1923-4 on upper left figure, shows both eye frontally and the ear on the side

even though they couldn’t be seen on a real face in that way put first four letters of sardine on the right to indicate that the figure to

its left is a fisho sticks tongue out, curve that goes by its face is the surface of the

water personal mythology arbitrary disruption of the way things should be also uses automatic techniques

Miro, “Birth of the World,” 1925 Artist didn’t come up with the title himself, a poet or other Surrealist

suggested it and Miro liked it normally you coat a canvas with sizing to protect its fibers from the oil Miro applied the sizing unevenly here: where it’s thin it can soak into

the canvas uses irregular, blotchy glazes of paint

Consider Marc Chagall cubist

Picasso, “Girl Before a Mirror,” 1932 Surrealism licenses Picasso to paint emotionally subjectively to an

extreme level in the 20’s Picasso had a tumultuous romantic life, so he turned a bit

sour toward women materially rich pigment used, very tangible painting is all about the physical sensuousness of the girl, not about

her personality emphasis on great swelling curves

Picasso, “Guernica,” 1937

Franco’s forces enlisted the help of Hitler to rebel against legitimate Republican government in Spain at that time

Hitler’s forces on Franco’s behalf bombed Guernica Guernica was not a military strategic center or base; it was solely a

civilian town figure splayed out on bottom left of the painting is a broken sculpture;

shows how culture has also been destroyed in this massacre tripartite composition with pyramid shape in the middle On the left is a pieta-like image Picasso was interested in the minotaur’s dual potential: could be gentle

or violent