In my opinion both Dada and
Surrealism changed the form, content, and concept of art. I see these movements
as the shifts that made everything I love in art to be possible. While I do not
think what Marcel Duchamp did in art can ever be produced with the same impact
or meaning I do think his “readymade” sculptures led to a new way of talking
and thinking about art. I believe that Dada led to more, loose and better
compositions in graphic design and opened up two dimensional arts in to more of
a sculptural realm. The way that paintings could be constructed and composed
out of simple layered shapes in Dadaism brought the elements of construction
and sculpting an image into the world of two dimensional art. Surrealism also
influenced further than just the fine art world and into graphic design
allowing images to be compiled to create something other than what it was
originally. Surrealism also took art into a new realm by moving past the
figurative way of depicting things or even the abstraction of literal things
into a whole new world that exists only in the imagination or in these works of
art.
In the composition Cut with the
Dada Kitchen Knife Through the Last Weimar Beer- Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany
by Hannah Hoch many points are made and construed in a way that would not have
been possible through the creation of a singular image. Hoch uses what feels
like one hundred different images to create her composition and make her point.
While Dada is a commentary and meant at times to be meaningless and humors I
find Hoch’s composition to be extremely charged and filled with social
statements. She seems to be making a statement about women and there place in Germany
post war as well as commentating on the state of Germany
specifically the Weimar Republic
post war. I love the ability to address multiple issues through Dadaism I also
find this work to be extremely visually pleasing in a new way that I did not
find in art prior to this movement.
For surrealism I will be looking at
Salvador Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus. I can see how it could be easy to
say that this sets art back toward more bourgeois ideals and compositionally
can be kitsch; however I do not agree. I think that depicting what might be
lurking in the subconscious is just as noble a pursuit as painting a still life
or any other figurative subject. I love the dreamlike way that Dali composed
this image through making a new world out of things recognizable to us yet
arranged in a different way. I love to see the influence of this type of work
in contemporary artwork. It reminds me of collage yet is somehow a higher art
in my mind because it is painted on one surface.
I appreciate both of these sections
of art and love the influence that both movements continue to have on
contemporary art today. I believe that sculpture and graphic design and
painting were all pushed forward in a huge way by the work of these artists and
these movements.
Nice thoughts. We can connect Hoch's political statements (and the political nature of Dada art) back to the history of avant-gardism. Before this point, the avant-garde had shied away from politics since Impressionism and the Commune. Dada artists are bringing politics back into the avant-garde scene, which again is changing the definition of "avant-garde" and also affecting the artistic world.
ReplyDelete-Prof. Bowen
I agree with you that both Surrealism and Dadaism greatly influenced and changed the way people create and view art today. I love the way Dali takes objects we see on a daily basis such as a clock and turns it into something that is so dream like and bizarre.
ReplyDeleteI have personally held some disdain for Freudian perspectives, but it came as no surprise to me to learn that Freud's work influenced Surrealism.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with dreams has never been so strange as what I see in surrealist pieces. I never know what to say about them which is a quality that I honestly find fascinating. I find myself completely unable to relate anything in them. I did not even recognize the melted clocks until somebody told me what they were and then it seemed obvious.
This period of art is very interesting to me as well. I find the fact that artists are now making the subject matter less and less realistic as far as subject matter goes. The ideas behind a work are moving more into the conceptual realm and less easy for viewers to catch onto the overall message for the most part. I feel like art should be like this, that the viewer must be challenged rather than being able to say " yup that a picture of.. a boat" and move on to the next piece. This period changed a vast amount of the preconceived notions that people had about what art is and i feel like this was very important and necessary.
ReplyDeleteI think you brought up a good point about Dada art and Surrealism. They really did make so many more things in graphic design possible, and more open minded. Imagine if these art periods had never come along, graphic design would be much less interesting, not at all what it is today. I had never thought of that before, but I think you are spot on.
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