Pointillism, Dadaism, and Surrealism

I chose Dada and Surrealism because I enjoy Surrealist paintings. The artist using dreams and the unconscious to create paintings intrigues me. Dada artwork interests me but I have a hard time recognizing it. The video discussed six different artists that span these movements.

Kurt Schwitters was considered a Dadaist but he opposed them. Dada artwork explores what art can be and the thought of art embracing everything in the world. His work Merzbild 25A is a collage that uses cardboard, string, paint, and newspapers. The artwork consists of triangular and circular forms and also line and color. His work is an act of discovery as well as design. He began a magazine not to promote his work but modern art.

Hannah Hoch Cut with the Kitchen Knife is an attack on the society that she detests. The Dada work shows fifty different faces. Some are political leaders, physicist, and Dada artists. She finds the images in magazines, newspapers, and books to create her piece. It is chaotic and has blackness to it but also has energy.

George Grosz believed you shouldn’t live a city too long because you lose your identity. He pretended to be the saddest man in Europe. His work Untitled was a Dada painting that showed a bitter residue within the city but there is no life and you feel trapped. He also created Pillars of Society that depicts politicians, soldiers, leaders, and priests. He believes the people in this painting blindly lead society.

Joan Miro Dutch Interior I is a parody of a Dutch 17th century painting. The Dutch painting is exactly the way you would see it in the world. Miro uses patterns organized in its own terms. When you see the paintings side by side, the forms that Miro paints depicts the man with the guitar, dog, and cat. It is a Surrealistic painting because our subconscious mind can see these images even if they don’t look like you could.

Salvador Dali The Burning Giraffe shows a world that nothing makes sense. The figures have drawers as part of their forms; crutches seem to hold them up, which is a fetish of Dali’s. His paintings usually consist of an arid landscape that reminds him of where he grew up in Spain. His paintings were usually of civilization in a decay state. Dali was very influenced by the thoughts of Sigmund Freud, which he was a great influence for Surrealist artist. The drawers in the forms represent the ideas in our minds that are tucked deep inside.

Man Ray La Fortune has components that are painted true to life. Each component diverges from reality. The billiard table is at a skewed view and the clouds are each a different color. There is one for each primary and secondary colors. He likes to play with the juxtaposition of unrelated objects. Man Ray began as a Dada artist and then turned his interests to Surrealist ideas. The painting is open to many interpretations but a few are luck and wealth.

 The next video I chose was A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884 by Georges Seurat. He covered the canvas twice, which we know by x-rays. The painting is made up of dots and dashes and uses color to create an illusion of them mixing to create a cohesive image that is characteristic of pointillism. Seurat in his early years had great emphasis on drawing. He used texture paper and conte crayons to create these drawings of light and dark. A Sunday on La Grand Jatte has no clear interpretation, one thought was the island was well known for prostitution and the woman with the fishing pole may be one of them. The monkey on lead was added at the last minute but might help the interpretation because monkeys represented sexual desire. The prominent woman to the right might be a coquette, which would have several lovers, but always looking very fashionable. When he was preparing to make the painting he spent 6 months going to the island and sketching from the same vantage point. The proportions of the figures are off and the little girl in the middle of the composition is not covered in dots just white paint. The lady that stands next to her is in the identical pose of the Egyptian art of Lady Tuya. He also created Bathers at Asniers, which represented the lower class on the opposite shore of the people in A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. They are both 11 feet by 7 feet and believed they are suppose to be displayed together. France lost the painting in 1958 because they believed it was not worth it but changed their minds later. Frederick Clay Bartlett from Chicago bought the painting for $20,000. Since this painting is reproduced in so many ways people make a pilgrimage to the Chicago Art Museum to experience it the correct way.
The videos expand on the understanding of the movements of the 19th to mid-20th century. They show more detail on certain works of art and explains it more than what the book tells us. Dada and Surrealism video I didn’t enjoy because of they way it was broken up into six different films but was spliced together. I enjoyed A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884. I learned so much more about the painting that I wouldn’t get out of our book. I never knew it was in Chicago and know I want to make the pilgrimage to see it.