SHGC History Of Art - Part 4

Monument 1 - 1924 Hoch juxtaposes primitive sculpture with body parts of the modern German woman, with odd results. The woman's trunk is combined with flattened stylized breast from African sculpture with body parts of a woman, and an arm of a man. The figures has three legs, one which is a trousers leg, the other unidentifiable, and one which is a dancers leg. the sculptured abstract head of the figure digs her chin into her chest with clenched arms. Art historians suggest that Hoch represent a scene of anger and frustration, arguing that the modern German woman felt a threatened by the rapid industrialization and modernization of their society.

In Dada Ernst Hoch questions the role of women in the new society. A pair of legs with money and a man's eye placed between them are the main focus of the picture. A bow like machine links money with a gymnast who symbolizes the modern athletic woman. At her side a bare backed woman playing a trumpet symbolizes women's femininity. Hoch juxtaposes the modern images of mental (symbolizing machinery) against the woman's flesh (symbolizing femininity) raising questions regards women's sexuality in the modern world under the watchful eye of the male gender. Through this images Hock creates an unsettling view as she address the hopes and fears of the new woman.

Beautiful Girl - 1920 "The Beautiful Girl" clad in a modern bathing suite, with a light bulb for her head, seated on a steel girder, surrounded by various images of industrialization. For example, BMW insignias, tires, gears and cogs and watches. In the right hand corner a black boxer appears stepping through the tire representing automation. In the back ground a silhouette of a woman's head with cats eyes stares at the audience. Being modern meant speed, consumerism, urbanization and technology, these changes promoted hope for the women. Yet amongst the hope came fear as seen in the watchful cat eyed woman who lurks behind the scenes staring out at the audience. In this juxtapositioning of images Hoch reflects upon a certain optimism for technology and its relationship to the modern woman.

Abduction - 1925 Hoch represents the modern German woman within an African narrative, as she is seen seating on an African wooden sculpture. The sculpture consists of two African male figures, and two female figures being transported by oversized animal. Hoch placed the image on a large base with cherry trees standing in the background. One of the female sculptured heads is replaced with a modern German woman, who's head appears to be backwards. Compared to the placid abstract faces of the wooden sculpture the modern German woman seems to be yelling with her mouth wide open. Hoch's message suggests a difference, and perhaps even a dislocation, or abduction in reference to changes taking place in Weimer society that for women meant, excitement, but at the same time a feeling of instability and dislocation.

German Girl - 1930 A three quarter profile of a young woman's face and neck adorned with pearls silhouetted against a gray/black background. She carries a serene smile, with her hair tied up Japanese style. Once again Hoch creates a distorted vision by juxtaposing images that gives the illusion of a woman, missing a forehead, who's eyes do not match. Art historians claim that these images/figures mimics mass media's interpretations of conventional German woman. Hoch immediately questions norms of what is considered beautiful in terms of conformity to social standards. The woman looks idiotic and in these sense makes fun of what is considered normal femininity.

Love - 1926 In ‘Love’ Hock mockingly looks at conventional relationships of enraptured love between men and women. Hoch used images of a popular doll that at the time were mass produced and marketed as being innocent, and full of wonderment. The doll's eye looms large and her lips portray a nice polite smile, yet it has a strange sinister looking face enhanced by the fact that it has been cut at odd angles. On the other hand we see a man staring not directly at the doll, but outwardly. The doll is used to represent the modern women's altered ego. Both male and female seem to be caught in a mechanized state of mind presumably the effects of enraptured love.

Indian Female Dancer - 1930 Shows a women's head pushed back where half of her face is an India statue. Her hair is hidden behind cut out silhouettes of knives and forks shaped like a crown. Hoch creates an allegory of the modern woman recognized by her trendy hair cut, called a Bubikopf, as she juxtapositions images that in one sense creates a crowned modern woman, but in another identifies her stereotypically as the domestic housewife. The woman's face comes from a photo of a popular actress of the time called Marie Falconetti. Cleverly Hoch creates an image layered with many feminine identities, actress, modern woman, domesticated woman, and woman crowned ready to do battle.

Marlene - 1930 Two men gaze up towards a pair of huge legs wearing high heals and stockings which are mounted upside down on a traditional architectural pillar. Up in the right hand corner sits a bright red mouth position away from the stare of the males. The name Marlene is written across the stage as if done by a fan. 1930 wa s the year that Marlene Dietrich starred in the movie the "Blue Angel."By juxtaposition images Hoch challenges and provokes questions regarding the role of gender identity and women's sexuality.

The Bride c. 1933 A bridle illusion that explores race, by juxtapositioning a white woman's neck and shoulders, with another woman's lips with a non-Caucasian face. Lace is used to portray the illusion of a bridal veil. The elements of the image are so tightly put together that the viewer's eyes oscillate back and forth between the juxtaposed images. Hoch creates an image where the viewer is unable to define the woman's race clearly

Meret Oppenheim 1913-1985 Swiss Surrealist Meret Oppenheim Pelzhandschuhe, 1936 Pelz und Holz mit rotem Nagellack 5 x 21 x 10 cm

Object (Luncheon in Fur) 1936. Fur covered cup, saucer and spoon

Cup, saucer, spoon – purchased from a department store – covered them with fur from a Chinese gazelle – mundane, domestic object transformed into a fetish item by the application of the fur, absurd conjunction of materials creating a wealth of associated sexual meanings. Long secret life as a sexual emblem – Lesbian sex, action implied of artist bringing lips to a hairy receptacle full of warm fluid . Became famous as a symbol of artistic anarchy after being shown at a major Surrealist exhibition in London and NY 1936 – self-contradictory image of great power, derived partly from its unexpected dislocation.

Meret Oppenheim (October 6, 1913, Berlin—November 15, 1985, Switzerland) was a German-born Swiss, Surrealist artist, and photographer. Oppenheim is highly associated with the Dada movement because of her circle of friends. However, her art can not be considered Dada: she does care about the aesthetics of the art object. Despite frequent recognition of her work in standard texts, relatively little critical attention has been paid to Oppenheim herself. Having been raised in Switzerland and South Germany, Oppenheim traveled at the age of 18 to Paris and enrolled at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere. After meeting Alberto Giacometti, Jean Arp, and Man Ray, she became absorbed in Surrealism and was invited by Giacometti and Arp to exhibit with the Surrealists in 1933. She continued to contribute to their exhibitions until 1960. Many of her pieces consisted of everyday objects arranged as such that they allude to female sexuality and feminine exploitation by the opposite sex. Oppenheim’s paintings focused on the same themes. Her originality and audacity established her as a leading figure in the surrealist movement.

Past Examination Questions: 1998 : How did the use of automatism and accident influence the development of Dada and Surrealism? 1997 : Assess the importance of chance and automatism in the creation of Dada and Surrealist Art? 1996 : How and why did Dada and Surrealist artists use chance and automatism to create their art? Refer to specific examples in your answer. 1994 : In what ways were chance and automatism used to make Dada and Surrealist art?

Chance in Art: Automatism and accident. The exploitation of chance events (accident) and the use of automatic states to create art were key aspects of both Dada and Surrealism. Chance was seen by Dadaists as a way of subverting the traditional hierarchy of values and giving expression to something deeper and more basic. The carnage of WW1 demanded a re-evaluation of the premises of Western civilisation. If reason and passion were responsible for the deaths of millions of people then a radical response was called for. “Dada”, wrote Hans Arp, “wished to destroy the hoaxes of reason and to discover an unreasoned order”. Rational answers, these artists felt, would only perpetuate the vicious cycle. But chance and the unconscious were antidotes to logic. To find new solutions the human had to put itself into positions that in its conscious state it could not achieve. Technical means to translate these aims included; collage, assemblage, readymades, photomontage, film, visual poetry and photography.

Arp was one of the first to bring in chance as a major element in the construction of his series of abstract works of art called Fatagaga (Fabrication des tableaux garantis gazometriques). These were created by letting scraps of paper fall at random on the surface and making a collage by gluing them together. Arp believed that chance was “the highest and deepest of laws”. Eg. ‘According to the laws of chance’ 1920, Arp tore out scraps of paper (their edges “drew themselves”, without conscious intervention, by being torn) and let them drop on a sheet, fixing them where they fell, thus achieving collages made wholly in accordance with the laws of chance.

Considered an anti-art gesture. They were made from an uncontrolled process – random and spontaneous. The use of chance was a symptom of dada’s general challenge to the concept of aesthetic order. The opposite of structural order is randomness or chaos and chance events cannot be controlled. Arp also created ‘Arpaden’ – random poetry – use of chance – created in a way similar to Tristan Tzara’s poems. Activity: Creating a Dada Poem.

Duchamp – Dadaist Dada artist packed their works with ideas that confused expectation of there being a meaning to be deduced from art, also pulled back from controlling the final outcome in the artistic process so that the artist could not be seen as holding the key to a finite interpretation. This can be illustrated by Duchamp’s readymades, where selection took place in a moment of ‘visual anaesthesia’. One ceased being an artist and instead became an ‘anti-artist’, letting the works seemingly create themselves.

Fountain 1917/1964, Bicycle Wheel and Bottle Rack. One of the first ready-mades Most notorious/famous A urinal selected from a hardware supplier (Mott Works) – the kind used by standing urinating men. Submitted it to a Society for Independent Artists (a group of which he was one of the directors) exhibition – under a pseudonym – R. Mutt (play on words – name of company he brought it from/ French slang) Immediate purpose was to provoke his colleagues and expose the hypocrisy of their supposed liberal attitudes . The directors were shocked by the fact that a vulgar bathroom fixture was being submitted as a work of art. Was rejected, even though there was supposedly no selection process (anyone who paid $6 was allowed to submit two works)) – thrown over the back of a wall. Went missing for whole duration of the exhibition. Significance of Ready-mades – eliminated individual, handmade quality of art – undermined the assumption that skill and uniqueness were necessary qualities for a work of art.

The Surrealist were inspired by the belief that the concepts of chance and the unconscious were the only way of achieving a knowledge of reality. Conscious control over composition was suppressed in order to give free rein to unconscious imagery and associations. This is the principle of automatism of both Dadaists and Surrealists. Automatism is a method of producing paintings and drawings in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the movements of the hand. The composition can then be seen to give free rein to unconscious imagery and associations and was seen as a way to restore to the work of art its primeval magic power and to find a way back to the immediacy it was seen to have lost through classical and academic style paintings. With the Surrealists, once an interesting image or form or texture had been achieved by automatic or chance means, it was often exploited deliberately with fully conscious purpose.

Max Ernst’s Frottage and Grattage ‘ Are you there’

Salvador Dali: Dream images and the creation of unreal space

Exquisite Corpse (Cadavre Exquis) A collaborative effort practised by the Surrealists, to sidestep subjective control and open themselves to the unexpected. Name derived from a line obtained by the Surrealists from an initial round of the game, “the exquisite corpse will drink the new wine”. To play the game one person writes a phrase in a piece of paper, folds it from view and passes it on to the next person and so on. Each player is unaware of what the others have written until all have contributed a part of the collective sentence and the paper unfolded. Word game was adapted to drawing, each player executing a segment of a composite picture, usually of a figure, with one person doing the head, another the trunk etc.

Exquisite Corpse Nude 1926/27 Collaborative effort between (Top to bottom) Tanguy, Miro, Morise and Man Ray

Introduction to Surrealism Officially began as a movement in art in Paris, 1924 with the Publication of Andre Bentons first Surrealist manifesto – initially, then also visual art movement / became political – closely related to Dada – Dadaists; Picabia, Duchamp. Man Ray, Arp, Sophie Taeuber joined the Surrealist movement (Dada group activites ended in 1921) First Surrealist group show in 1925 Surrealism def. by Benton: “Pure psychic automatism in its pure state, by which we propose to express , - verbally, in writing, or in any other manner, the real process of thought. The dictation of thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason and outside any aesthetic or moral pre-occupation. Like Dada – was not a style – more a question of spiritual orientation – had a direct heir in Dada ideas (both movements strongly anti-rationalist – allied in their rejection of logic and decorum as an instrument of research into human behaviour) but rejected the anarchy of Dadaism. Dada was essentially nihilist, Surrealism was positive spirit.

The aim was to revolutionise life through art – wanted to establish a permanent revolution – believed art had the power to set people free. Breton argued Surrealism as an ascetic of liberation . Automatism – the free flow of associations – was the single most important key to the definition of Surrealism. It provided a path to the inner psyche. The central idea was to release the creative powers of the subconscious mind, said Breton, “to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super reality”. Aimed at breaching the dominance of reason and conscious control by methods designed to release primitive urges and imagery – stress on spontaneity (invention of chance) and the intuitions of the subconscious – influenced by Freud’s research into the significance of dreams and the power of the unconscious mind.

The Surrealists were inspired by the belief that explorations of dreams and the unconscious were the only way of achieving a knowledge of reality. Their ideas were based on the discoveries of contemporary psychology, particularly the Swiss psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In Surrealist art, the unexpected juxtapositions of unrelated objects were used to create a sense of unreality and a fantastic reality outside the everyday world. This was done using either representational means, a kind of magic realism, or by creating new forms which were organic in nature but bizarre – biomorphic surrealism. Whether they used representational or biomorphic Surrealism, the choices made by the artist are an attempt to translate the hallucinated forms of the inner dream world into an artwork.

Characteristics of the two main styles: Biomorphic Derived from automatic writing techniques, biomorphic forms can be described as “automatic imagery”. Representational Careful and precise delineation of detail, but not used to depict an external reality since the subjects depicted belong to the realm of dream or fantasy. Figures often appear in a hallucinatory dream space of bizarre architecture or landscape. Dali’s paintings and Magritte’s strange juxtapositions of imagers are examples of this style of Surrealism. Aims of biomorphic and representational Surrealism The aesthetic aspects of Surrealism relate to the movements political aims: From 1925, questions of political activity were central to Surrealism and the movement collaborated with the French Communist Party between 1927 and 1935.

Three main trends were explored by the Surrealists to “ free art from its traditional shackles and make it truly democratic”. 1 Genuine automatic imagery – frottage, fumages, decalcomanies; 2 hallucinatory realism which does not depict an external reality; 3 Unexpected and startling juxtapositions of unrelated objects to create a sense of compelling reality outside the everyday world.

Bison on the Brink of a Chasm 1944

Andre Masson (1896-1987) – Surrealist One of the first artists who fulfilled Breton’s requirements of “pure psychic automatism” (psychological automatism) Consistently worked with automatism and chance effects as never ending sources for images. Sought by automatic methods to evoke, rather than illustrate the buried unconscious imagery. Found he could make automatic drawings, similar to the way that Breton and the poets practiced automatic writing, simply by letting his pen move across the paper according to its own “inner rhythm”. Once made 22 drawings in a single day on the primary Surrealist theme of Desire. Frequently used the automatic dripping of glue onto the canvas, spread over with sand to make abstract background shapes, on which he then painted recognizable but distorted and disturbing images – fighting fish, birds, severed hands.

Wounded and traumatized by the trench fighting in World War 1, his images and titles embodied a world full of hostility and battles of primal forces in conflict. Sense of physical violence marks all his work – some later works were laid on floor so he could “paint with movement of the whole body”. 1940 – went to the States – was influenced on the development of Abstract Expressionism.

Bison on the Brink of a Chasm 1944 Brush and Ink on paper – few were as adept at the transformation of automatic drawing as Masson.

Battle of Fishes 1926 Sand, gesso, oil, pencil, charcoal on canvas Pictured the world as the battleground of the oceanic unconscious, where blood is figuratively spilled across real sand.

The Vexations of the Thinker The disturbing Muses 1918

SHGC History Of Art - Part 4

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SHGC History Of Art - Part 4