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Describe the basis of the art movements, Surrealism, Dada, Cubism, Minimalism

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Surrealism







The Origins of Surrealism

                        Social and technological events and innovations had a great impact on the formation of modern art.  Sigmund Freud’s analysis of the mind, technological revolution, women’s equalization, and other factors influenced the thinking of the artist of that period.  Change could be seen in every branch of art: literature, music, or visual arts.  These branches combined with each other as well. Music was an inspiration for many artists, creating an abstract art.  There were many styles developing in this time, but I will focus on the ones that had an impact on the further development of modern art, especially Surrealism.  These styles are Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, and Dada.

Fauvism

                       Fauvism was developed from pointillism, and it lasted from 1898 to 1908 as an early movement of the modern period.  The name Fauvism comes from French fauves, meaning wild beasts.  They were radical in their ignoring of the carefully graduating tone of colors and, instead, the Fauvists used small brush strokes of pure color.  The Fauvists believed that color was an absolutely emotional force and color was no longer used to describe, but actually created the subject matter.  

                       Henry Matisse was the leader of the Fauvist movement.  In fact, the whole Fauvist movement lasted only as long as Henry Matisse tried to find freedom in art.  Although he did not prefer pointillism, he led the way of the use of color.  He was considered highly revolutionary, because he used intense colors to paint objects freely, and not according to their appearance in nature.  

                       One of most unusual color creations of Henry Matisse is his “Harmony in Red” [see Appendix: Paintings pg. 34].  Matisse first painted the picture as a Harmony in Green, but he was not satisfied with it and he repainted it as Harmony in Blue.  Then, Russian collector Sergei Shchukin bought it.  However, Matisse wanted to work on it for a third time, and after he got Shchukin’s approval he finished as a Harmony in Red, which remained in this form until today.  

Fauvism and its Impact

                      Even though the Fauvist movement didn’t last for a long time, its impact on modern art was great.  The bright colors and wild brush strokes started the development of Cubism and other styles of the modern art.  In fact, Fauvist technique, the use of non-natural colors, and style of painting were one of the first avant-garde developments in European Art.

Cubism

                       Cubism was formed in 1908 by Pablo Picasso.  His famous painting: “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” [Young Ladies of Avignon] started the new radical movement.  By completely disregarding traditional methods, artists were free in their use of color, shape, form, technique, and material, making the movement to be relaxed and carefree.  

                      The main idea of Cubism was to show things as they are, not as they look like.  This gave new artists a chance to enter this field, because their works didn’t have to be perfect.  One just drew what he felt, because the final piece of works could be totally different from the original thing they drew.  

                       One of the characteristics of Cubism is that the picture is always two-dimensional.  The Cubists tried to show that even though there was a possibility to fake a depth in a painting, we were still dealing with the same flat piece of canvas.

                       Cubism is divided into two main periods.  Analytical Cubism occurred between 1908 and 1912.  In analytical Cubism, the object was “taken apart” and reshaped using intersecting planes.  On the other hand, synthetic Cubism, which lasted from 1912 to 1913, was based on the synthesis of the object.  The real objects were implanted right into the painting, creating something like collage. Color plays an important role in synthetic Cubism, while objects are there just as a decoration.      

Cubism and Surrealism

                        Cubism had a great impact on the development of modern art.  This movement inspired architecture, sculpture, clothes, and even literature.  With its absolutely new perception of the world, Cubism is considered to be the parent of all abstract forms.  Movements such as Futurism, Constructivism and DeStijl were all based on the practice and theories of Cubism.

                        The most important impact Cubism had on modern art was freedom in using materials.  Any item could be used, and that guaranteed the development, diversity, and growth of art in the future simultaneously with the new materials and technology available.  

          Pablo Picasso and his Influence              

                        Pablo Picasso was born in Spain in 1881.  He was definitely one of the most significant and influential artists of the 20th century.  Picasso was strongly influenced by the works of Postimpressionist artists such as Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas.  If Cubism was believed to be the parent to the abstract art, then Picasso has a right to be the grandfather to the modern art. [1] In addition, Picasso was admired by later artists.  One of these was Andre Breton, the originator of the Surrealist movement.  Actually, Picasso himself was a great supporter of Surrealism.  

                         Picasso’s works are famous all around the world, but one is especially outstanding.  Ã¢Â€ÂœGuernica” [see Appendix: Paintings, pg. 35], is considered to be the only humane and political work of art to achieve real fame in past 50 years.  It was inspired by a bombing of a Basque town during the Spanish Civil War by the German air force.  Since the Spanish Government granted autonomy to Basque, Guernica was the capital of an independent republic.  The bombing was internationally viewed as a Fascist barbarity, and Picasso’s Guernica is viewed as its memorial.  Guernica is full of hidden images and themes, and almost every line and shape has a meaning.  The main motives of Guernica, the weeping woman, the horse, and the bull, had been appearing in Picasso’s work for years before Guernica was painted.  These and many others are the symbols of cruelty and destruction.  The choice of colors, black, white, and grey, associates with the front page of newspaper, as well as the suggestion that the horse’s body is made up of parallel lines of newsprint.  

                          Another important painting of Picasso’s, “Woman Seated” [see Appendix: Paintings, pg. 36], is an early Cubist work.  This and others of Picasso’s paintings, produced in the years 1907-1908, demonstrate how suddenly Picasso changed his way of thinking and painting.  The Woman Seated is painted in Paris in early 1908.  The figure of the female nude is extremely schematic: straight lines differentiate the parts of the body, and contrast between light and shade creates an image of volume.[2]  Everything seems to create a sense of sleepiness, which is the characteristic trait of many of Picasso’s other works.        

Futurism

                         Futurism is a movement that originated in Italy in 1909-1916.  The term “Futurism” was given to this style according to the Futuristic thinking that was a major characteristic of it.  The Futurists protested against the past, especially against its pedantic courtliness.  Moreover, they celebrated war, nationalism, and revolution.  That’s also an unusual feature, because Fauvism didn’t focus in esthetics, but in morality and politics.

                        Futurists openly supported war, and this actually lead to the later destruction of this movement.  When the WWI started, Futurists were excited volunteers.  Unfortunately, Futurism declined during the war time, because the artists were dying in the war.    

                         Umberto Boccioni was the most dominant figure in Futurism.  He was the author of several manifestoes and texts, and he was active both as a painter and sculptor.  Although he studied a French pointillism at the beginning, he soon felt the need of new revolutionary movement as was impressionism.  Probably Boccioni’s ideas and experiences explain why the Futuristic movement was so close to the original Impressionism.  

                           “Materia” [see Appendix: Paintings, pg. 37] is considered to be one of Boccioni’s most important paintings.  The meaning of word materia in Italian is both mother and hands.  The image of Boccioni’s mother sitting on the balcony is very energetic and it creates a strong visual contrast between what is indoors and what outdoors.                

  

Futurism and its Influence

                         Although Futurism was an early Italian movement, it spread to the rest of the Europe as well.  Since it was such a modern and dynamic movement, it brought a new courage to use different and unusual materials.

                          Analytical Cubism was pretty similar to Futurism, but Futurists were soon too radical and naturalistic for Cubists.  In fact, this had a bad influence on the development of Cubism.  However, Futurism was a basis for other, later movements with strong and radical philosophical – literary basis, such as Dada and Surrealism.  

  

Metaphysical Painting

                       Metaphysical Painting was a Italian art movement founded in 1917.  The main characteristics of this movement were the depiction of an alternative reality, which was closely connected to the unconscious mind.  The painters developed an alternative logic, according to which even illogical reality could be believable.

                      The creator of Metaphysical Painting is Georgio De Chirico.  After young years of experimenting, he started to search for hidden meanings beyond the actual appereances.  The Italian city of Turin left a particular impression on him, he was fascinated with the empty squares surrounded by arcaded buildings.  This is visible in his work „Turin Melancholy“, which De Chirico painted in 1915.   The illlustration of a square with unnaturally sharp contrasts of light and shadow incorporates an impression of mystery into the scene.  The deep space and dark sky are features that can be found in many of De Chirico’s other works.                            

            The Impact of Metaphysical Painting

                      Metaphysical Painting is possibly the most influential style from which developed the basis for Dada and especially Surrealism.  The use of dreams as an inspiration, which is one of the main characteristics of Surrealism, comes directly from Metaphysical Painting.  The placement of disparate subjects into very deep perspectives had a great impact on Surrealism as well.  

Dada

                               This movement was found in 1916 in Zurich, although Dada’s greatest success was in Paris.  Just the name Dada already distinguished itself from the rest of the avant-garde movements.  The characteristics of Dada are negativity, reluctance, scandals, disregard, and derision.  The Dadaists were not looking for approval from the public, they wished to provoke and confront them, to make them think and react.  The main purpose of Dada was not actual art; they wanted to participate in the revolutionary changes that were created after the WWI.  They wanted to affect all aspects of Western Civilization and they were achieving this through their activities.  According to Dadaists, a violently negative reaction was better than a passive acceptance.  They wanted to open a new art and a new society by ridiculing the cultural conventions of Europe, which was in ruin after WWI.

                         The Dadaist movement was also original because it included almost every activity in social life.  It affected every field that deals in some way with contemporary culture and civilization.  It broke all boundaries that kept the art fields from one another.  Dada’s spirit was in the events organized by them: cabaret performances, demonstrations, declarations, confrontations, distributions of small magazines and newspaper, and so on.  They were provoked people by promoting presentations of “Dada’s Sex”, or head shaving of all leading Dadaists on these events.

                      Francis Picabia was one of the major protagonists of Dada.  He visited Zurich and then became a key figure in the movement in Paris.  However, he was definitely not the only one.  Names as Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, or Man Ray are famous all over the world.  After the end of Dada, these artists still continued to work, joining or forming new styles.  

                       Picabia’s “I See Again in Memory My Dear Udnie” [see Appendix: Paintings, pg. 38] represents a radical shift in artists’ style of painting.  The mechanical elements, expressed in otherwise abstract composition, create something called “mechanomorphs”.  In adopting the machine and its metamorphic potential, he had returned to depiction of real things in the world.  [3]  This meant a significant change in his form of expressing.  Before 1914, his works were abstract, organic, rich with complex colorations, and subjective states of mind.  His works from 1915 were monochromatic, linear, and clearly derived reflections of real-world objects.      

Dada and its Influence

                      The Dada movement was perhaps the most crucial, single influence on the development on the art of the 20th century.  Contemporary arts as we know them today would not exist without Dada’s influence.  The use of collage and assemblage, the extension of the abstracts to literature and film, commercial advertising, and combining different art directions are just a few of Dada’s inventions during this period.  Almost all of the movements since 1923 are influenced by Dada: Surrealism, Constructivism, Lettrism, Fluxus, Pop and Op Art, Conceptual Art, or, for example, Minimalism.

Surrealism

                       Surrealism is a movement that developed from Dada in 1924.  Some specialists say that Surrealism was already founded in Dada, but it has a different name.  Based upon the Dada tradition, Surrealist artists were linked with scandals, and rebellion against the elite of society.  They openly and freely insulted the elite, becoming more radical by it.  Although they seem to be the same, the main difference is that Surrealists avoided the derision and disregard used in Dada, instead they were trying to bring more positive thinking into Europe, morally and intellectually devastated by the war.  By concentrating on their own dreams and thoughts rather than on society, the Surrealists avoided the horrors of war, and political, social, and economic lies.  This movement was something like “lightening from the clear sky” [4] that had a great impact on human thinking.  

                             The main characteristic of Surrealism is in its emphasis on dreams, the deep investigation of unconsciousness, and coincidence.  Surrealism is sometimes compared to Romanticism, mainly because of the euphoria of the new invention, and finding a new hope.  However, Romantics felt it as individuals, and Surrealist felt it as a collective.  They were absolutely absorbed by the whole revolution; it was a radical change of feelings, perceptions, and understanding of the world.

  What is Surrealism?  

                             In his work “What is Surrealism?”  Andre Breton defines Surrealism as “the pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, verbally, in writing, or by other means, the real process of thought.  Thought’s dictation, in the absence of all control exercised by the reason and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.  Ã¢Â€Âœ  Definitely, it is a style of absolutely free inspiration and freedom in expression, where are no boundaries, no rules, and no other limitations.  It is not a “school”, or style, of writing or painting; it is a spiritual movement that is based on the individual’s experience and effort to return to the original concept of humanity.  It is a movement that does not include only one specific branch of art, instead, there is an unusual diversity in Surrealism: painters, writers, graphics, sculptures, and musicians were all part of this revolution of thoughts.  

Development of Surrealism

                             The birthplace of Surrealism was, as for most of the styles, Paris.  The special mood and energy of this city gave inspiration to Surrealists to start the new revolutionary movement.  In years 1920-1921, the Dada movement culminated in Paris, already influenced by some thought of Surrealism.  These two movements existed together initially.  However, in 1922, Andre Breton definitely left the Dada movement, creating his own new style: Surrealism.  After its birth in Paris, the Surrealist movement quickly spread throughout Europe, and, by 1936, it had enough supporters to organize its first international exhibition.

                         In its development, the Surrealists celebrated the art of children, mad people and primitive art.  They were fascinated by the innocent view they had on the world around them, capturing it in its purest forms.  Flea markets were also very popular, because the artists could find useless objects that gave them inspiration.  

Andre Breton and the Literary Movement

                       Andre Breton was a French poet, essayist, critic, editor, chief promoter and the founder of the Surrealist movement.  He studied medicine and psychiatry, and he met Freud as well.  This gave him the experience of studying the human mind, which he later brought to Surrealism.      

                       It is very important to mention the literary beginnings of Surrealism, because, without them, we wouldn’t understand the whole concept of this movement.  The literary movement started with Andre Breton.  He was the first one to emphasize emotions and passions, which were the main aspects of the Surrealist movement.  In 1924, Breton organized his thoughts and ideas into the book that had a crucial impact on the next development of Surrealism: “The Surrealism Manifest”.  He actually gave the name to the entire movement through his book.

Artistic Movement

                       The main change in the artistic movement was in that the artists started to use their dreams as an inspiration.  In 1922, a group of Surrealist artists started to experiment with meditations on their meetings.  They were getting into trance while having conversations.  The dialogues were spontaneous and very deep, although they did not make much sense.  From that time, dreams were viewed as a tool to get out of reality, where you are not concerned by any problems or conflicts of life and reality.  This sensation was very important for the next development of Surrealism, and of modern art as well.  Surrealists were inspired by the writings of Sigmund Freud, whose theory that a human mind was split into two parts: the conscious part and the inaccessible, unconscious part, where secret desires, thoughts and feelings lay.  By interpreting their dreams, the Surrealists tried to reach these repressed thoughts, feelings and desires.

                               Two different techniques were developed within Surrealism.  One group, including Dali or Magritte, interpreted their dreams accurately, although they placed them on the canvas in irrational manner.  The other group just drew without any conscious control.  This method is called automatism.  The automatists believed that by letting the conscious mind relax, it is easier to reach the unconscious part of the mind, allowing it to automatically take over the movements of brush show them their deepest thoughts and feelings.  They also believed that abstractionism was the only way to bring the images that rested in the unconscious mind to life.  

                          There is a certain similarity between such styles as impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, or other abstract styles.  Sometimes it is very difficult to know exactly who worked in what style, because they were all influenced by one another.  However, it is not difficult to differentiate between the Surrealist artists, because each one of them has its own style that originates in the freedom of expression.  There are no formal rules; one can just draw what is in his/her mind.  

                  

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[1] http://sachiyoasakawa.tripod.com

[2] http://sachiyoasakawa.tripod.com

[3] http://www.toutfait.com/issues/volume2/i...

  

[4]  Pijoan, Jose: Dejiny Umeni/8: chapter 14: Zaklady modeniho umeni.  Odeon, Prague: 1981.

[5] Pijoan, Jose: Dejiny Umeni/10: Surrealismus.  Odeon, Prague: 1991

[6] http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2002...

[7] Petrova, Eva: Max Ernst.  SNKLU, Prague: 1965