Surrealism and Cubism Art

Aysia Brown

November 11, 2015

HUA

Surrealism began in Paris at 1924 as a art and literary movement. Surrealism was committed to express imagination, dreams, and the subconscious of a human mind. Surrealism carried on the style of Dada. Dada is art that shows no sense of anything. Meaning random objects can be put together and can be call art. Likewise, surrealism also express objects that’s not real, and it’s like you’re looking inside the person’s brain. For example: This is an oil painting named “The Horde” by Max Ernest.  It was painting in 1927. It’s 44 7/8 X 57 ½ (114 X 146.1 cm) The reason he painted this artwork is because, Ernest had a violent experience in World War 1. He was influenced by the battle and made the artwork. As you can see, most of the figures are not shaped like humans or maybe animals, but more like monsters.  The use of colors makes the picture pop. The blue as the background makes the red, gold, and brown pop, because the colors are opposite to each other. The artist expresses a sense of movement and excitement. You can feel the objects moving in slow motion, because of the way the figure on the right is standing. The figure on the right is standing like a person, and his body is like it’s made out of bark. The figure has his hands in the air, and his right foot is close to the end of the canvas. At the bottom, it’s like sand, and at the bottom right of the canvas, it looks like the big figure is standing near a cliff. The more I keep studying the picture, I can sense that the big figure with a tree-like body is being victimized or attacked by these red and gold objects. The objects all the way to the left, is chaotic. If would ask me what do you see in that picture, not the tree guy, but the others on the left. I would say, I see a horse on its hind legs at the top left, a hand at the right, I see a orange body that is laying on its side at the middle of the painting, and at the bottom right, I see an under-cooked whole chicken that looks like he is going to fall off. It is very interesting how this artist used shapes that is absurd, and vivid colors to show what he had witness in real life, but use his imagination or maybe his dream to show others in a surreal or dream-like way.

 

Cubism art began in 1907 in Paris. This art style broke away from the traditions of painting that lasted for a hundred years. The way cubism breaks off from the tradition is by not painting a linear perspective, and depth. This is a painting by Pablo Picasso named “The Old Guitarist. It was made from 1903-1904. The picture is 48 3/8 X 32 ½ in. (122.9 x 82.6 cm). Picasso painted a picture that is unforgettable, and the of only one color, which is blue. Using one color for an artwork is called monochromatic. The guitarist has a mournful face expression, and the way he is sitting is depressing. Picasso present the old guitarist as a time where people are at their sad moments and the colors of the man and background is gloomy blue. This artwork is a reflection to Picasso, because during his younger years, when he was twenty-one he didn’t have any money and was almost about to be impoverished. Picasso represented the outcasts, ill, penniless during the earliest 20^th century.