This blog is a response to the activity, assigned by Yesha Bhatt. Here are the terms explained in detail and also added some photography and video which was done by us.
1] Surrealism:
(Here are some major facts including definitions, which I have taken from ‘The Art Story’.)
The Surrealists sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination. Disdaining rationalism and literary realism, and powerfully influenced by psychoanalysis, the Surrealists believed the rational mind repressed the power of the imagination, weighing it down with taboos. Influenced also by Karl Marx, they hoped that the psyche had the power to reveal the contradictions in the everyday world and spur revolution. Their emphasis on the power of personal imagination puts them in the tradition of Romanticism, but unlike their forebears, they believed that revelations could be found on the street and in everyday life. The Surrealist impulse to tap the unconscious mind, and their interests in myth and primitivism, went on to shape many later movements, and the style remains influential to this today.
History of Surrealism:
Surrealism grew out of the Dada movement, which was also in rebellion against middle-class complacency. Artistic influences, however, came from many different sources. The most immediate influence for several of the Surrealists was Giorgio de Chirico, their contemporary who, like them, used bizarre imagery with unsettling juxtapositions (and his Metaphysical Painting movement). They were also drawn to artists from the recent past who were interested in primitivism, the naive, or fantastical imagery, such as Gustave Moreau, Arnold Bocklin, Odilon Redon, and Henri Rousseau. Even artists from as far back as the Renaissance, such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Hieronymous Bosch, provided inspiration in so far as these artists were not overly concerned with aesthetic issues involving line and color, but instead felt compelled to create what Surrealists thought of as the "real."
The Surrealist movement began as a literary group strongly allied to Dada, emerging in the wake of the collapse of Dada in Paris, when André Breton's eagerness to bring purpose to Dada clashed with Tristan Tzara's anti-authoritarianism. Breton, who is occasionally described as the 'Pope' of Surrealism, officially founded the movement in 1924 when he wrote "The Surrealist Manifesto." However, the term "surrealism," was first coined in 1917 by Guillaume Apollinaire when he used it in program notes for the ballet Parade, written by Pablo Picasso, Leonide Massine, Jean Cocteau, and Erik Satie. Around the same time that Breton published his inaugural manifesto, the group began publishing the journal La Révolution surréaliste, which was largely focused on writing, but also included art reproductions by artists such as de Chirico, Ernst, André Masson, and Man Ray. Publication continued until 1929.
The Bureau for Surrealist Research or Centrale Surréaliste was also established in Paris in 1924. This was a loosely affiliated group of writers and artists who met and conducted interviews to "gather all the information possible related to forms that might express the unconscious activity of the mind." Headed by Breton, the Bureau created a dual archive: one that collected dream imagery and one that collected material related to social life. At least two people manned the office each day - one to greet visitors and the other to write down the observations and comments of the visitors that then became part of the archive. In January 1925, the Bureau officially published its revolutionary intent which was signed by 27 people, including Breton, Ernst, and Masson.
Surrealism: concepts, styles, and Trends:
Surrealism shared much of the anti-rationalism of Dada, the movement out of which it grew. The original Parisian Surrealists used art as a reprieve from violent political situations and to address the unease they felt about the world's uncertainties. By employing fantasy and dream imagery, artists generated creative works in a variety of media that exposed their inner minds in eccentric, symbolic ways, uncovering anxieties and treating them analytically through visual means.
The Rise and Decline of Surrealism:
Though Surrealism originated in France, strains of it can be identified in art throughout the world. Particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, many artists were swept into its orbit as increasing political upheaval and a second global war encouraged fears that human civilization was in a state of crisis and collapse. The emigration of many Surrealists to the Americas during WWII spread their ideas further. Following the war, however, the group's ideas were challenged by the rise of Existentialism, which, while also celebrating individualism, was more rationally based than Surrealism. In the arts, the Abstract Expressionists incorporated Surrealist ideas and usurped their dominance by pioneering new techniques for representing the unconscious. Breton became increasingly interested in revolutionary political activism as the movement's primary goal. The result was the dispersal of the original movement into smaller factions of artists. The Bostonians, such as Roberto Matta, believed that art was inherently political. Others, like Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, remained in America to separate from Breton. Salvador Dalí, likewise, retreated to Spain, believing in the centrality of the individual in art.
Here are some photographs about the surreal activity which is captured by me-
Surrealist Paintings: The Art Story
Surrealist Objects and Sculptures: The Art Story
Surrealist Photography: The Art Story
Surrealist Film: The Art Story
Later Developments after Surrealism:
The Art Story
Dada Movement :
Dada was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland. It arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thoughts had led to the war. Influenced by other avant-garde movements - Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism - its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage. Dada's aesthetic, marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York, and Cologne, all of which generated their own groups. The movement dissipated with the establishment of Surrealism, but the ideas it gave rise to have become the cornerstones of various categories of modern and contemporary art- information is taken from ‘The Art Story’.
Central Idea of Dada Movement :
Dada was the direct antecedent to the Conceptual Art movement, where the focus of the artists was not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that often upended bourgeois sensibilities and that generated difficult questions about society, the role of the artist, and the purpose of art.
So intent were members of Dada on opposing all norms of bourgeois culture that the group was barely in favor of itself: "Dada is anti-Dada," they often cried. The group's founding in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich was appropriate: the Cabaret was named after the 18th-century French satirist, Voltaire, whose novella Candide mocked the idiocies of his society. As Hugo Ball, one of the founders of both Cabaret and Dada wrote, "This is our Candide against the times."
Artists like Hans Arp were intent on incorporating chance into the creation of works of art. This went against all norms of traditional art production whereby work was meticulously planned and completed. The introduction of chance was a way for Dadaists to challenge artistic norms and question the role of the artist in the artistic process.
Dada artists are known for their use of readymade - everyday objects that could be bought and presented as art with little manipulation by the artist. The use of the readymade forced questions about artistic creativity and the very definition of art and its purpose in society.
History of Dadaism :
Switzerland was neutral during WWI with limited censorship and it was in Zürich that Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings founded the Cabaret Voltaire on February 5, 1916, in the backroom of a tavern on Spiegelgasse in a seedy section of the city. To attract other artists and intellectuals, Ball put out a press release that read, "Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name, a group of young artists and writers has formed with the object of becoming a center for artistic entertainment. In principle, the Cabaret will be run by artists, and guest artists will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings. Young artists of Zürich, whatever their tendencies, are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds." Those who were present from the beginning in addition to Ball and Hennings were Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, and Richard Huelsenbeck.
In July of that year, the first Dada evening was held at which Ball read the first manifesto. There is little agreement on how the word Dada was invented, but one of the most common origin stories is that Richard Huelsenbeck found the name by plunging a knife at random into a dictionary. The term "dada" is a colloquial French term for a hobbyhorse, yet it also echoes the first words of a child, and these suggestions of childishness and absurdity appealed to the group, who were keen to put a distance between themselves and the sobriety of conventional society. They also appreciated that the word might mean the same (or nothing) in all languages - as the group was avowedly internationalist.
The aim of Dada art and activities was both to help to stop the war and to vent frustration with the nationalist and bourgeois conventions that had led to it. Their anti-authoritarian stance made for a protean movement as they opposed any form of group leadership or guiding ideology.
Beginning of Dada Movement: The Art Story
The Spread of Dada: The Art Story
Dada: Concepts, styles, and Trends: The Art Story
The Later Developments after Dada: The Art Story
Here are some photographs which is captured by me for the Dadaism activity.
Here I am attaching a video which have done by me and my classmates for the Dadaism activity -
Expressionism :
Expressionism is a modernist movement that first developed around 1905 and continued until around the end of World War II. Expressionist artists sought to represent the world from a subjective perspective by using color and distortion of the subject to evoke moods and achieve an emotional effect. Expressionism was initially very popular as an avant-garde style of painting and expanded to other art forms including poetry, architecture, dance, and music, with influences intermingling at various points in history.
Notable Expressionism Artwork:
History of Expressionism :
Expressionism originated in northern Europe, namely Germany, Austria, France, and Russia, in the years before the First World War. Expressionist art coexisted with other early twentieth-century art movements that also worked to challenge the modern world such as Dadaism, Cubism, Futurism, and Surrealism.
The origin of the term Expressionism is often debated by art historians, though it was likely coined between 1901 and 1910. Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh are widely regarded as being highly influential on the Expressionist movement. Regarded for their work in the 1880s and 1890s, during the post-Impressionist period, van Gogh and Munch’s unique and expressive painting styles used color and line to explore dramatic themes, intense emotions, and various states of mind from a more subjective perspective than the artists and movements that came before them.
Expressionism distanced itself from art historical tradition by rejecting the reverence for history painting, genre painting, and portraiture held by European art academies. Expressionism did not idealize its subjects, nor did it place them in a hierarchy. All subjects were simply subjects, meant to be reinterpreted through the artist’s subjective perspective. Expressionist artists saw academic art movements as superficial and lacking in spiritual connection.
Expressionism embraced subjective interpretations of modern life, with little regard for the aesthetically pleasing impressions left by artistic subjects that Impressionism embraced. Expressionism also rejected the portrayal of fleeting scenes and much of the focus on optics that Impressionism valued.Instead, Expressionist painters conveyed powerful emotions, often relying on complementary colors to create vivid, dramatic, and dynamic compositions. This style of artistic expression was more spontaneous than previous movements, lending itself well to conveying feelings of frustration, disillusionment, and cynicism that many felt following World War I. This postwar period led to many artists straying from representations of physical reality, whereas subsequent Expressionist works foregrounded a more instinctive form of expression. for more information, these sites will be helpful-Expressionism Art Movement and The Art Story
Here is a photo of an activity that we have done in classroom along with Yesha ma'am.
Here is my photography for expressionism -
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