surrealism | avant garde

surrealism:
-(unlike dada) highly organized group of artists rallied around andre breton
-adopted basic premises of psychoanalysis
-objective reality of the dream
-automatism, hallucinatory & irrational thought associations, recollected dream images offered means of liberating the psyche from enslavement to reason
-automatism: process of tapping unconscious by writing in trance-like state & registering involuntary, vivid images that tumbled out
-subconscious mind, repressed desire, imagery of dreams

-devoted to individualism & alienation --> no stylistic consistency
-two major directions: automatism & illusionistic dream imagery

first surrealist manifesto- andre breton:
-no fixed method for analyzing dreams
-chance: an obscure divinity
-believe in future resolution of dream & reality --> surreality
-the marvelous is beautiful
-surrealism: pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express the true function of thought
thought dictated by absence of all control exerted by reason & moral preoccupations
belief in superior reality of certain forms of association, omnipotence of dream

• reconstructing fragments of humanity & psyche
• investment in the erotic, eros, love
• "if you love Love, you'll love surrealism"

photograph of a "waking dream" seance- man ray
artist as clairvoyant
primitive space of individual/unconscious

• many dada members moved over to surrealism after dada broke up

• andre breton- founder of surrealism

-works were mainly text
-introduced freud's ideas into surrealist circle
-travels to vienna to meet w freud

on dreams- sigmund freud:
-theories were instrumental in forming modern concepts of human nature & motivation
-writings on dreams & unconscious changed traditional ideas about origins of visual imagery
-dream-thoughts are represented symbolically through similes & metaphors, includes recollections of impressive experiences
-psychial complex: portions represent foreground & background, conditions, digressions, illustrations, evidence, counter-arguments
-reproduce logical connection by approximation in time & space
anti-rational vision but different than dada

• dereve- marvelous chance encounters
• trying to find enchantment in disenchanted world in aftermath of WWI

luis bunuel & salvador dali, un chien andalou 1928

parisian surrealist group in 1929 around a painting by magritte
eyes close= anti-seeing

-not stylistically coherent
-shared set of ideas & tactics
-anti-retinal: rejecting privilege of visual, alternative forms of seeing (in unconscious)

ad in the surrealist revolution no. 1 (dec 1924)
"we are at the eve of a revolution. you can take part it too"

the surrealist centrale- man ray 1924

• pseudo-scientific aspect

^exquisite corpse drawings published in la revolution surrealiste 1927
collective drawing practice
invades rational
constructed in fragmented way

• automatic writing & drawing
• alternative logics

la revolution surrealiste
-would be revolutionary artistic practice
-transforming experience of the world

andre masson: 
-abstract calligraphy: rhythm of swift lines or cursive brush marks generated images of violence & dramatic encounters of form

untitled (automatic drawing)- andre masson 1924

• rejecting rational = rejecting modernity?
• investment in meandering, collective, seeking connections

the lugubrious game- salvador dali 1929
"lugubrious" = looking sad & dismal
illusionistic painting, dreamscapes, fluid, continuous line

the figure- andre masson 1927
liquid glue & sand

joan miro:
-derived forms from childhood memory
-didn't embrace trompe-l'oeil techniques
-automatism

the kiss- joan miro 1924
line references organic life forms
abstract?

birth of the world- miro 1925
abstract

the key of dreams- rene magritte 1935
seemingly didactic
abstract meaning?
dissociation of image & text

max ernst:
-dada --> surrealism
-frottage technique: textures by rubbing objects & surfaces on sheets of paper

little machine constructed by minimax dadamax in person- ernst 1919-20
uses type to create mechanical portraits of himself

self-constructed little machine- ernst 1919-20
uses type to create mechanical portraits of himself

man ray: 
-dadaist --> surrealist
-photography was ideal medium to literalize dreams

minotaur- man ray 1934
double seeing
objective instrument used to create abstract images

untitled- man ray 1920

anatomies- man ray 1930

• women's bodies used a lot in surrealism

the primacy of matter over thought- man ray 1929

• critique of modernism as philosophical
• interested in bringing art back to every day, here & now

the world at the time of the surrealists 1929

new mexico published in La R.S. no 9-10

andre breton's home in 1960
interest in the fetish & created own fetishes through surrealist objects

georges bataille

dark, nihilistic, violent dimension

rejection of values of western humanism

acephale- society & journal; interest in human sacrifice

vs. 

andre breton

beauty, erotic drives, aesthetics

suspended ball- alberto giacometti 1930-31
kinetic sculpture
might be mimicking sexual relationships
new: you have to touch it in order for it to move

disagreeable object- alberto giacometti 1931
strange fetishes, taboo desires

• objective chance: experience of chance on finding a marvelous objects; chance & fate

iron mask (that giacometti finds) (photograph)- man ray
mask that soldiers wear?

slipper spoon (that breton finds) from breton's novel l'amour fou
"cinderella ashtray"

invisible object- giacometti 1934

object of symbolic function- salvador dali 1931
invented use value for objects
imagined function

• uncanny: the familiar returning to you in a strange guise 

la poupee series- hans bellmer c. 1934
animate + inanimate
assembling doll parts & photographing them in weird ways

photograph printed in minoutaure 1937
locomotive w plants grown over
motion & stasis

dada | avant-garde

AP art history notes google drive link

• picasso's collage re-introduces use of everyday
• WWI 1914-18: over 16 mill. dead, 20 mill. wounded
• art moved away from didactic nature (of courbet)

-if to be modern means to be at war
-questioning value of art
-abandoning of museums & galleries
-bringing art into the streets
-turn away from conventional artistic materials (rejecting painting as paint on canvas)
-anti-medium specific
-answer social violence w violence internalized in imagery & technique --> revolutionary attitude toward traditional aesthetics
-shock appeal of the bizarre
-rediscovery of irrational drew upon symbolism

dada: (1915-1923)
-took form during wartime
   1916: hugo ball gathered group of exiles from the war
   artists opposed to war gather in zurich, switzerland
   became founders of dada
-international movement
-proclaimed uselessness of social action
-dada nihilism had more relevance as social critique
-resisted idea that art would be made & put in a museum
-"where did we go wrong?"
-"anti-art"
-art was about ideas
    absurdity
-utilize graphic communication
-rebellious movement against WWI
   wanted to change status quo
   provocative, offensive, chaotic, irrational

   scandalous exhibitions

-inspired by italian futurists

   rejected logic & reason, ideas & values & complacency of old europe
-thought of as a network
-deconstruction of language (in poetry)
-no stylistic unity
   disruption
   law of chance

• readymade/assemblage: takes away artists' hand
• photomontage: fragmenting world & reassemble it into a utopian world

dada manifesto:
-doesn't like common sense
-dada means nothing
-"a work of art should not be beauty in itself, for beauty is dead"
-criticism is useless, exists only subjectively
-"born of a need for independence, of a distrust toward unity"
-recognize no theory
-no longer paints but creates
-"all pictorial or plastic work is useless"
-"there is no ultimate truth"
-"logic is always wrong"
-w/o aim or design or organization

collective dada manifesto- richard huelsenbeck:
-club founded in berlin
-join w/o commitments
-state of mind
-art is dependent on the time it lives
-cease to take an aesthetic attitude toward life
-tearing all the slogans of ethics, culture, & inwardness
-rebellion of artistic movements

dada-ists led by hugo ball
created nonsense poetry & announcement
absurd theatre

met in zurich at cafe voltaire

dada sound poetry:

-language is a marker of cultural difference
-critique of language as a modernist tool of rational thought

-try to reunify spectactors through mutual alienation

-evoke high ritual (like catholic mass) combined w an african ritual

use of onomatopoeia
deconstruction of language

collage- schwitters
nonsense/chance/surprise elements
aware of tonality, color, balance, & order

"Take a newspaper.
Take a pair of scissors.
Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag.
Shake it gently.
Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag.
Copy conscientiously.
The poem will be like you.
And here are you a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar."
-To Make A Dadaist Poem- Tristan Tzara (1920)

drawing overtly from african culture:

"negro song"- marcel janco

mask- janco 1919

portrait of tristan tzara- janco 1919

collage (squares arranged according to the laws of chance)- hans arp
1916-1917
embracing chance, irrationality, irregularity
paper falls down to horizontal space- performed metaphor of avant-garde
artists' demand that work of art return to world/stuff of everyday
moves further than picasso's collages
(which are highly organized compositions)

the blessed virgin- francis picabia
ink splatter
disavowing controlling role of artist
composing work by chance
attacking traditional art & christian figure

• marcel duchamp & francis picabia escape to new york before war- ferment dissent

proto-dada-ist:
-duchamp attempts to participate in modernism but is spurned --> dadaism
-quits painting

dulcinea- duchamp 1911
attempting to work in cubist mode

yvonne & magdeleine torn in tatters- duchamp 1911
multiplication of subject matter- not something seen in cubist painting

nude descending the staircase, no. 1- duchamp 1911
attempt at cubism

nude descending a staircase, no. 2- duchamp 1912
attempt at cubism

• seeds of diagrammatic & machine aesthetic --> industry

readymade:
-object chosen by artist & altered slightly & signed: establishes idea that signature of artist makes it art
-way of avoiding painting
-anti-aesthetic objects --> work of art

bicycle wheel- duchamp 1913
fixture to have in one's home, spin wheel
assemblage, sculptural collage
attached to stool- negates purpose of both wheel & stool, almost a pedastal

bottle dryer- duchamp
1914

in advance of the broken arm- duchamp 1915

hat rack- duchamp 1917

trebuchat (trap)- duchamp 1917
hat rack nailed to floor- made dangerous

• objects of anonymously produced collection

the fountain- duchamp 1917

"this is art bc i say it is so"

turned toilet on side, signed "r mutt"

seen as ugly, crude, lewd, lacked recognizable artistry
bc he didn't actually make the object himself
work HAD to be submitted but they hated it
submitted into exhibition that he's on the committee of
to test limits & power/taste of institution

debate over legitimacy of The Fountain as a work of art:
-"the blind man- the richard mutt case"
-it is a work of art bc it was CHOSEN
-intellectual power to designate what is/isn't art

L.H.O.O.Q.- duchamp 1919
mass produced postcard that duchamp gives
a "coded" name to & draws a mustache
interested in questioning gender binaries

the bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even- duchamp 1915-1923
cracks on the way to an exhibition

DADA IN GERMANY:
-opening of the first international dada fair in berlin, june 1920

installation- huelsenbeck
first international dada affair
at top, figure w pig face & military costume = political commentary
counter-german expressionism & artists' "genius"

CONTEXT:
-reacting/responding to germany's post-WWI moment (weimar republic 1919-1933)

-void in leadership --> socialist revolution aligns w prior military powers

-WWI & negative fallout, moment of counter-revolution

• 3D assemblage
• collage- violent: cutting up
• visual violence
• propaganda posters calling for political & aesthetic revolution
• against refined, highly formalist, elite, modernist paradigms of art

ABCD- raoul hausmann 1923-24
manipulating readymade items
provocative, playing w humor

the hand has five fingers- john heartfield 1928
more sophisticated propagandist
communist party election poster

mechanical head (the spirit of our age)- raoul hausman
moment of aftermath of wwI, see refigurement of bodies

a victim of society- george grosz
1919

cut w the kitchen knife dada through the last weimar
beer belly cultural epoch of germany- hannah hoch

collage/photo montage

1919

words, images, etc.

sophisticated collage practice
map of her moment in the society that she lived in
barely coherent, fragmented form
4 zones: anti-dada, science figures, crowds/people/masses,
dadaists/political revolutionaries
men's bodies in repose
female figures active
work responding to mass media

the beautiful girl- hoch 1919-20

dada-ernst- hoch 1920-21

the german "new woman":

-desire to enter work force 

-short hairstyle

-masculine clothing

-ambivalent

-new regime of women's perfectibility & training

goering butcher of the third reich- john heartfield 1933
most explicit propaganda- mass produced

• photo collage: image retains fragmentary nature, not resolved into a seamless whole
• photo montage: photos & text seamlessly brought together to create a new image

the meaning of the hitler salute- heartfield 1932
anti-facist resistance

all fists clenched into one- heartfield 1934
anti-facist resistance
raise fist in solidarity

hurray, the butter is gone!- heartfield 1935
munching on objects of industry

whoever reads bourgeois newspapers becomes blind & deaf- heartfield 1928
material from news media & critiquing news media
work responding to mass media