Memory of a Voyage
Posted: June 11, 2015 Filed under: Art, Painting/Drawing | Tags: Magritte, memory of a voyaye, modern art, Rene Magritte, still life, Surrealism Leave a commentNude Standing by the Sea
Posted: April 20, 2015 Filed under: Art, Painting/Drawing | Tags: 20s, 20th century art, Biomorphism, cubism, geometric, modern art, nude standing by the sea, pablo picasso, Picasso, Surrealism Leave a commentAlthough never an official member of the Surrealists, despite Breton’s efforts to coopt him, Picasso nevertheless participated in many of their exhibitions and activities in Paris. His work between 1926 and 1939 has been called surrealist because of its fanciful imagery and sexually charged motifs, but despite many shared features, Picasso’s desire to interpret the real world was at odds with Surrealism’s imaginary inner-generated visions.
Here, he was inspired by bathers on a beach that he had previously sketched, painted, and sculpted in Cannes (1927) and Dinard (1928). In these earlier works, as in this 1929 painting, Picasso ultimately transforms the human figure into a strange mutated being, part geometric masonry, part inflated balloon. The features of the female physique metamorphose into one another—the rounded buttocks also suggesting breasts, the pointed breasts suggesting sharp teeth, and the horizontal slit, a reference to both navel and genitals. The overall effect is conflicted, showing both monumentality and vulnerability, sensuality and cold detachment, as if two different sensibilities inhabit this figure. Such imagery may have been a reflection of the artist’s own anguished love life at the time. Married to Olga Khokhlova since 1918, he had been having an affair with a beautiful young teenager, Marie-Thérèse Walter, since the summer of 1927, which would last through the 1930s.
Text from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Love From a Distance
Posted: January 14, 2015 Filed under: Art, Painting/Drawing | Tags: love, love from a distance, Magritte, miss, Rene Magritte, Surrealism, surrealist 1 CommentMasked Portraits
Posted: November 24, 2014 Filed under: Art, Photography | Tags: American, dada, dadaism, face, identity, Man Ray, mask, modern art, mud, portrait, Surrealism Leave a commentFour portraits by Man Ray:
Exploring the Surreal
Posted: November 13, 2014 Filed under: Art, Film, Painting/Drawing, Sculpture | Tags: Andre breton, art history, Claude Cahun, dada, dadism, Doctor Who, Freud, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Meret Oppenheim, Peter Capaldi, Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Surrealism, Tate, unconscious mind, Unlock art Leave a commentNeed some help getting to grips with Surrealism? The Doctor will see you now.
Peter Capaldi, a former art student, and the latest actor to play Doctor Who, settles down on Freud’s couch to deliver his wry take on the Surrealist movement.
‘Unlock Art’ is Tate’s new short film series, offering a witty inside track on the world of art. Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi joins forces with rock duo The Kills, comedian Frank Skinner, Girls star Jemima Kirke and other celebrity art fans to introduce some of the big ideas that have shaped art history. A new film is released each month, with topics ranging from the history of the nude and the nature of the art market, to Pop art.
Thanks to Tate, Unlock Series