“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” – Salvador Dali (One small see 2014: 60).
To this day surrealism is still destroying the shackles that hold us to the socially accepted normalities of the art world. We as graphic designers are constantly being challenged to be unique, different, inspired etc. in our field of work. In this essay I will be discussing one of Adam Martinakas’ works, namely, The Divisions of Pleasure, 2012(Figure 1). I will be discussing its relevance to the Surrealist movement in its style by using two examples of Rene Magritte i.e. The Lover II, 1928(Figure 2) and The Wonders of Nature, 1983(Figure 3).
I will be using both formal and contextual analysis to …show more content…
It was in fact, initially a writer’s movement i.e. poets, playwrights, authors etc. It all started with Sigmund Freud and his book, Interpretation of Dreams 1900: The Unconscious (Tush, 2013). World War I is what sparked the flame to this entire movement; after Dada and its anti-art protest came surrealism (Tush, 2013). Most of the classic historical surrealist artists came from the Dada movement, from World War I, their opinion on the war? They felt it was a form of rationalism to gain shallow victories (Tush, 2013). This ‘rationalism' from their government caused so much grief, pain and loss and so in an efforts to press on to the future surrealist artists decided they would become irrational using Freud’s book as a catalyst (Tush, 2013). Although after this decision, the ball had been set in motion, officially surrealism only became a world renowned movement in 1924 with André Brenton’s (1896 – 1966) publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism (Voorhuis, 2004). Other iconic artists from this era would include Giorgio de Chirico (1888 – 1978), Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), Francis Piabia (1827 – 1953), Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968), Max Ernst (1891 – 1986), Man Ray(1890 – 1776) and René Magritte (1898 – 1967) just to name a few (Voorhius, …show more content…
There is a kind of vast emptiness to the image as the only thing filling it is the subjects which are two busts, one male one female. The two subject matters look locked in a moment of passion and lust as the female is reaching for the male’s neck while the male is baring his neck to the female. The slight expression on their faces also gives a sense of desire or satisfaction. The subjects seem to be locked in a stone room. The use of colour is very monochromatic. The artist has made use of black and white, two very structured colours which make the subjects seem cold and more like objects than subjects. The black stone seems to almost be over powering the white stone while the placement of these tiles creates a vertical line cutting through the composition. The artist has given the impression that the subjects had been carved by hand and then smoothed down. The two subjects have been placed directly in the centre making them the focal point. The scale of the two objects seems rather small within that big space however the male bust still seems slightly more powerful in this image. The use of short curved strokes has been to create a sort of texture in the
To this day surrealism is still destroying the shackles that hold us to the socially accepted normalities of the art world. We as graphic designers are constantly being challenged to be unique, different, inspired etc. in our field of work. In this essay I will be discussing one of Adam Martinakas’ works, namely, The Divisions of Pleasure, 2012(Figure 1). I will be discussing its relevance to the Surrealist movement in its style by using two examples of Rene Magritte i.e. The Lover II, 1928(Figure 2) and The Wonders of Nature, 1983(Figure 3).
I will be using both formal and contextual analysis to …show more content…
It was in fact, initially a writer’s movement i.e. poets, playwrights, authors etc. It all started with Sigmund Freud and his book, Interpretation of Dreams 1900: The Unconscious (Tush, 2013). World War I is what sparked the flame to this entire movement; after Dada and its anti-art protest came surrealism (Tush, 2013). Most of the classic historical surrealist artists came from the Dada movement, from World War I, their opinion on the war? They felt it was a form of rationalism to gain shallow victories (Tush, 2013). This ‘rationalism' from their government caused so much grief, pain and loss and so in an efforts to press on to the future surrealist artists decided they would become irrational using Freud’s book as a catalyst (Tush, 2013). Although after this decision, the ball had been set in motion, officially surrealism only became a world renowned movement in 1924 with André Brenton’s (1896 – 1966) publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism (Voorhuis, 2004). Other iconic artists from this era would include Giorgio de Chirico (1888 – 1978), Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), Francis Piabia (1827 – 1953), Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968), Max Ernst (1891 – 1986), Man Ray(1890 – 1776) and René Magritte (1898 – 1967) just to name a few (Voorhius, …show more content…
There is a kind of vast emptiness to the image as the only thing filling it is the subjects which are two busts, one male one female. The two subject matters look locked in a moment of passion and lust as the female is reaching for the male’s neck while the male is baring his neck to the female. The slight expression on their faces also gives a sense of desire or satisfaction. The subjects seem to be locked in a stone room. The use of colour is very monochromatic. The artist has made use of black and white, two very structured colours which make the subjects seem cold and more like objects than subjects. The black stone seems to almost be over powering the white stone while the placement of these tiles creates a vertical line cutting through the composition. The artist has given the impression that the subjects had been carved by hand and then smoothed down. The two subjects have been placed directly in the centre making them the focal point. The scale of the two objects seems rather small within that big space however the male bust still seems slightly more powerful in this image. The use of short curved strokes has been to create a sort of texture in the