1930's Realism, Surrealism and Abstraction.
TMA04 is safely tucked in its envelope and has involved me in a journey through the 1930's - but what have I seen?! Well the question asked me to investigate each of the above art forms for their view on reality! I guess then that what I've seen is the 1930's almost in Cubist style from three different angles at the same time!
My first view was that given to me by the 'realists', lead by their instruction from Stalin to be the 'engineers of souls' and to glorify the working man, the revolution, and utopian future that would be there for all under communism. Strange as it may seen today, this idea found a resonance in the Depression years in the United States of America, as this form of realism was translated into a political tool to raise spirits and unite the nation. I looked particularly at the work of Ben Shahn, photographer and artist, whose work was linked to exposing social injustice.
The second angle, Surrealism, brought to me the harsh painful view of the Spanish Civil war and the oppresion of fascism with Picasso's Guernica. Its distorted figures, its silent scream, and its shards of pain and suffering. Although showing no naturalistic realism through its Cubist fragmentation and Surrealist distortion it delivers a view of reality that can leave no viewer in doubt as to the darkness of mans inhumanity to man. In Picasso's own words 'Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth'.
Finally, from what many claimed to be the empty and meaningless world of abstraction, the artist Ben Nicholson reveals his view, that abstract art is like religion, a quest for ultimate reality, offering a view of those ideas and beliefs that are intangible, but that affect the lives of millions, and demonstrated how those ideas perculate through to the everyday life of the common man, as aeroplanes, cars, refrigerators, electric torches, and lipstick holders! Together they converge in what many would see as a jumbled confusion, but others would see as a view of the complex political and technological world of the 1930's!
My first view was that given to me by the 'realists', lead by their instruction from Stalin to be the 'engineers of souls' and to glorify the working man, the revolution, and utopian future that would be there for all under communism. Strange as it may seen today, this idea found a resonance in the Depression years in the United States of America, as this form of realism was translated into a political tool to raise spirits and unite the nation. I looked particularly at the work of Ben Shahn, photographer and artist, whose work was linked to exposing social injustice.
The second angle, Surrealism, brought to me the harsh painful view of the Spanish Civil war and the oppresion of fascism with Picasso's Guernica. Its distorted figures, its silent scream, and its shards of pain and suffering. Although showing no naturalistic realism through its Cubist fragmentation and Surrealist distortion it delivers a view of reality that can leave no viewer in doubt as to the darkness of mans inhumanity to man. In Picasso's own words 'Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth'.
Finally, from what many claimed to be the empty and meaningless world of abstraction, the artist Ben Nicholson reveals his view, that abstract art is like religion, a quest for ultimate reality, offering a view of those ideas and beliefs that are intangible, but that affect the lives of millions, and demonstrated how those ideas perculate through to the everyday life of the common man, as aeroplanes, cars, refrigerators, electric torches, and lipstick holders! Together they converge in what many would see as a jumbled confusion, but others would see as a view of the complex political and technological world of the 1930's!
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