Man Ray, film maker of Étoile de mer, began his career as an American painter and photographer. During his lifetime he became a prominent leader in the Dada and Surrealist society and was one of the only Americans to do this. He spent most of his career in photography; this is where he made his biggest impact on 20th century art. “The more commercial aspects of Many Ray’s photography provided him with a steady income. Famous as a portrait photographer, in the 1920s and 1930s he was also one of the foremost fashion photographers for magazines such as Harper’s Basaar, Vu and Vogue” (Foresta 2009). Man Ray was also very involved in avant-garde art. He worked with Duchamp and Katherine Dreier to co-found an organization called the Société Anonyme, which was “one of the first organizations to promote and collect avant-garde art” (Foresta 2009). After a while Ray began to feel like American’s were not appreciating his work for what it is and that never would, but Paris might.
At the beginning of Ray’s career he became very interested in European Contemporary art, so in order to pay for a trip to Paris he sold some of his paintings. Unlike most people who travel to Paris simply for vacation, Ray made it his home and lived there for 20 years. Although he may have been an American, the international Dada and Surrealist groups welcomed him with open arms. Some well-known names in these groups include, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernest, Dali, Paul Eluard, Picasso and André Breton. During WWII Ray was forced to move back to America and lived in Los Angeles until the war ended. In 1951 he moved back to Paris, where he lived out the rest of his life. Seeing as the Man Ray was a prominent leader in the Dada and Surrealist community, it ...
... middle of paper ...
... To be hones though, the film still confuses me. The most confusing part was the images of all the objects. I watched this scene on repeat several times to try and figure out what some of the stuff was just so I could understand. I still don’t really get it.
After watching it several times, I can say that really the film makes me feel sadness and that Ray and Desnos are trying to say that love can’t be trusted. The man seems as if he is in love with the woman and the woman in liking to the man, but when he leaves she can’t put up with it and moves on. I don’t question that love is really like this, but is that how people women? Are woman so fixated on the idea of having a man in their lives instead of actually falling in love with someone? Or are people of the opposite sex looked at as just another object in the world, beautiful and disposable at the same time?
...the predominant theme of disorientation and lack of understanding throughout the film. The audience is never clear of if the scene happening is authentic or if there is a false reality.
In the Enseigne, art is also shown to serve a function that it has always fulfilled in every society founded on class differences. As a luxury commodity it is an index of social status. It marks the distinction between those who have the leisure and wealth to know about art and posses it, and those who do not. In Gersaint’s signboard, art is presented in a context where its social function is openly and self-consciously declared. In summary, Watteau reveals art to be a product of society, nevertheless he refashions past artistic traditions. Other than other contemporary painters however, his relationship to the past is not presented as a revolt, but rather like the appreciative, attentive commentary of a conversational partner.
The neo-expressionist movement in America lasted from the late 70s and came to an end in the early 90s. The movement was a revival of expressionism, a style in which an artist portrays emotional experience into their work (Sandler, 227). It was also a response to the popular art style of the time called minimalism, which involved mostly blank canvases or lines. Neo-expressionism, on the other hand, was raw emotion and chaos. The main figures of the movement were Julian Schnabel, David Salle, and Ada Applebroog. A pioneer of the movement, and also the focus of this essay, is Jean-Michel Basquiat. His art referenced many famous artists and art pieces, from which he found inspiration. This inspiration was one of the features that made the movement
Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York to parents Gérard Basquiat and Matilde Andradas. Little did they know at the time that Jean-Michel Basquiat would soon go down as one of the most important contemporary painters continuing to leave a legacy for decades to come after his passing. Basquiat would live a difficult life and experience many hardships until he later dies of a heroin overdose, but what he experiences during his lifetime is what shaped the way Basquiat expressed himself through his art. Basquiat’s exceedingly personal and relatable art is what guided him to being such an influential artist. “His work is likely to remain for a long time as the modern picture of
This film also shows that people of different backgrounds can too be in love. This movie illustrates that even though there are differences between two people, doesn’t mean they cannot be together. In the world today, people of all different types are falling in love. This used to be unheard of, but is now becoming a way of life. I feel that this movie did a wonderful job of showing many aspects of love and the difficulties that people may come upon.
Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous and well-documented artists of the twentieth century. Picasso, unlike most painters, is even more special because he did not confine himself to canvas, but also produced sculpture, poetry, and ceramics in profusion. Although much is known about this genius, there is still a lust after more knowledge concerning Picasso, his life and the creative forces that motivated him. This information can be obtained only through a careful study of the events that played out during his lifetime and the ways in which they manifested themselves in his creations (Penrose).
...the story. It gives us no insight on why the characters were put in this position and why they would even end up being together if they know there will be no happy end. I don’t think it is a movie about love, just a slice of the lives of the two as it happens during that period. Ben is an alcoholic and because of the amount he is drinking, he can not be fully aware of his actions and decisions about what is going on around him. Sera is just a prostitute that loves having control over her clients and has gone through a lot of abuse and out of desperation takes in any guy that treats her humanely. In return for Ben’s loving, Sera slips in the role of the prostitute at the end when she pours liquor over her breasts and lets Ben lick it off fulfilling his greatest fantasy. The story is very slow at times and is not suitable for every audience. For some, it may be too vulgar, for others just too boring, but I believe Figgis and both actors did remarkable jobs. The story is obviously not meant to entertain or to be the typical Hollywood romance drama, but to show Sera and Ben’s relationship leading to isolation, anxiety and self-destruction because life does not always have a happy end.
Salvador Dali is a master of the art of surrealism and perhaps the world’s greatest Spanish artist. He is well known for his extraordinary bizarre paintings, where he depicts dream worlds that is illogical and irrational. One of Dali’s famous work is The Persistence of Memory, this painting explored the ideas about dreams, fantasies and fears. Most of the Dali’s painting is about his experience and his interests. Sigmund Freud was a big influence to Dali, He was fascinated about his psychoanalysis theories, it inspired him to develop a technique called paranoiac critical method where creating a work of art, it uses an active process of the mind to visualize images in the work and combine these into the final product (Wikipedia). In the early stages of Dali’s career most of his works are created on his hometown of Figueres, Spain on the rocky coastline of the Cadaques here
After the 1940 surrender of Paris, which many Americans viewed as the fall of culture due to Paris’ status as the international mecca for the arts, it was evident that the world required a new and superior cultural hub. Throughout the 1940s American artists, with the influence of European Modern and Surrealist painters, were able to elevate New York City to the center of the art world by implementing a “new, strong, and original” artistic style that simultaneously fought fascist ideology: Abstract Expressionism (Guilbault 65). After the war, galleries throughout Europe exhibited American Abstract art, Rothko’s in particular, to prove that American art, once thought tasteless, possessed artistic depth and merit (“Mark Rothko”). Therefore, Abstract Expression had a major role in making New York City the worldwide cultural metropolis that it is today. In terms of shifts in worldview, Abstract Expressionism placed a great importance on intense emotion and spirituality in a society where religiousness was, and continues to be, replaced by other, often self-centered or materialistic, pursuits. The movement allowed and encouraged the public to explore their darkest fears and woes, which, in the wake of the Second World War and, later on, during the Cold War was likely therapeutic. Above all else, it made society recognize that art should no longer be viewed with suspicion; instead, it should be accepted as an integral element of culture
In a time when artistic freedom was severely limited, the French Impressionists tirelessly explored new artistic frontiers despite hostile encounters with the public, ultimately redefining the world’s perspective on art.
The film Basquiat explores the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Haitian-Puerto Rican painting in New York City during the 1980s. Working closely with Andy Warhol, Basquiat was exploited for his unique “urban ghetto” graffiti and crude style of representation. Schnabel’s film further exploits this image of the painter, depicting him in various scenes of poverty and drug addiction, dirty poor love and desperation. Our understanding of the artist is framed by excerpts from essays by art critic Rene Ricard, depicted as a flaming homosexual who leeches off of his artistic friends. Ricard observes the hypocrisy and self-indulgence of the art scene that is vital to...
From a young age, Richard Avedon was exposed to fashion. But little did the small boy sitting in his father’s 5th Avenue womens’ clothing store know, that he would later become the worlds’ biggest fashion photographer. He was born in New York City in 1923 to Jacob Avedon a Russian immigrant who worked his way up in the city to finally own his own clothing store. Avedon’s mother, Anna, was a musical and artsy woman who was his artistic muse. His sister, Louise, was also an inspiration to him. As a child, he constantly took pictures of his beautiful sister, his first model. His interest in photography began after joining a photography club at his local Young Men's Hebrew Association. After graduating high school in 1941, Richard attended Columbia University to study philosophy and poetry, but after just one year, he dropped out to enlist in the military marines. In the marines,he was a photographer in World War Two, taking pictures for identification cards.
This paper deals, in broadest terms, with the questions of how artwork is connected to the changes and dynamics that prevail in a society. To describe these changes, I will investigate how a specific type of art reflects its social content in contemporary societies. My analysis is carried out by closely looking at the Pop Art movement, especially with Andy Warhol, who has come to be known as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. It will be argued that Pop Art managed to successfully articulate its time, and in so doing, it became a widely influential art movement whose effect is still very much existent in today’s world of art. In order to prove its claim, this paper relies on the theory of “the field of cultural production” by Pierre
Sophie Calle, professor of film and photography at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, is a renowned contemporary French artist. Sophie Calle is also a photographer of considerable acumen. As an educationist she has taught photography since 2005 at post-graduate level. Born in Paris, France in October of 1953, Sophie Calle is daughter to the also renowned Robert Calle. In her biography posted on the university page (www.egs.edu), it is claimed that the early associations and integration into her father’s social circles exposed her to a number of artists who influenced her decision to become an artist herself. Sophie Calle became an artist back in the 70’s and has since then recorded a myriad of artworks that includes writings, poetry, pictures and paintings. This essay will try to examine the underlying theme existent in the works of Sophie Calle as a means of better understanding her person. For the purpose of this essay, mainly the photographic works of Sophie shall be discussed.
...t is Impressionism. We see that without Paris and its artists there would have been be no break from the traditions and regulations laid down by the L’École des Beaux-Arts and Le Salon. Without Paris the movement would not have gained the recognition that it did. It was aided by the industrial revolution, the Haussmann project, the growth of le café and the revenue from trade by Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. We also note how Paris was highly influential in the subjects of impressionist paintings. We see how the camera and colour theory influenced their work as well as how the modern cityscape and social interactions consumed their creations. Even today Paris plays a role in Impressionism. Its museums house some of the greatest examples of period impressionist work on view, showing that nearly two centuries later Paris is still at the heart of Impressionism.