Creative Suite

Art Movements: Dadaism

Dadaism was an art and cultural movement that developed in 1916 through an agreement between a group of young artists in Zurich, Switzerland. It was the time of war. In fact, the first World War was ongoing during those times. The movement started with that fateful gathering of poets, writers, painters and other young artists who protested to the ongoing war around the world. These young artists believed that the war started because of the rationalization, intellectual rigidity, reason and logic, aside from bourgeois interests led to the horrors of war. They believed that rejecting logic and embracing irrationality would bring about the change in the situation of the ongoing war. With this belief, the Dada movement was born.

Dadaism in art was actually considered by its proponents as “anti-art”. Dadaists protested against accepted conventions and the academic and cultured aspects of art. What traditional art tried to represent, Dadaists tried to represent the opposite. If traditional artists strived for putting some air of meaning in their art works, Dadaists made artworks with no perceptible meaning or, at least, didn’t convey any particular message. Dadaist artworks can be interpreted differently by different people, depending entirely on the perceptions of the viewer.

What helped in the rapid spreading of the Dadaist movement is the fact that it was formed by artists from different nationalities. Switzerland was a neutral country to the ongoing war which became the ideal location for exiles of other countries affected by the war. This included the young artists who came from different European countries affected by the war. After the war ended sometime during 1918 that the Zurich Dadaists went back to their home countries and spread the philosophies and beliefs of the movement to others. The movement eventually spread into other European countries such as France, Germany, The Netherlands and eventually found its way into the US via New York.

It the way that Dadaism tried to approach its art- that of rejecting traditional aesthetics and culture- it became a big influence in the development of future art movements such as Surrealism and other forms of Modernism art. Among its influential members include Marcel Duchamp who was a French artist who became an American citizen and helped shaped the development of post-WWII Western art. He is best known for exhibiting a urinal as art and named it “Fountain”. Max Ernst was another artist that was a noted Dadaist. He was known as a mixed media artists and was also known to have developed the art technique called frottage in which a pencil or other drawing tool is being used to capture an a textured image on paper by rubbing the said tool into the textured surface of the image.

Man Ray is also a noted Dadaist. Even though he considered himself first and foremost as a painter, he was more famous for his contributions in avant-garde photography most notably for his fashion and portrait photographs. His works in film, painting, sculpture, assemblage among other media were also known to be the the first examples of what became known as in the art circles as performance or conceptual art.

Add comment April 17th, 2007

Art Movements: Impressionism

Impressionism as an art movement came out in France sometime during the mid 19th century that began to go against the rules of academic painting. During that time, the most popular paintings were then created following the rules and standards instituted by the influence of European schools of art. Impressionism was borne out of going against the stylistic as well as the technical standards that academic art was known for.

A few Paris-based artists during the 1860’s were beginning to go against the rigid and detailed standard artworks that prevailed then. Many were more focused in recreating art through the use of accepted norms and principles of line and color. The Impressionism art movement advocated the art of quick on-the-spot painting, something that academic painters then abhor. Early Impressionist painters began instituting importance of color over line. Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on the effects of light and its changes, ordinary subject matter and unusual visual angles.

The term “Impressionism” was first coined by the growing art movement’s critic Louis Leroy in one of his satiric reviews. He took it from the title of one of Claude Monet’s painting named “Impression: Sunrise” in order to poke fun at the exhibit of the painter’s works sometime in 1874. The term eventually became the word that described the upcoming art movement.

Impressionism aimed to capture what the eye can see at first glance. Impressionist painters became interested in capturing how certain subjects appear in different light settings at different times of the day. Impressionism also started the practice of using pure and unmixed color on canvas and not blending them as was the custom then. To get a certain color mix, Impressionists would brush two colors separately and let the colors play together in the eyes of the viewer to create a different hue. Impressionist also began painting more realistic scenes instead of dramatic compositions as their subject matter. The paintings try to emphasize overall effects of the subject matter rather than the intricate details.

Claude Monet was considered as the leading figure of the Impressionist movement. It was after one of his paintings that the movement was named after. Monet was particularly interested in trying to capture the momentary effects of light and color on his paintings. He was also known for doing a series of paintings on one subject matter but depicted in different light and weather conditions. Among his famous works were his “Water Lilies” painting series which was done at his own lily pond garden in Giverny. Also as famous are his “Haystacks” series, a collection of paintings of haystacks as seen at different times of the day.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was also one of the noted Impressionist painters. He was known for his paintings of women and groups of people in simple and ordinary settings. Renoir was known for his paintings in vibrant light as well as saturated color in which his female nudes are cited as examples. Another noted Impressionist painter was Mary Cassatt who was famous for painting women, emphasizing on the intimate bonds seen between mothers and their children.

Add comment April 17th, 2007