Surrealism project research

The layout and theme in my sketchbook and portfolio is always something i try to match to the project. When recieving this assignment, I knew alot of research would be needed to understand some of the key artists, the Dada art movement and some history. This gave me a great base to produce my own work inspired by some of these artists; look out for this in my next post!

Firstly, i composed a list of artists i wanted research and then colected images and facts about them to help give me an understanding of this vast and confusing topic. Here are some of the artists i choose to look at, and some annotations about them. I hope this helps to give you some information about surrealism, about a key artist or some inspiration for colour and texture when creating a layout. Enjoy! 

Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War 1. I mainly focused on the collages and one 3-D piece in my research, as these show the mechanical vs human interpration in 1920. The right hand collage also represents the shell shock of the soldiers after world war 1.

 

Salvador Dali, probably one of the most well known surrealist artists, is one of my favourites. His use of exploring the unconcious and sleeping mind intrigues me, particularly in his most famous piece ' the persistence of memory'. His work is difficult to interprate, which makes his paintings interesting to decifer and the colours and shapes use always work well and are phenomonaly painted! 

René Magritte is another one of my favourites, because of his backgrounds and common themes. He often uses brick walls, or curtains in his backgrounds, and his famous piece 'c'est n'est pas une pipe' (it is not a pipe) is a definate favourite due to the simplicity and literal meaning of the painting. 

Roberto Matta's work is very interesting. Matta broke with the conventions of the surrealist movement by adding a dimension of social and political awareness to his artwork, and quickly became one of Chile's best known painters and an important figure in 20th century abstract, expressionist and surrealist art.

Lucas Samaras began making boxes out of found objects in the early 1960's. I dont want to give away to much as tomorrows post will be about him and my work inspired by his... So come back tomorrow for more on Samaras!!!

I hope you enjoyed this post, sorry it was longer than usual but i had alot to say! Stay tuned for tomorrows 'Samaras' inspired post, and as always, stay creative guys! :)