Marcel Duchamp And Marcel Hirst's Conceptual Art

the human eye. Visualize having the ability to completely free your imagination, letting your thoughts and desires wander to form exotic scenes or locations. These unfamiliar worlds lay deep inside of the brain as subconscious thoughts, usually undetected by the person with them in his or her possession. With the help of the intriguing art movement known as Surrealism, however, these subconscious thoughts are finally able to be brought to fruition. Surrealism is a unique style of art that originated in France with the help of brilliant writer André Breton (Chilvers 599). He defined surrealism and its principles as a “purely psychic automatism through which we undertake to express, in words, writing, or any other activity, the actual functioning of thought… Surrealism rests upon belief in the higher reality of specific forms of associations, previously neglected, in the omnipotence of dreams, and in the disinterested play of thinking” (Chilvers 599). He also strongly emphasized that its purpose was “to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality” (Chilvers 599). Surrealism is a 20th century style of painting which rebels against traditional notions of art. In order to understand this genre, it is necessary to examine the movement’s characteristics, representative

Surrealism is a movement that built off of the burgeoning look into art, psychology, and the workings of the mind. Popularly associated with the works of Salvador Dali, Surrealist art takes imagery and ideology and creates correlation where there is none, creating new forms of art. In this essay I will look to explore the inception of the surrealist movement, including the Surrealist Manifesto, to stress the importance of these artists and their work in the 20th century and beyond. I also will look to films from our European Cinema course to express how films incorporate the influence of surrealism both intentionally and unintentionally.

According to Oxford Dictionary, the definition of perfection is “The action or process of improving something until it is faultless.” In art, the striving for perfection has always been changing back and forth in a continuous cycle between realism and impressionism. Artworks that point to this idea include Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, and Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. Through Duchamp’s work, the viewer gets a face-to-face interaction with something that is not only unpleasant to see in a high-status establishment, but is not considered “proper”. He has imposed his artistic labor on this urinal. Additionally, with “R. Mutt” being signed on the side, which symbolizes poverty, the name forces

Abstraction is the creation of art without representation of objects, in which the artist has total freedom of the art that they are creating. I will be using three paintings from three different time periods in order to show the development and lasting effects of abstraction in the twentieth century. The first work that I will be looking at is Foghorns by Arthur Dove. I will use this piece to show the beginning of abstraction, and how ideas of abstraction were present before the movement began. The second painting that I will be looking at is Jackson Pollock’s Lucifer. I will be using this painting as an example of the height of abstraction in the 20th century and will be discussing Pollock’s influence on abstraction. The third piece of art I will be looking at is Many Mansion by Kerry James Marshall. I will use this work to show the remnants of Pollock’s influence, and the influence of abstraction in general, on art in the later half of the century. For the development of this paper I looked at two of the course readings. The first reading that I used was The Tradition of the New by Harold Rosenberg. I used this article to show how Foghorns by Arthur Dove relates to abstraction, and to show how ideas in creation of this painting can be linked to ideas of abstract art. The second reading that I used for this paper was The Legacy of Jackson Pollock by Alan Kaprow. I used this article to gain information about

Duchamp once said, "An artist should be a destroyer of tradition." By this he believed a persons artwork should be different than any other, causing it to stick out dramatically.

Visual opulence, creativity, inimitable vision, and a style that is highly influential are the many characteristics of an admired movement in art history, that being of the Post-Impressionism movement (1875-1892). This movement, which was a by-product of the Impressionism movement, is the bridging gap between the two movements known as Realism and Expressionism. Post-Impressionism takes on some of the stylistic characteristics of these movements; however, it does not contain the all too glossy visuals of Realism or the heavily fantastic visuals of Expressionism, rather it is the intermediary of these two poles. My paper will discuss why this link was absolutely essential to the history of art movements, and I will be specifically using the

Art throughout history have challenged the values and attitudes of their contemporary society. With a focus on the postmodern frame, Artists have used and changed art conventions such as the Salon des Refusés and using the world as a source of ideas to create artworks. These artists include Leonardo Da Vinci from the Renaissance movement and Claude Monet from the Impressionism movement. The artist Chiharu Shiota and Lee Bul have also used the art convention Biennale and the world agent to create “Conscious Sleep” and “Diluvium” respectively. Through the use the world as a source of ideas, artists with a focus on the postmodern frame have used art conventions to create artworks.

Abstract Expressionism was born in 1940’s New York when small group of loosely affiliated artists begin to create a body of work which varied in style, technique, and quality of expression. This stylistically diverse collection introduced radical new directions in art and completely shifted the art world’s focus. Although the works vary greatly, they do share several broad characteristics including the fact that they are based off non-representational forms, they emphasize spontaneous personal emotional expression, and they are all explorations into utilizing the physical characteristics of paint to evoke expressive qualities. Although female artists were among the group who pioneered the new artistic movement, they were left out of the narrative.

The analysis of art and visual culture has many analysts divided into different camps. From formalists to Marxists, there are as many different forms of art analysis as there are art movements. Different forms of analysis can divide theorists, driving them further apart. But different analyses can actually collaborate to create a stronger analysis. In Marina Abramovic’s piece Dragon Heads, different forms of analysis open the work up to deeper meaning. New meanings and interpretations are formed through the process of various different forms of analysis.

The art movement I have selected is the art movement of Surrealism. Surrealism artist Salvador Dali was greatly influenced by the works of other fellow Surrealism artists, including Joan Miro and Max Ernst. These artists greatly influence Salvador Dali’s artwork by applying theories of Sigmund Freud into their artwork in the form of fantasies and illusions. Ernst and Dali both put plenty of detail in their paintings with images of eerie, mysterious figures. Miro influences different shapes and distorted figures that can also be seen in some of Dali’s work. Dali’s art differs in contrast with his idols because Max Ernst used the technique of frottage by taking wood, fabric, or leaves and scraping them across the paper with paint to add texture to his paintings, in which Dali had not done to his. Dali didn’t paint both surrealism and abstract paintings like Joan Miro did because Miro used the technique of painting abstract animals, humans, and objects that were distorted, of which resembles that of dreams that were abnormal. Yet, Dali did paint abnormal dreams, but it isn’t considered abstract art.

In 1953, Robert Rauschenberg had the idea of adding drawing to his All White Series. However, drawing on these paintings, or anywhere, would defeat the purpose of this series, and so he came to the conclusion that the only way he could achieve this would be through erasure. He began experimenting with his own drawings, but still being a young artist it he didn’t think it would be considered art. For his idea to work, he thought, it had to be art that he erased. Having admiration and respect for artist Willem de Kooning, Rauschenberg decided to buy a bottle of Jack Daniels, and go to his house. Rauschenberg explained to de Kooning his idea, and asked if he could use a drawing of his. Reluctant, de Kooning agreed, only because he understood the idea. After looking through his portfolios, de Kooning handed Rauschenberg a drawing that he would miss, and that was almost impossible to erase. A month later, Rauschenberg successfully erased de Kooning’s drawing, and with the help of Jasper Johns, titled the piece in ink, and framed it. Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing can be seen as either a minimalist piece or conceptual piece. Through a clearer understanding of both movements, the aim of this essay is to show how this piece could be seen as a minimal piece or a conceptual piece, and to see which movement it leans more towards.

Most of us connect surrealism with art and images from Dali and his generation. However, the artists of the surrealist movement regard their work as an expression of the original philosophical movement with the works being an artefact that philosophy. André Breton was clearly in his view that surrealism was above all, a revolutionary and radical philosophical movement, explaining that is not a matter of aesthetics, but rather a way of thinking, a point of view (Waldberg 1997; Pass 2011:29-30).

In a ‘tradition breaking spirit’ [D’Alleva, 2012], that characterised modernist artists, early in the twentieth century, Duchamp abandoned traditional ideas and techniques, to create a new kind of ‘art’, one that the idea behind a work of art is more important that its visual realization, the ‘retinal’. The ready-mades was the product of Duchamp’s questioning what art is.

Minimalistic art had emerged in the early 1960’s and lasted mainly into the late 1960s and early 1970s. This type of art was created in order to make art totally objective, unexpressive, and non-referential. Minimalistic art was a response to Action Painting, which was personal and expressive. Two popular artists from this era are Dan Flavin and Carl Andre. Flavin used materials such as fluorescent light tubing to create art such as his work titled, “monument” for V. Tatlin, which was created in 1969. Also, Andre used unique manufactured industrial materials to create art. Some of the common materials he used were square plates or blocks made of aluminum, nickel, zinc, copper, steel, limestone, and wood. His art was created in how he lays the materials upon one another. An example of a piece of art created by Andre is “Sculpture as Place.” Minimalistic art was created in order to show materials as they are with little expressive or personal qualities, as artists Flavin and Andre did. Also, Minimalistic Art’s goal was to focus the viewer’s attention on the actual material rather than the artist’s emotion and influence.

“Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. “- Francis Bacon. However when I learnt more about history of art and the way each movement and happenings in the world inspired artist to make new works, I was able to see much more than just a canvas with random paints and sketches. The interesting part about this concept is that each piece of art could be interpreted in many different ways. In contemporary art there isn’t right and wrong, each of us view and find different meanings and connections with artworks.