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Surrealism & Magical Realism
Final
44
Art History
Undergraduate 3
05/15/2019

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Cards

Term
Semana de Arte
Definition
1920's "Week of Art" festival in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Featured condemned artists (for being modern)

Pushed back against the popular conservative art of the time

Featured work by Tarsila do Armaral & Oswald de Andrade
Term
Pau Brazil
Definition
Wood was used in framing modern art in a Brasilidade way because it was distinct from any wood found in Europe

(Example: "A Cuca" by Tarsila do Amaral)
Term
Antropofagia (Anthropophagite)
Definition
Based on a manifesto written by Oswald de Andrade The idea that European presence cannot be avoided, but can be absorbed and expressed in a purely Brazilian way Centered around Tarsila do Amaral's "Aba Poru" (man eats; cannibalism)
Term
Brasilidade
Definition
The use of Brazilian concepts & subjects in art to rebel against European assimilation.
Term
[image]
Definition
"Antropofagia"
Tarsila do Amaral

A highly stylized depiction that represented raceless, genderless, and monumental figures.

Large foot repetition, signifying deep connection with Brazilian soil

Single breast representative of indigenous women warriors who bound one breast for better use of a bow
Term
1940 International Exhibition of Surrealism
Definition
Located in Mexico City

Designed to bring more Surrealist artists to Mexico (It did put Surrealists on the map, but Mexico favored non-European artists of the time

Took place at a new gallery & a first in modern art

Was declared "Surrealism by Recipe"

Had a problematic exhibition of pre-Columbian sculpture, but they were featured separate from (predominantly white) Surrealist artists and they were not displayed in context.
Term
[image]
Definition
Diego Rivera's spread for Minotaure magazine

Minotaure helped to unify Surrealist expats

Diego Rivera's art for the centerfold champions pre-Columbian culture
Term
[image]
Definition
Was called a "fake" for his use of biomorphism & surrealism aesthetic without the use of automatism

Also received backlash for not representing Mexican culture

Menacing
Term
Luis Bunuel's "Exterminating Angel"
Definition
Considered the first Surrealist film for its use of nonsensical content, repetition, dream-like state, and chaos.

Criticized the upper class, challenged societal norms, and had an overall commentary on morality
Term
[image]
Definition
"Portrait of Max Ernst"
Leonora Carrington

Created when Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst shared an art home in France

Depicted Max Ernst as his menacing alter-ego, Loplop and Leonora Carrington's alter -ego the white horse
Term
[image]
Definition
"Message"
Remedios Varo

Collage; represented women as objects and women in domestic work, possibly even women pleasing women
Term
DYN
Definition
Magazine founded in Mexico by Wolfgang Paalen that only had 5 issues but was very influential

Considered itself a counteraction to Surrealism ("farewell to Surrealism") & tried to be more scholarly

Was written only in French and English to target Americans & Europeans
Term
VVV
Definition
Breton's surrealism journal in exile, also very influential despite it's brevity

Allowed for the sharing of ideas, inspirations & enlightenment among exiled artists (and other artists!) during WWII

Allowed for increased access to art, esp. underrepresented artists
Term
[image]
Definition
Articulated Cloud
Wolfgang Paalen

Surrealist-inspired sculpture created before Paalen's departure from Surrealism

Very unlike his more well-known style of fumage and total abstraction
Term
[image]
Definition
Fumage, 1945
Wolfgang Paalen

Painting where Paalen utilized a fumage technique, but unlike Surrealists did not develop the forms further.

Exemplar of Paalen's Dynaton vision; to utilize automatism for total abstraction & allow audience interpretation
Term
[image]
Definition
"Ballad for Frida Kahlo"
Alice Rahon

Rahon felt unified to Frida Kahlo through fragility, thus dedicating this painting to her

She utilized sgraffito and unconventional materials to create her work; a style that wasn't being used by other modernist painters at this time

She also utilized an open orientation, and drew inspiration from cave paintings
Term
Miguel Covarrubias
Definition
Graphic illustrator known for his caricatures done for Vanity Fair

Also wrote archaelogical essays on sites in Mexico, some of the first written. (Featured in DYN; La Venta: Collosal Heads & Jaguar Gods)

Did a series of themed map murals for the Golden Gate International Exhibition in SF; a sort of propaganda to inspire unity through mutual feelings and respect against axis powers.
Term
Dynaton
Definition
Art movement started by Gordon Onslow Ford, Wolfgang Paalen, Lee Mullican and Jaqueline Johnson

Jaqueline Johnson describes the movement in "Taking Sight"

General idea was to unleash the imagination through the use of non-representational art to discover "the possible."

A New Vision in Painting Exhibition exhibited works related to Dynaton, was artist curated, but critics couldn't see how the art reflected the vision.
Term
[image]
Definition
Space
Lee Mullican

Painting created using Mullican's striation technique, where he does ver textured sgraffito using a palate knife.

Mullican created these works through automatism and meditation. He was also inspired by textiles and his previous career creating topographical maps.
Term
S.S. Vallejo
Definition
Founded by Gordon Onslow Ford and Jean Varda

An old ferry boat that was turned into an inexpensive art studio/community in Saulsalito. It became a hub for artists and important figures like Maya Angelou and Alan Watts. Was very influential for Surrealism, Dynaton and the beat movement.
Term
[image]
Definition
"Constellations in Hand"
Gordon Onslow Ford

A painting by Ford that was inspired by Hodo Tobase's calligraphy. It has a space-like theme, and treads the line between total abstraction and representational

Exemplar of Ford's fascination with space and the possible
Term
[image]
Definition
The Blizzard
Jeanne Reynal

Shattered glass mosaic done for the Nebraska State Capital building

A good example of Reynal's criticized "hap-hazard" aesthetic and unconventional mosaic work that featured muted palates and often incorporated found objects.
Term
[image]
Definition
J.B. Blunk's home in Inverness

Woodworker Blunk's creative home inspired by Isamo Nuguchi, where he built everything in a way the broke architectural norms, utilized found objects, and broke down categories for art objects and objects of function.
Term
Agnes Varda's "Uncle Yanco, 1967"
Definition
Varda received honorary Academy Award as the first french New Wave film maker

Film portrays Uncle Yanco as a living art example; also reflects his celebration of life and color through saturated color tones and footage of him among followers and devotees
Term
[image]
Definition
Abstraction
Jean Varda

Exemplar of Varda's mission to celebrate life and color

Utilized a painted over collage technique

Drew inspiration from Greece
Term
Louise and Walter Arnesburg
Definition
Collectors of modern art and patrons/devotees to Duchamp

Collected over 1500 works of modern art in their home museum, most of which they loaned to galleries in California and offered tours of on site.
Term
Marcel Duchamp's Retrospective
Definition
Exhibition of Duchamp's life work held in Pasadena and curated by Walter Hopps that "reignited his fame."

Influenced artists in L.A. and helped bring Modern art to the west coast.

Gave way to more retrospectives.
Term
Walter Hopps
Definition
Curator/Director of the Pasadena Art Gallery

Also partnered in the Ferus Gallery that showcased modern art works by Andy Warhol and Lichtenstein

Helped educate L.A. on modern art to encourage patronage
Term
WPA
Definition
Works Progress Association - infrastructure and public works initiative started by FDR that was inspired by Mexico during the New Deal

Federal Art Project mission was to provide work and wages to artists while bringing art to the communities that represented profession & public works

Utilized a blind commission process that opened doors for POC and women

Community funded

Unorganized and at times problematic
Term
[image]
Definition
"Medicine and Transportation"
Thelma Johnson Streat

WPA sponsored mural created in an abstracted and simplifed way.

Streat "didn't play it safe," and depicted AA in various professions throughout the mural that they would normally not be associated with

Went against the overwhelming white narrative of WPA murals
Term
[image]
Definition
"Mechanics of Flying"
Arshile Gorky

WPA sponsored mural within an airport that was mostly covered up for being too abstracted

Most people wanted to see "heroic" American art and considered abstraction too European / degenerate
Term
Post Surrealism
(Neoclassicism)
Definition
Art movement with manifesto written by Helen Lundeberg and Lorser Feitelson that juxtaposed unrelated objects to encourage viewers to interpret scenes in a new way. Perceptual versus conceptual.

Had a lot of aesthetic similarities to Surrealism but with a neoclassical approach.

Did not utilize automatism or represent dreams.
Term
[image]
Definition
"The Life of Washington"
Victor Arnautoff

WPA sponsored mural in a highschool that continues to strike controversy for its content.

Arnautoff deliberately paints controvercial murals that push back against a white-washed history; depicts Washington as a slave holder and his conflicts among the indigenous peoples of America.
Term
[image]
Definition
"San Francisco Life"
Lucien Labaudt

Wall-to-wall mural commissioned during the Great Depression that he deliberately depicted idyllic and unaffected to show disparity between the rich and the poor.

Mural has an overall sense of foreboding through use of forced awkwardness, creepy characters, flattened space, and off-colored flesh tones.

Also features Henry Bridges, a controversial radical figurehead of the time.
Term
[image]
Definition
"Self Portrait, 1944"
Helen Lundeberg

Self portrait that is exemplar for post-surrealism aims. Lundeberg depicts herself as a both an artist and a magnifier or revealer of the possible.

Painting displays Lundeberg very much in control, and includes her hands manipulating the planet-inspired objects; woman as a creator.
Term
Magic Realism
Definition
A style (not a movement) that utilizes relational objects that are anecdotal and hep tell a story
Term
[image]
Definition
"Dowager in a Wheelchair"
Phillip Evergood

Painting that is an exemplar for Evergood's style; he often portrays a juxtaposition between life and death, joy and suffering. He was interested in depicting reality and highlighting economic disparity.
Term
[image]
Definition
"The Congo Queen"
Hector Hippolyte

Painting that blended Christian and Haitian iconography

It was painted with rooster feathers, which are vital for Voodoo rituals (DeWitt misinterpreted this as Hippolyte's only means for a paintbrush)

It rebels against a colonial interpretation of the Virgin Mary
Term
DeWitt Peters
Definition
Employed by the office of inter-American affairs, aimed at building infrastructure and developing countries that were of interest to the US

Founded Center D'Arts; decided that Haiti had no art scene (though it did) and helped to bring awarness to Haitian art-- but focused only on the "primitve" style that was of interest to the Americans (as opposed to the existing french romantic landscapes)
Term
Centre d'Art, Port au Prince
Definition
Funded by US & Haiti to showcase a very specific style of art in Haiti that was mis-dubbed as "primitive," for it's use of color and simplified abstracted forms.
Term
[image]
Definition
"Franklin D. Roosevelt Interceding in the Beyond for the Peace in the Americas"
Philome Obin

Painting that was underappreciated in its time by Obin, a predecessor of Hippolyte.

It was not popular because it didn't depict voodoo-related subjects (Obin was a Baptist) and as a result was considered not Haitian.
Term
Alfred Hitchcock, "Spellbound"
(with dream sequence by Salvador Dali)
Definition
A surrealist-inspired film based on the Freudian idea that the subconscious mind will lock away suppressed thoughts that need to be brought out through automatism and dream interpretation

Dali's dream scene was originally 20 minutes long and filled with very unfeasible ideas (suspended grande pianos, etc.)--also payed homage to other Surrealist artists, such as Rene Magritte, Max Ernst, and George DeChirico.
Term
[image]
Definition
"Five Beauties Rising"
Willie Cole

Print of "iron board warriors," based on and named after women in Cole's life, Savannah Georgia, and South Carolina.

Technique explores relational aesthetics between ironing board, irons, and their uses and users.

Imprints from irons and ironing boards often are juxtaposed with imagery of slave ships and drew inspiration from African masks
Term
Matt Mullican, "Performance: Under Hypnosis"
Definition
A performance-based art that alligned with Surrealism through it's use of hypnosis inspired automatism

Explored the idea of what is real and who is the real self

Mullican's forms created during hypnosis were reminiscent of his father's work as well
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