Need Help, Oh Artsy Ones!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

I love art, really I do, but I just don't "get" surrealism. I find it strange and somewhat disturbing at times.

Quite often the point of surrealism is to show a strange, disturbing point of view.

Anyone can take what they see and draw/paint/sculpt/film a version of it, to varying levels of success, of course. Most argue that good art not only reflects, it also gives the viewer a new way of looking at the subject. That is the very basic way that I look at surrealism.

GD brought up Magritte - here's my favorite one of his, titled The Kiss:



I saw this in person and was blown away by the idea of it. It fills my head with meanings. I think of it as showing that outward acts of affection don't mean everything, that many relationships have invisible boundaries, that a kiss is a kiss no matter who the kissers are...there are many ways to look at it. (I have never looked up the "official" interpretations and I intend not to.) A drawing of two normal people kissing would never have this impact on anyone.

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

According to Alex's rules, I can just take a decapitated mannequin, add a watermelon to the top of its neck, place it on a giant toothbrush that is floating in the middle of the ocean with a giant eyeball overhead with sunbeams emitting from its iris. And then title it something like, "Humanity".

You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you discarded this opportunity to try something new and instead made a joke of it. As someone who was not raised on art, never did much formal study, and now loves the more challenging aspects of it, I think everyone should give surrealism a real shot. There are many different artists, many different ways to enter it, and I can practically guarantee that there is some artist somewhere that can provide a good connection for you.

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Quite often the point of surrealism is to show a strange, disturbing point of view.

I would say a strange OR disturbing point of view because I don't find surrealism to be all disturbing. Strange is a term that i think can easily be applied to most of it. I find a lot of surrealist work very beautiful - like a strange yet calming dream. That's the connection with the unconscious that surrealism is making. I think some of us have more violent dreams than others - dreams that probably come out of our sub-conscious.

To add in a Disney element - beyond the obvious Disney/Dali Destino collaboration - Thru the Mirror is wonderfully surrealist and it could be argued that The Scorcer's Apprentice has elements of surrealism.

[flippyshark]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

To add in a Disney element - beyond the obvious Disney/Dali Destino collaboration - Thru the Mirror is wonderfully surrealist and it could be argued that The Scorcer's Apprentice has elements of surrealism.

Add 'Pink Elephants On Parade' from Dumbo, 'Heffalumps and Woozles' from Winnie The Pooh and the Blustery Day, pretty much all of Alice In Wonderland, big chunks of The Three Caballeros and Saludos Amigos.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you discarded this opportunity to try something new and instead made a joke of it.

I'm superior to you, for you have not accepted the value of my art.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Alex

I'm superior to you, for you have not accepted the value of my art.

Your art is valuable, indeed. Let's have a look at your first work in this thread.

Or take the amateurs route (AKA "The Street Fair School") to surrealism:

1. Do or make something that makes no sense.
2. Look smug when presenting it.
3. Act superior to those who would question its merits as art.

At first blush, it may seem that the post is simply poking holes in the basic concept of surrealism as "art". On closer inspection, one word stands out - "amateurs". Besides the obvious grammatical issue (which I'm sure is intentional, right, Alex?) it points out that only amateurs would consider this a route to surrealism. (No offense to Disneyphile - this thread itself is a way of claiming amateur status). By stating as such, instead of subverting surrealism it is reaffirming surrealism as a learned art form.

Of course the real art form at hand is the art form of the Message Board Post, which, I daresay, most of us mastered many years ago.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Your art is valuable, indeed.

And thus you've deprived me of my artiness. For having been made sense of, it no longer is.

It's a said day in Farmville for I have lost my Street Fair booth license and am left able only to frolic among the pinwheels of passion and temperance.

[Disneyphile]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

(No offense to Disneyphile - this thread itself is a way of claiming amateur status).

None taken. I'm absolutely not ashamed to say I don't know something and ask for help.

This thread is really helping. I'm finding I really like Magritte - it's very intriguing, rather than WTF, like Dali.

An especially big thanks to those who made the Disney examples. That's putting it in a language I can understand.

So, all of this is really helping me gather ideas for my project. I knew I came to the right place.

[Ghoulish Delight]

A discussion of modern surrealism is not complete without mention of Haruki Murakami. He's a Japanese novelist, many of us on the board have mentioned his books a lot (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase, Kafka on te Shore). Very accessible writing that definitely epitomizes surrealism. On the American side, Kurt Vonnegut definitely makes use of a surrealist elements in his writing.

[bewitched]

If Dali intrigues you, in layman's language, I would define his surrealism as where reality meets the unlimited boundaries of dreams.

Kind of like where something happens in a dream that you know is impossible in real life yet there you are in a dream reality where it does, indeed, exist.

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

Surrealism continues to exists in modern film and literature......with authors who add elements of magical realism like Garcia Marquez, Rushdie, Murakami, and Allende.

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

A discussion of modern surrealism is not complete without mention of Haruki Murakami. He's a Japanese novelist, many of us on the board have mentioned his books a lot (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase, Kafka on te Shore). Very accessible writing that definitely epitomizes surrealism.