Unit 2 Exploring The Methods of Presenting The Art Subject

Unit 2: Exploring the Methods of Presenting the Art Subject
Unit 2
Exploring the Methods of Presenting
the Art Subject
Introduction
Artists are considered persons with the talent and the skills to
conceptualize and make creative works. They have sharp senses, which
anywhere and everywhere they can just pick out subject/s with delighted stories.
They see things in different forms but have one vision and that is to inspire people
through their creative works. They try to effectively express or convey more their
messages.
Thus, this Unit introduces you the methods in which the artists can use in
presenting their art subjects making them more inspiring and stimulating.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the session, you will be able to:
a. Identify and describe the characteristics of different methods of
presenting the art subject, and
b. Research the work of an artist (historical or contemporary) whose
work responds to the politics, social mores, or significant local or
international events of their time.
Activating Prior Knowledge
Have a closer look at the three pictures below, then name the subjects used
by the artists. In what way did the artists convey messages?
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Presentation of Content
In the given activity above, you learned that the artists used various methods
in presenting their subjects just to express the ideas they wanted to share. This
means that the manner of representing subject varies according to the intent and
inventiveness of each artist.
What are the methods in presenting art subject?

The following are the commonly used methods in presenting the art subject:
1. Realism
Realism, in the arts, is the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of
nature or of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favour
of a close observation of outward appearances
(https://www.britannica.com/art/realism-art).
Fernando Amorsolo was a Filipino painter active in the early half of the
20th century whose masterful handling of light made him one of Asia’s most
prominent portraitists and landscape artists. His compositions often depict the
traditional culture, customs and celebrations of the Filipino community. Popularly
known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light, he was regarded as the
Father of Philippine Realism for his numerous realistic paintings.
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After returning to Manila, Amorsolo set up a studio and began an

enormously productive period. Using subject matter that he had
borrowed from Fabian de la Rosa – scenes of rice planting and
harvesting — he created a series of paintings that captured the popular
imagination. His 1922 painting Rice Planting soon appeared on calendars,
posters, and travel brochures.
2. Abstraction
Abstract art is an art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction
of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to
achieve its effect.
Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in

art. Abstraction exists along a
continuum; abstract art can A rice harvesting scene by Fernando Amorsolo
formally refer to
compositions that are
derived (or abstracted)
from a figurative or
other natural source.
Picasso is a well-
known artist who used
abstraction in many of
his paintings and
sculptures: figures are
often simplified,
distorted, exaggerated,
or geometric
(https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sac-artappreciation/chapter/oer-1-4/).
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Girl Before Mirror was

painted in March 1932. It was
produced in the style Picasso was
using at the time and evoked an image
of Vanity such as had been utilized in
art in earlier eras, though Picasso
shifts the emphasis and creates a very
different view of the image. The work
is considered in terms of the erotic in
Picasso's art, and critics in different
periods have offered their assessments
of the work to show a wide range of
reactions.
The young girl was named

Marie Therese Walter and was
painted multiple times during the
1930's by Picasso
(https://www.pablopicasso.org/girl-
Pablo Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror,
before-mirror.jsp). 1932, MOMA
Photo by Sharon Mollerus CC BY
Abstraction has been presented in different manners such as:

A. Distortion
A distortion is a change, twist, or exaggeration that makes something
appear different from the way it really is. You can distort an image, a thought, or
even an idea (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/distortion).
Distortion is the alteration of the original shape of something, be it a person

or an object. While this is normally not the desired outcome in most instances, it is
exactly what artists who use the technique want
(https://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/distortion).
Henry Moore sculptures are tangled representations of the human figure

stretched and distorted. Considering Moore was a war artist, how could this link to
the concept of 'disorder'.
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Woman with two mouth Kenneth Clark: Looking For Henry

lying on the Couch Moore Recumbent Figure
B. Elongation
"Elongation art" refers to paintings that feature figures that are painted with
their forms elongated much more than they are in reality. Elongation is a form of
abstract art that often depicts the stretched forms of people or objects in nature.
Among the artists who created elongation art was early 20th-century artist
Amedeo Modigliani, who is renowned for his use of elongation in portraits as well
as more abstract paintings. Some other artists known for using elongation in their
paintings are modern African-American painter Ernie Barnes and Italian
Renaissance artist Parmigianino, who is noted for the painting "Madonna of the
Long Neck (https://www.reference.com/art-literature/meaning-elongation-art-
relation-painting-47ea573325c5899f).
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Madonna with the Long Neck is

typical of Parmigianino's later work,
which was defined by unusual spatial
compositions and elongated figures. The
painting is also known as Madonna and
Child with Angels and St Jerome but
earned the name Madonna with the Long
Neck because of the curious length of the
Madonna's swan-like neck.
The Madonna does not have

normal human proportions; her neck,
shoulders and fingers have all been
elongated to make her appear more
elegant and graceful. Her hair is also
elaborately curled and decorated with
pearls to frame her beautiful face and
complexion. The robes she is wearing are
luxurious and flowing.
Madonna of the Long Neck Parmigianino
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Resurrection, 1584-94 by El Greco by

El Greco
Looking more like a creation from the twenty-first century than the
sixteenth, The Resurrection by El Greco stands out as a work ahead of its time. The
dramatically elongated figures, bold colors and loose brush strokes were considered
somewhat odd in the Baroque period in which it was painted. But El Greco
considered spiritual expression to be more important than public opinion and it was
in this way that he developed a unique style that has allowed him to be regarded as
one of the great geniuses of Western art
(http://www.dianablake.net/ArtHistoryArticles/ElGrecoResurrection.htm).
C. Mangling
This may not be a commonly used way of presenting an abstract subject,

but there are few artists who show subject or objects which are cut, lacerated,
mutilated, torn, hacked or disfigured.
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The Mangled Man is a painting by Michael Noeltner which

was uploaded on October 29th, 2011.
D. Cubism
One of the most influential art movements of the early twentieth century
and one that remains a major source of inspiration for many artists today is Cubism.
Cubism marked a major turning point in the whole evolution of modernist art.
In the field of literature, its influence was most notably in the writings of
Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and William Faulkner, who applied the principles of
abstract language, repetition and use of multiple narrators. And, in music, the
composer Igor Stravinsky credited Cubism for having an impact on his work
(https://manhattanarts.com/what-is-cubism/).
This movement was pioneered by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973) and

Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963. The Cubist painters rejected the inherited
concept that art should copy nature, or that artists should adopt the traditional
techniques of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening. They dismantled
traditional perspective and modeling in the round in order to emphasize the two-
dimensional picture plane. They reduced and fractured objects into geometric
forms, and then realigned these within a shallow, relief-like space.
This painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, was painted in 1907 and is
the most famous example of cubism painting. In this painting, Picasso abandoned
all known form and representation of traditional art. When it first exhibited in 1916,
the painting was regarded as immoral
(https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm).
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The painting presents us

with an uncomfortable mosaic of
angular and overlapping fragments
of five female nudes, at least two
of whom stare provocatively at the
viewer. Its "Cubist
features" combine powerfully
with its violent forms and
animalistic masks to both shock
and challenge the viewer
(http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/paintings-
analysis/les-demoiselles-davignon.htm).
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
By Pablo Picasso
Types of Cubism
a. Analytical Cubism
This form of Cubism analyzed the use of rudimentary shapes and

overlapping planes to depict the separate forms of the subjects in a painting.
It refers to real objects in terms of identifiable details that become—through
repetitive use—signs or clues that indicate the idea of the object. It is
considered to be a more structured and monochromatic approach than that
of Synthetic Cubism.
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The portrait of Henry

Kahnweiler is considered to be
one of the best examples of
this stage of cubism. A great
desire to penetrate into the
inner nature of the three-
dimensional object, to
comprehend the essence of
space which it occupies, as
Daniel Henry Kahnweiler by
Picasso (1910)
well as that space, within

limits of which it is situated,
brought a closer analysis to
life, making all the familiar
surface contours of an object
deprive of their usual opacity
(http://cubismsite.com/analytical-
cubism/).
b. Synthetic Cubism
It became a
popular style of artwork that includes
characteristics like simple shapes,
bright colors, and little to no depth. It
was also the birth of collage art in
which real objects were incorporated
into the paintings.
In 1912, Picasso creates
the work called “Still-Life with Chair
Caning”. He inserts an oilcloth with a Still-Life With Chair Caning by Picasso
(1912)
pattern that simulates bars of the chair in
the oval composition of the painting, the
oval itself being bordered by a thick twine – it’s a “frame” of the picture. The
prototype of all ready-made experiments of the 20th century was created
(https://www.thoughtco.com/synthetic-cubism-definition-183242).
E. Abstract Expressionism
Leo Tolstoy could be called a father of abstract expressionism and the
expressionist movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. His “Expression Theory”
centered on the idea that art elicits and provokes emotion in the viewer. Tolstoy
believed that the role of the artist was to provide the viewer with something that
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would bring out these effects. Abstract Expressionism achieves this by letting the
medium and composition communicate for itself. Artists like Pollock believed that
it was the viewer (and not the artist) who defines and interpret the meaning of the
abstract expressionist artwork thus, there is no relevance on what artist thinks or
conveys while producing the work.
Abstract Expressionism is an artistic movement of the mid-20th century
comprising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist’s
liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually
nonrepresentational means (https://www.theartist.me/art/abstract-expressionism-
definition/).
Characteristics: The Two Styles

Abstract Expressionism movement encompassed two broad groupings.
These included: (1) the so-called “action painters” such as Jackson Pollock and
Willem De Kooning who focused on an intensely expressive style of gestural
painting; and (2) the more passive, notably Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and
Clyfford Still, who were concerned with reflection and mood.
Action painting, is characterized by a loose, rapid, dynamic, or forceful
handling of paint in sweeping or slashing brushstrokes and in techniques partially
dictated by chance, such as dripping or spilling the paint directly onto the canvas.
Pollock had
created his
first "drip"
painting in 1947,
the product of a
radical new
approach to paint
handling. With
Autumn Rhythm,
made in October
of 1950, the artist
is at the height of
his powers.
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950 by Jackson Pollock
In this Courtesy of www.Jackson-Pollok.org
nonrepresentational
picture, thinned paint
was applied to unprimed, unstretched canvas that lay flat on the floor rather than
propped on an easel. Poured, dripped, dribbled, scumbled, flicked, and splattered,
the pigment was applied in the most unorthodox means. The artist also used
sticks, trowels, knives, in short, anything but the traditional painter's implement
to build up dense, lyrical compositions comprised of intricate skeins of line.
There's no central point of focus, no hierarchy of elements in this allover
composition in which every bit of the surface is equally significant. The artist
worked with the canvas flat on the floor, constantly moving all around it while
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applying the paint and working from all four sides(https://www.jackson-

pollock.org/autumn- rhythm.jsp#prettyPhoto).
Color Field Painting marks a major development in abstract painting,

since it was the first style to resolutely avoid the suggestion of a form or mass
standing out against a background. Instead, figure and ground are one, and the space
of the picture, conceived as a field, seems to spread out beyond the edges of the
canvas.
Although Rothko never considered himself a Color Field painter, his signature
approach - balancing large portions of washed colors - matches up to critics'
understanding of the style. Rothko considered color to be a mere instrument that
served a greater purpose. He believed his fields of color were spiritual planes that
could tap into our most basic human emotions. For Rothko, color evoked emotion.
Therefore each of Rothko's works
was intended to evoke different meanings
depending on the viewer. In the time No. 2, Green,
No. 2, Green, Red and
Red and Blue was made, Rothko was still using lighter
Blue(1953)
tones, Oil on canvas-Private but as more years passed and Rothko's mental
health collection increasingly declined, his Color Fields were
constituted by somber blacks, blues, and
grays(https://www.theartstory.org/movement-
color-field-painting.htm).
3. Symbolism
Symbolism is really an intellectual form of expression. Not content using
color and shape to communicate their feelings, symbolist artists inject their
compositions with messages and esoteric references. It is this narrative content
which turns a work of art into a symbolist work of art.
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Symbolist painters and sculptors were inspired by literature and poetry of

the day, as well as the history, legends, myths, Biblical stories and fables of the past.
In expressing themselves, symbolist artists endowed their subjects (eg. women,
heroic males, flowers, landscapes, animals), with mythological or other esoteric
meanings. Many artists turned to stimulants like alcohol and drugs to fuel their
imagination. Favourite symbolist subjects included: sensual issues, religious
feelings, occultism, love, death, disease and sin, while decadence was a common
feature (http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/symbolism.htm).
Caresses (detail; 1896), Fernand Khnopff. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium,
Brussels. Photo: J. Geleyns Art Photography
Women play a major role in Belgium Symbolism, as they emboy all the
duality and ambiguity of the world. Khnoff and Rops were Belgian Symbolists who
captures and expressed the mystery of women. In khnopff’s case, the woman was
variously angel, muse, and a companion rushing to recue the man, yet she also
appears as a tempress, femme fatale with more than a cash of the perverse-the very
symbol of the Supreme Vice.
The theme of women constitutes an inexhaustible one of the Symbolists,
both painters and authors. Just as Khnopff did in his Caresses, which is perhaps
Khnopff’s most famous creation, he represents this mysterious beauty, but alas the
woman sells herself and her master becomes
Satan(https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/caresses/_AGlYSd0kETwGw).
4. Fauvism
Fauvism was a style of painting developed in France at the beginning of

the 20th century by Henri Matisse and André Derain. The artists who painted in this
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style were known as 'Les Fauves'. The title 'Les Fauves' (the wild beasts) came from
a sarcastic remark by the art critic Louis Vauxcelles. Les Fauves believed that color
should be used to express the artist's feelings about a subject, rather than simply to
describe what it looks like.
In 1905, Matisse and

Derain went to stay in the port of
Collioure in the south of France and the
Fauvist pictures that they painted there
revolutionized attitudes towards color
in art. The sheer joy of expression that
they achieved through their liberated
approach to color was a shot in the arm
for the art of painting. In Matisse's
painting, 'The Open Window,
Collioure', color is used at its
maximum intensity. The window
frames, clay flower pots and masts on
the yachts have all been painted in a
blazing red. These are a bold
complement to the range of greens that
punctuate the painting. In order to
arrange the various colors of the work
into an effective composition he creates
a counterchange between the greenish
wall on the left and its reflected color in Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
the right hand window, with the purple 'The Open Window, Collioure', 1905 (oil on
canvas)
wall on the right and its reflected color in
the left hand window. To unify the
interior/exterior relationship of space, the dense spectrum of colors used inside the
room is echoed more sparingly in the distant view through the window.
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André Derain (1880-1954)

'The Pool of London', 1906 (oil on canvas)
Derain manages to balance the expressive and descriptive qualities of

color in 'The Pool of London'. He uses the conflict between warm and cool colors
to express the noise and activity of this busy dockyard. An illusion of depth in the
painting is created by using stronger and warmer tones in the foreground, which
gradually become weaker and cooler towards the background. This organized
arrangement of tones in a landscape is called Aerial Perspective. The drawing of
the image is typically simplified into shapes and forms whose details are conveyed
by unmodified brushstrokes of roughly the same size. This gives the painting an
overall unity that you would not expect in a composition of such conflicting colors
(http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/fauvism.htm).
5. Expressionism
Expressionism is art that is more associated with emotion or feeling than
with literal interpretation of a subject. Expressionistic art uses vivid colors,
distortion, two-dimensional subjects that lack perspective. It's created to express the
emotions of the artists as well as produce an emotional response of the viewer.
One of the most famous expressionists is the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh
(1853-1890). His paintings seem to vibrate with emotion
(https://osnatfineart.com/articles/expressionism.php).
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Vincent Van Gogh

'Starry Night', 1889 (oil on canvas)
Starry Night by Van Gogh is one famous piece of art. The story of Van
Gogh cutting off his ear after a fight with his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin,
is one of the most popular anecdotes in art history, and supposedly occurred in
winter 1888, the year before the painting of Starry Night and not long before Van
Gogh's death in 1890. Keeping with his reputation as a crazy artist, Van Gogh was
committed to a mental health asylum in Arles after the ear incident with Gauguin.
History has it that Van Gogh painted Starry Night while in the mental hospital, and
that the landscape in the painting is the view Van Gogh had from his
window(https://legomenon.com/starry-night-meaning-of-vincent-van-gogh-
painting.html).
Edvard Munch's painting The Scream (1893) is one of the most famous
paintings of all time. Sometimes also referred to as The Cry, Munch's painting The
Scream is known for its expressionistic colors, bright swirling sky, and of course its
mysterious subject: a person clasping her face, screaming in anguish alone on a
dock.
The Scream is the best known and most frequently reproduced of all
Edvard Munch’s motifs. With its expressive colors, its flowing lines and striking
overall effect, its appeal is universal.
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The Scream, Edvard Munch, between 1893 and 1910
The movement's most famous paintings, which include Munch's The

Scream, and Van Gogh's The Starry Night, are intense, passionate and highly
personal artworks, based on the concept of the painter's canvas as a vehicle for
demonstrating their innermost feelings(https://uk.phaidon.com/the-art-
book/articles/2012/august/24/expressionism-explained/).
6. Dadaism
Dadaism or Dada was a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for
the social, political and cultural values of the time. It embraced elements of art,
music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics. Dada was not so much a style of art like
Cubism or Fauvism; it was more a protest movement with an anti-establishment
manifesto(http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.
htm).
Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich
in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and
performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in
nature(https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/dada).
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For Dada artists, the aesthetic of their work was considered secondary to
the ideas it conveyed. “For us, art is not an end in itself,” wrote Dada poet Hugo
Ball, “but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we
live in.” Dadaists both embraced and critiqued modernity, imbuing their works with
references to the technologies, newspapers, films, and advertisements that
increasingly defined contemporary life.
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada/
Dada artists felt the war called into question every aspect of a society
capable of starting and then prolonging it – including its art. Their aim was to
destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old. As the
artist Hans Arp later wrote:
Revolted by the butchery of the 1914 World War, we in Zurich devoted

ourselves to the arts. While the guns rumbled in the distance, we sang,
painted, made collages and wrote poems with all our might.
In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and had political
affinities with the radical left. The founder of dada was a writer, Hugo Ball. In 1916
he started a satirical night-club in Zurich, the Cabaret Voltaire, and a magazine
which, wrote Ball, ‘will bear the name ”Dada”. Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.’ This was
the first of many dada publications. Dada became an international movement and
eventually formed the basis of surrealism in Paris after the war. Leading artists
associated with it include Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Kurt
Schwitters. Duchamp’s questioning of the fundamentals of Western art had a
profound subsequent influence (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/dada).
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Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

'L.H.O.O.Q', 1919 (ready-made)
Marcel Duchamp's scandalous L.H.O.O.Q is an altered postcard

reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. For this "assisted" (which implied
a degree of manipulation as opposed to the "unassisted") readymade, Duchamp
penciled a moustache and a goatee over Mona Lisa's upper lip and chin, and re-
titled the artwork. The title riffs on the French pronunciation of the letters, "Elle a
chaud au cul," which roughly translates as "She has a hot ass." Rather than
transmuting an ordinary, manufactured object into a work of art, as in the bulk of
his readymades, in L.H.O.O.Q Duchamp starts with the representation of an iconic
masterpiece that he takes down from its pedestal by playfully debunking it. In
endowing the Mona Lisa with masculine attributes, he alludes to Leonardo's
purported homosexuality and gestures at the androgynous nature of creativity.
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Duchamp is clearly concerned here with gender role-reversals, which

later come to the fore in Man Ray's portraits of the artist dressed as his female alter
ego, Rrose Selavy (https://www.theartstory.org/artist-duchamp-marcel-
artworks.htm).
7. Surrealism
The term surrealism indicates a specific thought and movement in

literature, the arts, and theatre, which tries to integrate the confused realms of
imagination and reality. The proponents of surrealism endeavor to mix up the
differences of conscious and unconscious thought through writing and painting by
using irrational juxtaposition of images.
Initiated by André Breton (1896-1966), surrealism is a kind of artistic

movement started in the French capital, Paris, during the 1920s. This movement
lasted until the 1940s. Breton, a famous writer as well as a philosopher, boosted this
movement further by publishing his manifesto, “The Manifesto of Surrealism.”
Although it gave new dimensions to art, it was not a political manifesto.

The manifesto states that, horrified by the destruction caused by the world wars and
subsequent confusion, art and literature faced numerous political challenges in
resolving those confusions, the reaction of which emerged in the shape of
surrealism. This movement rather aimed at preventing bloody revolutions by
breaking the limitations placed on arts and literature by the politics of that time
(https://literarydevices.net/surrealism/).
The most formative intellectual influence on the philosophy of

Surrealism were the theories of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the Viennese
neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis. Breton and other surrealists were
highly impressed with Freud's insights into the unconscious, which they thought
would be a major source of untapped pictures and imagery. They used his theories
to clear away boundaries between fantasy and reality, and to address a number of
disquieting drives as fear, desire and eroticization (http://www.visual-arts-
cork.com/history-of-art/surrealism.htm).
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Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937 (Oil on Canvas)
The 'Metamorphosis of Narcissus' was the first painting that Dali based
on his 'paranoiac-critical' method. It was inspired by the various myths of Narcissus
which explore an abnormal preoccupation with the self, something that Dali was no
stranger to.
Dali's tells his story of Narcissus in two forms, one an echo of the other.
The form on the left is the figure of Narcissus as he bends to look at his reflection
in the pool. His body is turning to stone which both illustrates his inability to move
and indicates his eventual death. The form on the right is his dead, petrified body
which has transformed into a hand holding an egg. A narcissus grows from a crack
in the egg to complete his metamorphosis.
Dali crafts the rest of the painting around this 'paranoiac critical' vision.
The composition of the painting is cut in half by the vertical edge of the cliff face
on the left. This draws a dividing line between the two forms of Narcissus and the
symbolic balance of their color. The warm colors of the Cap de Creus rocks are
used on the left, in and around the dying Narcissus, to suggest that there is yet life
in his ailing body. (The Cap de Creus is a headland near Figueres, Dali's birthplace,
and its typical rock formations appear in many of his works.) The colors on the right
have turned ice cold to convey the idea that Narcissus has passed on. His
metamorphosed form stands like a tombstone overrun by ants, his spirit
encapsulated by the surviving flower. Ants, which also appear in several other
paintings by Dali, are used as symbols of transformation as they constantly collect
and consume dead matter to recycle its energy.
In the center of the painting, a winding road links both images of Narcissus
as it heads off into the distant mountains. Where it passes between the two forms, a
group of Narcissus' rejected suitors weep in grief for their loss. A sense of loss is
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further developed in the figure on the right who stands on a plinth in the center of a
checkerboard. This represents Narcissus as he formerly was, glancing round to
admire his own physique.
The dramatic lighting, intense color, distant perspective and theatrical

arrangement of the composition all nod a debt of acknowledgement in the direction
of De Chirico, but what lifts Dali's 'hand painted dream photographs' to a higher
order in the Surrealist hierarchy is the ability of his painting technique 'to
materialize the images of my concrete irrationality with the most imperialist fury of
precision'
(http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/surrealism.htm).
Surrealism in Literature
Freedom of Love
By Andre Breton
“My wife with the hair of a wood fire

With the thoughts of heat lightning
With the waist of an hourglass
With the waist of an otter in the teeth of a tiger
My wife with the lips of a cockade and of a bunch of stars of the last magnitude
With the teeth of tracks of white mice on the white earth
With the tongue of rubbed amber and glass My
wife with the tongue of a stabbed host.”
(Lines 1-8)
This is one of the best examples of surrealist poetry by Andre Breton.

These lines have been taken from his poem “Freedom of Love.” See the irrationality
in images about his wife and a wood fire, an hourglass, and teeth of a tiger. None
of these images have any relation. They have been just irrationally put together to
demonstrate the mind of the poet, and a situation of the reality in which he is living
(https://literarydevices.net/surrealism/).
8. Futurism
Futurism was an Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that
aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world. This was
launched by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909.
Among modernist movements futurism was exceptionally vehement in its

denunciation of the past. This was because in Italy the weight of past culture was
felt as particularly oppressive. In the Manifesto, Marinetti asserted that ‘we will free
Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries’.
53
What the futurists proposed instead was an art that celebrated the modern world of
industry and technology:
We declare…a new beauty, the beauty of speed. A racing motor car…is more
beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. (A celebrated ancient Greek
sculpture in the Louvre museum in Paris.) (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-
terms/f/futurism).
Entranced by the
idea of the “dynamic,” the
Futurists sought to represent
an object’s sensations,
rhythms and movements in
their images, poems and
manifestos. Such
characteristics are
beautifully expressed
in Boccioni’s most
iconic masterpiece,
Unique Forms of Continuity
in Space.
Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of

Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931), bronze, 43 7/8 x 34 7/8 x 15
3/4" (MoMA)
9. Impressionism
Impressionism was an art movement in France at the end of the 19th

century. The Impressionists were a group of artists renowned for their innovative
painting techniques and approach to using color in art
(http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/impressionism.htm).
Impressionist art is a style of painting that emerged in the mid-to-late

1800s and emphasizes an artist's immediate impression of a moment or scene,
usually communicated through the use of light and its reflection, short brushstrokes,
and separation of colors. Impressionist painters, such as Claude Monet in his
"Impression: Sunrise" and Edgar Degas in "Ballet Class," often used modern life as
their subject matter and painted quickly and freely, capturing light and movement
54
in a way that had not been tried before (https://www.thoughtco.com/impressionism-

art-history-183262).
Claude Monet (1840-1926)

'Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge', 1899 (oil on
Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge represents two of Monet’s greatest

achievements: his gardens at Giverny and the series of paintings they inspired. In
1883 the artist moved to this country town, near Paris but just across the border of
Normandy, and immediately began to redesign the property. In 1893, Monet
purchased an adjacent tract, which included a small brook, and transformed the site
into an Asian-inspired oasis of cool greens, exotic plants, and calm waters,
enhanced by a Japanese footbridge. The serial approach embodied in this work—
one of about a dozen paintings in which Monet returned to the same view under
differing weather and light conditions—was one of his great formal innovations.
He was committed to painting directly from nature as frequently as possible and
whenever weather permitted, sometimes working on eight or more canvases in the
same day. Monet’s project to capture ever-shifting atmospheric conditions came to
be a hallmark of the Impressionist style
(https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/31852).
55
Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm

(Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris). This painting was exhibited at the first
Impressionist exhibition in 1874.
Claude Monet’s Impression: Sunrise is an exemplary Impressionist
painting in several ways, not least of which is its title. It depicts a misty harbor
scene at Le Havre (a port city in Northern France) in which boats and figures are
reduced to flat, shadowy silhouettes, while the red light of the sun reflected on the
water takes on tangible form in highly visible brushstrokes.
(https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-
france/impressionism/a/what-does-impressionism-mean)
Summary of the Unit

Unit 2 explores the various methods in presenting the art subjects just to
convey the artist’s message. This means that the manner of representing subject
varies according to the intent and inventiveness of each artist.
The following methods in presenting the art subjects include realism,
abstraction (distortion, mangling, elongation, cubism, abstract expressionism,
symbolism, dadaism, fauvism, expressionism, and impressionism.
56
References
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/realism-art on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://www.geringerart.com/artists/fernando-cueto-amorsolo/ on

July 14, 2019.
Retrieved form https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sac-artappreciation/chapter/oer-
1-4/ on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved form https://www.pablopicasso.org/girl-before-mirror.jsp on July 14,

2019.
Retrieved from https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/distortion on July 14,
2019.
Retrieved from https://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/distortion on July 14,
2019.
Retrieved from https://www.reference.com/art-literature/meaning-elongation-art-
relation-painting-47ea573325c5899f on July 14, 2019.
Retrievedfromhttps://www.artble.com/artists/parmigianino/paintings/madonna_wi
th_the_long_neck on July 14, 2019.
Retrievedfromhttp://www.dianablake.net/ArtHistoryArticles/ElGrecoResurrection
.htm on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://manhattanarts.com/what-is-cubism/ on July 14, 2019.

57
Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm on July

14, 2019.
Retrieved from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/paintings-analysis/les-

demoiselles-davignon.htm on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from http://cubismsite.com/analytical-cubism/ on July 14, 2019.

Retrieved from http://cubismsite.com/synthetic-cubism/ on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/synthetic-cubism-definition-183242
on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://www.theartist.me/art/abstract-expressionism-definition/ on
July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://www.jackson-pollock.org/autumn-rhythm.jsp#prettyPhoto
on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/movement-color-field-painting.htm

July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/symbolism.htm on

July 14, 2019.
Retrievedfromhttp://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/fauvis
m.htm on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://osnatfineart.com/articles/expressionism.php on July 14,

2019.
Retrieved from https://legomenon.com/starry-night-meaning-of-vincent-van-
gogh-painting.html on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from https://uk.phaidon.com/the-art
book/articles/2012/august/24/expressionism-explained/ on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from
http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/surrealism.htm on
July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from
http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/impressionism.htm
on July 14, 2019.
Retrieved from
https://www.artble.com/artists/parmigianino/paintings/madonna_with_the_long_n
eck).
58
Retrieved from https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-mangled-man-michael-

noeltner.html
59

Unit 2 Exploring The Methods of Presenting The Art Subject

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Unit 2: Exploring the Methods of Presenting the Art Subject

Activating Prior Knowledge

What are the methods in presenting art subject?

After returning to Manila, Amorsolo set up a studio and began an

Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in

Girl Before Mirror was

The young girl was named

Abstraction has been presented in different manners such as:

Distortion is the alteration of the original shape of something, be it a person

Henry Moore sculptures are tangled representations of the human figure

Woman with two mouth Kenneth Clark: Looking For Henry

Madonna with the Long Neck is

The Madonna does not have

Madonna of the Long Neck Parmigianino

Resurrection, 1584-94 by El Greco by

This may not be a commonly used way of presenting an abstract subject,

The Mangled Man is a painting by Michael Noeltner which

This movement was pioneered by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973) and

The painting presents us

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

This form of Cubism analyzed the use of rudimentary shapes and

The portrait of Henry

well as that space, within

Characteristics: The Two Styles

applying the paint and working from all four sides(https://www.jackson-

Color Field Painting marks a major development in abstract painting,

Symbolist painters and sculptors were inspired by literature and poetry of

Fauvism was a style of painting developed in France at the beginning of

In 1905, Matisse and

André Derain (1880-1954)

Derain manages to balance the expressive and descriptive qualities of

Vincent Van Gogh

The Scream, Edvard Munch, between 1893 and 1910

The movement's most famous paintings, which include Munch's The

Revolted by the butchery of the 1914 World War, we in Zurich devoted

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

Marcel Duchamp's scandalous L.H.O.O.Q is an altered postcard

Duchamp is clearly concerned here with gender role-reversals, which

The term surrealism indicates a specific thought and movement in

Initiated by André Breton (1896-1966), surrealism is a kind of artistic

Although it gave new dimensions to art, it was not a political manifesto.

The most formative intellectual influence on the philosophy of

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

The dramatic lighting, intense color, distant perspective and theatrical

“My wife with the hair of a wood fire

This is one of the best examples of surrealist poetry by Andre Breton.

Among modernist movements futurism was exceptionally vehement in its

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of

Impressionism was an art movement in France at the end of the 19th

Impressionist art is a style of painting that emerged in the mid-to-late

in a way that had not been tried before (https://www.thoughtco.com/impressionism-

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge represents two of Monet’s greatest

Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm

Summary of the Unit

Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/realism-art on July 14, 2019.

Retrieved from https://www.geringerart.com/artists/fernando-cueto-amorsolo/ on

Retrieved form https://www.pablopicasso.org/girl-before-mirror.jsp on July 14,

Retrieved from https://manhattanarts.com/what-is-cubism/ on July 14, 2019.

Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm on July

Retrieved from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/paintings-analysis/les-

Retrieved from http://cubismsite.com/analytical-cubism/ on July 14, 2019.

Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/movement-color-field-painting.htm