LMAC #44: Smashing Art Boundaries in the Twentieth Century

We are at week #44 of the LMAC collage challenge. This week a veteran participant, @muelli, provided the template for the challenge.

The first time I saw the trees in @muelli's photo I thought they looked surreal.

@muelli's Picture

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Surrealism
Bird_9

A surrealist painting by Jahir903, on Wikimedia Commons. Used under a CC 3.0 license

Surrealism as an art movement is said to have been started by Andre Breton in 1924 when he issued a "Manifesto of Surrealism". In his Manifesto Breton defines Surrealism as anti-realist:

"...the realistic attitude, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit."

Sea

The painting is by Koga Harue, who is credited with having been at the forefront of the Surrealist movement in Japan. Public domain work, photo by firedrop.

Dadaism
Merzbild (Psychological Collage)

Collage by Kurt Schwitters, 1919. Public domain

Kurt Schwitters is one of five artists included in a list of 'Dadaists' compiled by dadart.com. The other four artists on the list are Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Tristan Tzara.

Duchamp is said to have coined the word ‘Dada’, although he refused to define Dadaism, or any art form. He asserted that art is about ideas. He is credited by some with being the founder of conceptual art

Fountain

Duchamp signed the urinal with the name R. Mutt and submitted the piece to the Society of Independent Artists. The piece was accepted, but was never exhibited. Alfred Steiglitz photographed the urinal and then, according to reports, threw the 'art' away. Not in copyright... made in the US before 1917

The Fountain was one of Duchamp's Readymades. Duchamp declared a piece was art simply because an artist chose it and declared it to be art

Many early Dadaist pieces are under copyright, but some of Schwitters' work is in public domain. Here's another piece, from 1919.

Construction for Noble Ladies


Dada/Surrealism in Culture
Why was there a rebellion against realism in the art world during the early part of the twentieth century? According to Oxford Art Online, this rebellion may be attributed to a revulsion toward the insanity of WWI, to its horrific carnage:

"The Dadaists channeled their revulsion at World War I into an indictment of the nationalist and materialist values that had brought it about."

Shock was a remedy for the complacency that enabled the war. Dadaists wanted to shock society into awareness.

Surrealism and Dadaism in Culture

Hugo Ball Cabaret Voltaire

Photo is in the public domain because it was taken by an anonymous author in 1916.

Hugo Ball was a German national who settled in Switzerland during WWI. There he opened the Cabaret Voltaire, which is credited with having a germinal influence on the development of Dadaism.

Dadaism and Surrealism were not limited to the art world. The impulse to break with convention rippled through the cultural universe. Literature, music, theater--everywhere boundaries were shattered. And this cultural convulsion was felt around the world.

Grand Opening of the First Dada Exhibition, Berlin, 5 June 1920

Photo, by an unknown author, is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

Performance Art
While the Dadaist/Surreal influence was strongest in literature and art, still the influence could be seen in music. The smashing of boundaries between music and literature was demonstrated by Schwitters in his Ursonate (Ur Sonata), which was a poem "comprised solely of abstract sounds". It is said that Schwitters' recitation of his Sonata was the first instance of performance art.

Dadism/Surrealism and Einstein
In 1905 Albert Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity and in 1915 his General Theory of Relativity. With the publication of these papers, Einstein threw a monkey wrench into established perceptions of physical reality. Surrealists referred to relativity in their writings. Salvatore Dali called his drooping watches the "soft Camembert of time and space”

Einstein Portrait

This portrait by Gheorghe Manu was released into the public domain
by Manu's son.

Before I go on to talk about my collage, I want everybody to check out @muelli's collage. It is whimsical, outrageous and convention-defying. It's perfect.

My Collage

I think it's obvious I was inspired by Surrealism/Dadaism. My tree people were a result:

They walk around the beach and get into mischief. They encounter a hatchling and are startled by its birth. The chick winks and the water in the background flows.

Sources
The chick, eggs, chick pecking through the shell, and the hatchling all came from Pixabay:

Thank you @shaka! These weekly challenges have become quite an event. The LMAC community grows every week. See the work displayed in LMAC #44 here.

Thank you for reading my blog

Hive on!