This essay will show the work of
different historical or contemporary artists whom work has been described as
‘surreal’. It will mainly compare and contrast the work of two such photo-artists.
The two artists that will be compared are Salvador Dali and Man Ray. First
there will be a summary of who they are and what they have done in general.
Different examples of their film and stills work will be put in and compared
with each other. At the end there will be a short conclusion along with the
sources that I have used to gain the information put together in this essay.
Surrealism is a movement that first
emerged in the early 20’ies. This artistic movement conveyed the imagination as
shown in dreams, without the rationality or logic. Surrealism picked up the
anti-rationalistic feeling from Dadaism, and was completed with the influence
of the new perception of reality. One of the emerging theories back then was
Sigmund Freud’s model of sub-consciousness, this particular philosophy had a
great impact in shaping the surrealistic movement. The aim was to use the
subconscious, dreamy aura to put forward meaningful messages that had more to
do with the rational life. The movement was pioneered by André Breton and was
successfully taken to the next level by artists like Salvador Dali and René
Magritte.
Surrealism in photography was first started
in 1917. By 1900 there were already a lot of female professional photographer’s
in the United Kingdom and the United States. This is where the surrealistic
images have started. Lady Mary Filmer was one of the Upper-class women that
have started to create images by cutting and pasting. Those collages did
question the realism of photography. This movement later on also disrupted the
dominant concept of respectable femininity. Through this technique she also
tried to change meanings of photographs through cutting and portraying them as
something totally different. She was aware of the new creativity that
photography brought which was being able to use existing images rather than creating
new ones.
Frances Benjamin was also one of the
successful photographers of that time which portrayed herself as a new woman in
her photograph in the late 1890s. She dressed up like a man and looked very
much like the opposite gender holding a cigarette and a tanker. There were more
photographers during that time who played with opposite genders such as Alice
Austen.
Man Ray was born on the 27th August 1890
in the United States and died at the age of 86 on the 18th November 1976 in
Paris. He was a surrealist artist that that was best known for his avant-garde
photography. He considered himself as a painter above all rather than the other
things he has done as well such as the variety of media he has produced and
fashion and portrait photography. Apart from that he has also made photogram’s
which he called ‘Rayographs’ – comes from his own name ‘Ray’.
He has been named one of the 25 most
influential artists of the 20th century in 1999. This was because of his
innovative photography. He did not discuss a lot of his personal life to the
public because he did not want his family background to be known in public,
which is why the public did not even know that he had a name other than Man
Ray. He started to show artistic and mechanical abilities since his childhood.
Man Ray was gone to Paris and fell in love with Alice Prin who was a model and
celebrated character in Paris bohemian circles. In 1920 she has been the
subject of most of his famous paintings and films but then in 1929 he began a
love affair with Lee Miller, a Surrealist photographer.
Salvador Dali was born on the 11th May
in 1904 and he died on the 23rd January in 1989. He was a Spanish artist and a
writer that was mostly known for the weird or surreal images that he has
produced during his career. The Persistence of Memory is one of his most famous
works. He has done lots of different works including film,
sculpture and photography. He has also worked together with different artists
using different kinds of media. Dali had a very good imagination, which is
obviously how he managed to get those amazing surreal photographs that he has
produced during his career. He started painting at the age of six and he
produced lots of different styles and approaches and finally started with his
surrealism work in 1927. He has been exploring a lot, which is why he did not
only stick to creating paintings. He has also created stage scenery,
photographs, sculptures, film scripts, holographs, clothing, jewelry and
literature.
Man Ray was also inspired by Duchamp’s
work called ‘Ready-mades’, which was done by normal ordinary objects that are
placed and modified in a certain way. They were called retinal art and all what
was done was the repositioning, signing and the titling of the object and it
became art.
After looking at that work he has made a lot off
objects himself as well such as the sewing machine that he had covered with
cloth.
To be destroyed was again one of those photographs that Man
Ray has produced being inspired by the same Duchamp’s work.
The
Lovers was also one of his surreal images that showed a giant pair of lips in
the sky.
Dali has also done work where he has
captured dreams in a very realistic way that included uncontrolled sexual
desires, Freudian symbolism and also childhood memories. The very famous
photograph of Dali called ‘The persistence of Memory’ was one of them. In that
work he has paid very great attention to elements of nature and earth. He has
produced exquisite surreal photographs that show the unconscious world of
dreams. The work has a great sense of mystery such as the melting clocks. The
fact that he has a great fantasy and deep obsessions has led him to create such
powerful surreal images. They are full of detail and have been thought through
the smallest aspects in the frame such as the sky, clouds, water insects, etc.
The images have usually got different meanings or they can mean differently
from person to person because anyone can look at them in a different way.
L’heure de l’Observatoire: Les Amoureux
(Observatory time: The Lovers) was a surrealistic painting by Man Ray that
showed floating lips in the sky with a nude underneath it. It is a black &
white painting, which might be because of the fact that he has painted it not
long after he had broken up with Lee Miller. The ‘time’ in the title might be
indicating that the nude is dreaming. Ray has also included an chessboard in
his painting. This was something that Picabia and Duchamp also used to do
because they liked playing chess.
Honey is Sweeter than blood was the
first nude surreal painting by Dali, which has also been called abstract. This
is something that has been seen over and over again in his work and in this
case as well. The inspiration for this painting came from the title that
related to an incident in his life. It is really interesting how he has related
the image to the poetic statement that someone has said. It is considered as a
very sexual image by a lot of people but in a mysterious way. It has caught the
eyes of many people because it is odd how the lady is floating in clouds
reaching out for her nipple but at the same time the hand does not really fit
in the scenario because it is some skeletons hand which is possibly linking to
his earlier worries about decadence, death and immorality. She is faced towards
some creature that looks like a half man and half horse and she is supporting
one of her arms with a crutch. It shows that there is possibly no love in
whatever relation is going on and the sense of pleasure is made up.
The Lugubrious Game was a masterpiece by
Dali that was painted with oil paint and was laid out as a
collage. The paining is actually pointing at masturbation like a few other
paintings by Dali. It shows sexual desires along with a guilty secret that is
symbolised by a phallus. Some aspects from this work have also been seen in the
‘The Great Masturbator’ as well such as the grasshopper on his
mouth.
Dali’s work seems so much deeper than
Man Ray’s work. Looking at Dali’s work, not everyone would be able to know or
guess what the work is about and what it is pointing at whereas Ray’s work,
artists with not much knowledge would actually be able to figure out what the
image is about. This can also be seen in the last two works that have been
described above. Honey is sweeter than blood has sexual content in it but it is
easier to figure out because it is more visual and shows what is happening
whereas The Lugubrious Game is so much more complicated.
Les Larmes (Glass tears) was also one of
Man Ray’s surreal art works where he has shown eyes of someone looking upwards.
The image has both fake and reality nature. He produced this work shortly after
he has broken up with his lover and was meant to be something to take revenge.
The eyes looking up show some source of distress and makes people think where
she’s looking and what she might be thinking. This work of him also holds some
source of mystery because not a lot is shown but the image still says a lot to
the viewers. Man Ray has used a fashion mannequin with glass bead tears. It
also gives a feeling of two-faced to some people because she is crying bus her
mascara is not smudged.
Man Ray has also directed a few
experimental films such as Le retour á la Raison, Emak-Bakia and L'Étoilede la
Mer and a few more. Le retour á la Raison was a short film made by him in black
& white that showed rayographs. Those are basically photograms that he has
recalled after his name. they are made by placing objects on to photographic
paper and exposing them to light to create various effects. He even made
photograms by sprinkling salt & pepper on his paper and created all the
photograms that he has included in that short film.
Salvador Dali also produced a sort film
in black & white, which was totally different to what Man Ray did. It was
called ‘Un Chien Andalou’. The short film looked like a dream and it was
presented as a montage. It was actually the first film that was considered as a
surrealist film because of its scenes that did not really follow each and
other. It looks like it is just made by putting short clips together in order
to create the video. It reveals surrealist love and it also shows some things
that actually cannot be imagined happening. A razor is shown cutting a woman’s
eye into half. A cow’s eye has been used to recreate that. When looking at the
clip there is usually always the thought that the scene will cut off on the
point where it is meant to touch the eye and the viewers can imagine the rest
but that is not what happens. It shows the unexpected, which is the most
incredible aspect of the short film. It is even said that Dali himself was sick
for a week after he helped Luis Bunel to shoot the scene.
Le Cadeau (The Gift) is one of the
surreal images by Man Ray in black & white. It is a very simple photograph
of an iron with some sort of spikes on it. The work was called so because it
was made for the owner of the gallery where Man Ray had his first solo show, which
was in Paris. It was added to the show as well because it received loads of
attention from the audience. It is an interesting image because an iron is
meant to flatten clothes and in the photograph there is spikes on the iron.
Man Ray and Salvador Dali have both
produced numerous paintings, sculptures, films, prints and they both used to
write. They both have had the same styles that they have worked on including
cubism, surrealism and Dadaism. Man Ray has also worked on futurism and
Salvador Dali on Modern Art. They have both made films that are very well know
now which includes Le retour a la raison by Man Ray and Un chien Andalou by
Salvador Dali. Ray has collaborated with different artists such as Alfred
Stieglitz and Ducham and has also inspired a few very well known artists such
as Andy Warhol and Joseph Kosuth. Dali has collaborated with the very famous
film director Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Bunuel. He is been the inspiration of
many artists as well and Jean-Aguste-Dominique is one of them.
Both the artist have worked in roughly
the same period of time which is why their work has a few similar aspects but
they have both developed their own separate individual style. They have both
produced surrealist work including short films in black & white, paintings,
sculptures and they were both into writing as well. They are both very well
known artists that have produced amazing work throughout their active years.
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Michael Freeman
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