Artists are central to cultural, political and social discourses in the world. They are here not only to inspire us, but to provoke us as well. Four artists that broke social, political and cultural barriers were, Rene Magritte, John Heartfield Jackson Pollock and Otto Dix. While the artists were involved in different movements, each one made revolutionary statements with their works. Artists have a responsibility to use their works as a weapon to the status quo and to break these cultural and social barriers.
Rene Magritte and John Heartfield were important figures to the Surrealist movement. Surrealism was a movement that developed after World War II and as a result, society was requesting art that was of the ‘norm’ to give the world a sense of stability. As a reaction to this request, the artists helped influence the Surrealist movement. It is often described as rebellious, idiosyncratic, dream-like and emotional. Maggritte’s thought-provoking pieces, and Heartfield’s anti-war messages all sent a strong message to society.
Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter who was known for painting thought-provoking works that require viewers to question the most mundane aspects of life, including familiar objects such as a tobacco pipe. Magritte wanted his viewers to question the perceptions of reality and if art has the ability to truly represent an object. He believed that even the best artists could not paint an object, because it would always only be a representation of that image. If an artist drew an apple, it was only a representation of an apple, because the viewer could not eat it.
In 1929, Magritte painted “The Treachery of Images”; at first glance appears to be an advertisement of a tobacco product, but underneath t...
... middle of paper ...
...uld be considered: what would the art world look like now if no artist took a risk to express his or her political and social ideologies? Would artists just be creating art their society wants? Would there be any rebellion? Pollock would have painted with a paintbrush, Magritte would not have questioned our perceptions of reality and Dix and Heartfield would not have questioned the motives of politics. It is critical for artists to push these limits, no matter the criticism they will endure. The power behind the arts has been its ability to be a vehicle for expression and it should continue to do just that.
Works Cited
Foster, Hal. Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. 1st ed. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2011. Print.
Foster, Hal. Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. 2nd ed. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2011. Print.
Hughes, Robert. American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1997. Print.
Sue Malvern, 2004,Modern Art, Britain and the Great War, New Haven and London, Yale University Press
... Hunter, John Jacobus, Naomi Rosenblum and David M. Sokol, American Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Decorative Arts, Photography, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1979
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York: Prentice Hall Inc. and Harry N. Abrams Inc. 1995.
Jones, Leslie C.. Transgressive Femininity: Art and Gender in the Sixties and Seventies. Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art. New York: D.A.P., 1993.
Modernism indicates a branch of movements in art (Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism; Cubism; Expressionism; Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art. Etc.) with distinct characteristics, it firmly rejects its classical precedent and classical style, what Walter Benjamin would refer to as “destructive liquidation of the traditional value of the cultural heritage”; and it explores the etiology of a present historical situation and of its attendant forms of self-consciousness in the West. Whereas Modernity is often used as ...
Smith, R. (1995). The question of modernism and postmodernism. Arts Education Policy Review, 96 2-12.
Goldwater, Robert and Marco Treves (eds.). Artists on Art: from the XIV to the XX Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 1945.
Surrealism, who has not heard this word nowadays? World of the dreams and everything that is irrational, impossible or grotesque, a cultural movement founded immediately after the First World War and still embraced nowadays by many artists. In order to understand it better it is necessary to look deeper into the work of two outstanding artists strongly connected with this movement, and for whom this style was an integral part of their lives.
1. Hunter, Sam and Jacobs, John. Modern Art, 3rd Edition. The Vendome Press, New York, 1992.
Varnedoe, Kirk. A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1990. 152. Print.
Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-modern. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992.
"1920's Art." The 1920's - Roaring Twenties - The Nineteen Twenties in History. 2005. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .
If modernism and postmodernism are arguably two most distinguishing movements that dominated the 20th century Western art, they are certainly most exceptional styles that dominated the global architecture during this period. While modernism sought to capture the images and sensibilities of the age, going beyond simple representation of the present and involving the artist’s critical examination of the principles of art itself, postmodernism developed as a reaction against modernist formalism, seen as elitist. “Far more encompassing and accepting than the more rigid boundaries of modernist practice, postmodernism has offered something for everyone by accommodating wide range of styles, subjects, and formats” (Kleiner 810).
Holt, Elizabeth G. From the Classicist to the Impressionists: Art and Architecture in the 19th Century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966.