Real Truth is Never Surreal

When World War I was unleashed in 1914, it shocked, upset, and unsettled people. Much the people of the French Revolution (1789-1795), people of Berlin (who were being subjected to many rules and regulations) wanted to throw off the oppression. Just as in the French Revolution, the people thought that the only way to gain the feeling of freedom was to revolt in every area of their lives, an act that gave birth to the movement of Dadaism. Dadaists believed that sound thoughts and organized processes were the cause of the war, so the Dadaists created art that seemed out of order and almost illogical (Kleiner 835). Many of these pieces were made using cut-out scraps from pictures.

During the first half of the twentieth century, the world was in politically and economically turbulent waters. Artists sensed this turbulence; their response varied, but two main movements were the result of the tumult. Avant-Garde artists despised any form of classical or traditional ways of artistry. I found it quite interesting that artists who adopted this movement title did so because avant-garde is French for “front gaurd”, and they were considered to be in the front of artists, moving and paving the way for those to come (Kleiner 836). One other term, Fauvism, was a movement led by the artists Henri Matisse. This French artist focused on color as the main element of a piece, a technique that is clearly evident throughout his many paintings.

It is very interesting how famous scientists impacted the artists around them. Einstein, Rutherford, and even Bohr can be seen in Kandinsky's Improvisation 2 (29-7). Einstein and Rutherford shared the view that items had no tangible substance (Kleiner 841). When looking at this piece, one can se...

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... many of these artists (Mondrian, Dali, Picasso) struggled with finding a truth, or center. Picasso said art was a way to find what we think is truth (Kleiner); Dali wanted (in a sense) to make art truth (Kleiner 878); Mondrian expressed that art is above reality, and saying so, he believed that art was a truth in itself (Kleiner 881). Like many Modern artists, these three thought they could find truth on their own, when they could have made an effort to search for God's real truth. God's truth is never surreal.

Works Cited

Kleiner, Fred S., and Helen Gardner. Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History. Boston, MA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2009. Print.

"The Rockerfellers." Public Broadcasting. PBS, 2000. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.

"The Treachery of Images." Rene Magritte. The Treachery of Images. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. LACMA, 2008. Web. 30 Mar. 2012.