– Recognisable scenes painted in extraordinary detail and realism, but then placed in
illogical situations
– Surrealists found shocking beauty
– Smooth surfaces, fine and detailed brushstrokes. Space and depth are realistic. Colour is
super-real: luminous an dream like
SEE THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY BY SALVADOR DALI
– Barren space, time stands still. Strange, never setting sun. Cliffs from Catalonia in far
background. Amorphous creature sleeps in foreground, draped with a limp pocket watch.
A limp clock hangs over the branch of a dead tree growing from a clock-like form with
another clock hanging over its edge with a fly on it. A small watch lying face down on the
block is swarmed by ants.
– Watches are organic, decaying, and soft, turning common objects into nightmare objects
– Watches indicate time passing, but in their softness are unreliable - they are like rotten
flesh (swarmed) suggesting that all things must come to an end
– Meticulous technique and attention to detail
SEE THIS IS NOT A PIPE BY RENE MAGRITTE
– AKA the Treachery of Images
– Meticulously painted briar pipe which looks real, but it is of course a painting
AFTER WORLD WAR II
Abstract Expressionism
Effects of WWII
– 60 million people died
– European imperialism and cultural dominance ended due to loss of political and economic
power
– Intellectuals fled from Europe to America
European Influence
– Rational, formalistic, Purist abstract trend, as well as the opposing anti-rational,
emotional, expressive trend were embraced by American artists
Background
– Artists of the movement knew each other but did not form the movement or have a
manifesto
– ‘The canvas was used as an arena to act, rather than a solace for reproduction, redesign,
analysis, or expression of an object’
– ‘Action painters’: the paintings were the acts of painting, not the images created. As the
act of the entire body became the artwork, these paintings were deemed honest and self-
expressive
illogical situations
– Surrealists found shocking beauty
– Smooth surfaces, fine and detailed brushstrokes. Space and depth are realistic. Colour is
super-real: luminous an dream like
SEE THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY BY SALVADOR DALI
– Barren space, time stands still. Strange, never setting sun. Cliffs from Catalonia in far
background. Amorphous creature sleeps in foreground, draped with a limp pocket watch.
A limp clock hangs over the branch of a dead tree growing from a clock-like form with
another clock hanging over its edge with a fly on it. A small watch lying face down on the
block is swarmed by ants.
– Watches are organic, decaying, and soft, turning common objects into nightmare objects
– Watches indicate time passing, but in their softness are unreliable - they are like rotten
flesh (swarmed) suggesting that all things must come to an end
– Meticulous technique and attention to detail
SEE THIS IS NOT A PIPE BY RENE MAGRITTE
– AKA the Treachery of Images
– Meticulously painted briar pipe which looks real, but it is of course a painting
AFTER WORLD WAR II
Abstract Expressionism
Effects of WWII
– 60 million people died
– European imperialism and cultural dominance ended due to loss of political and economic
power
– Intellectuals fled from Europe to America
European Influence
– Rational, formalistic, Purist abstract trend, as well as the opposing anti-rational,
emotional, expressive trend were embraced by American artists
Background
– Artists of the movement knew each other but did not form the movement or have a
manifesto
– ‘The canvas was used as an arena to act, rather than a solace for reproduction, redesign,
analysis, or expression of an object’
– ‘Action painters’: the paintings were the acts of painting, not the images created. As the
act of the entire body became the artwork, these paintings were deemed honest and self-
expressive
