I've decided to post still life paintings from surrealist artist
because I enjoy this genre the most. The first is titled Basket of Bread painted by Salvador Dali the date is 1904. I love
Dali’s work because it is incredibly realistic which I've always thought made
his surrealist work more profound. The second is one by René Magritte titled Les valeurs personnelles (Personal Values) painted
in 1952. It is not a “traditional” still life but the painting was created to
evoke thought, so I found it fitting for this post. Do you consider this a
still life?
-Nathalie Carlo
Magritte's still life is like a fantasy almost with the huge glass in the middle of the room and the huge comb on the bed. It's definitely not your traditional still life, but the objects she includes are acceptable. I feel like she took the topic of still life paintings that can be kind of solemn, boring, and predictable and put a twist on it to where the viewer has to do a double take and really look at the painting.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of a still life piece I think of organizing a mess. I don't know if that makes any sense but you are purposefully placing random objects in a sometimes messy composition. And I think Magritte captured that. In Personal Values, he is painting these familiar objects but they are disproportionate and scattered in a room, it is kind of like a fantasy or maybe a dream. Surrealist artists depicted dreamlike worlds that were illogical but beautiful nonetheless. I wanted to put this piece up to show a different take on the tradition still life.
ReplyDeleteMagritte is an interesting fellow! I went to a museum dedicated to him in Brussels, and the variety of his work was interesting to see. Magritte is one of my boyfriend's favorite artists, and I really love works of his that represent the human forms in bizarre ways, such as in "L'inventive collective". I don't know if you saw him, Nathalie, but an art historian who wrote a book about Dali showed "Basket of Bread" and argued that it was his best painting, although I had never seen a painting like that of his. It started an interesting conversation with others who, like me, had an idea of Dali as an artist based much more on his stranger, dreamy paintings.
ReplyDelete(the historian spoke at UWF last year so I thought you might have seen the presentation I am referring to)
DeleteNo, I didn't know any one came to talk about Dali! That kinda bums me out. Salvador Dali is my favorite artists, I would've enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete