Art Movement

Apparition of a Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach by Salvador Dali

Image source: (HERE)

Out of the many art movements, one of the art movements that I'm most interested in is surrealism. Surrealism was founded by Andre Breton as an artistic expression and as I researched deeper, I found out that Surrealism is a philosophy that was based on Freud's (one of the fathers in psychology) subconscious motivation. 

One important element in surrealism is the juxtaposition of images either by placing two images that has no logical connection with one another or by creating forms of unexpected materials. Both the viewer and the creator of the image can have different interpretations of the art because of the unrelated imagery and unlimited boundaries due to the free association that is available for the viewer and creator. Usually, our logic limits our own creativity because we don't want people to say the art doesn't make sense. Surrealism let us to go beyond what we think is logical and search deep to find meaning in the subconscious. 

The Scream by Edvard Munch

Image source: (here)

The painting above needs no introduction as the The Scream is a really popular painting that was created by expressionist artist Edvard Munch. When I see the painting, the first impression that I get is the feeling of distortion and agony.

From what I understand, expressionism allows artist to distort reality in order to bring out an emotional experience and to find meaning through emotions for artist and the viewer (Bruce Thompson). Expressionism lets people to explore the world around them and it's a very subjective type of art as it is based on the personal emotions of the artist. Usually, we would be able to find elements of exaggeration in expressionism because exaggeration is used to enhance the emotional effect. 

I find this quote by Alexej von Jawlensky very fitting. He said, "The artist expresses only what he has within himself, not what he sees with his eyes." I believe that the art movement of expressionism allowed artists to be more expressive in their art. I feel that the artists then must have been individuals who are very bold as most of the time, we are afraid of expressing ourselves because we are afraid that people would judge us. Since expressionists integrated their emotions into art, we can also know a lot about an artist or painter through their paintings or art.