Why the Soul of Surrealism is in India

Lee Krasner“Nude Study from Life”, 1938.
©2013 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/ Artists Right Society (ARS), New York.
The Menil Collection, Houston, gift of William J. Hill, in honour of Christopher de Menil.
Courtesy of The Menil Collection, Houston.

If all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players, then where do the Surrealists sit?
 According to my imagined global map of where art movements should be located, the Impressionists are based in the South of France, the Blaue Reiter in Germany, the Nabis in Stockholm, Cubism in Iceland, the Old Masters (da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, etc.) in Italy, Aestheticism in Decorative Arts in Shanghai, Digital Art in Oslo, and Lyrical Abstraction in Tokyo.

Of course, this is entirely subjective, but I think that certain countries, or cities, really do go hand in hand with the style or ideals that various art movements represent.

 In my opinion, Surrealism would be well represented by some small artistic or spiritual commune in India. The theory of Surrealist Automatic Drawing alone represents this to near perfection. The idea is that the drawing comes from allowing your hand to move at random across the page, leaving the image free of logical or rational thought processes, and allowing chance to play a large part in the final result. Another part of the thinking behind this is that, without the logical part of your brain being used, the subconscious also affects the final result – thereby allowing a hidden part of the psyche to be revealed.

“The real functioning of thought”: André Breton (the founder of Surrealism) pinpointed the expression of this as the ultimate aim of Surrealism. So, yes, in my eyes, a spiritual commune in India is the perfect base location for all budding Surrealists. Namaste.

Left:

Ajanta Caves.
Maharashtra, before 2^nd century BCE.
India.

Right:

Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple).
Amritsar, Punjab, 1585-1604.
India.

If you are interested in Surrealism, but a journey to India seems a little far (or far-fetched), the Menil Collection, Houston, is the perfect alternative. Currently hosting the exhibition Late Surrealism, you have until August 25th to get to grips with your subconscious, and those of the artists represented. If you’d prefer to do so in the privacy of your own home, grab a copy of Nathalia Brodskaïa’s Surrealism!

- Fiona Torsch

The Good, the Bad, and the 17th Century

Here we are again at the 17^th century, the time of Master Rembrandt and his many self-portraits. But, frankly, when I consider wanting to go back in time, I don’t fancy returning to the 17^th century. There were a tonne of wars. Famines in Russia, France, and Finland and a plague in both Seville and London. Shakespeare died, for crying out loud – I’m still mourning this loss.

 

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Landscape with the Three Trees, 1643.
Etching, drypoint, and engraving, 21.3 × 27.8 cm.
Collection of Marie and George Hecksher.

 

The Good:

• Jamestown, Virginia was established – which later led to a massacre of 347 English settlers by the natives (essentially score one and only)
• St Peter’s Basilica was completed
• Torture was outlawed in England (we’re still waiting for that in other countries)
• Cape Town was founded
• New Amsterdam was founded and soon thereafter renamed New York – I wonder what it would be like if it were still named as such?
• The Taj Mahal was started and completed
• The steam engine
• Bach and Monteverdi
• Rubens
• Donne and Milton
• Galileo and Newton
• (As discussed before) Ice cream

 

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with a Velvet Beret and a Jacket with a Fur Collar, 1634.
Oil on oak, 58.4 x 47.7 cm.
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin.

 

The Bad:

• The pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower
• Aurochs became extinct (I bet you don’t even know what they are)
• Mount Vesuvius erupted
• The Great Fire of London (which might be good because it got rid of that pesky plague)
• The Ottomans
• Louisiana was claimed by France
• Salem witch trials
• Calculus

 

So maybe a fair amount of interesting and positive things occurred, but the bad here weigh rather heavily. I’m much happier in the 21^st century, with the ability to look back smugly and mock.

 

Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels with a Velvet Beret, c. 1654.
Oil on canvas, 74 x 61 cm.
Musée du Louvre, Paris.

 

Visit the de Young Museum in San Fran to see Rembrandt’s Century, through 2 June, whilst still enjoying all of the luxuries of today. Also, keep an eye out for Rembrandt by Émile Michel, out soon from Parkstone!

 

-Le Lorrain Andrews

“Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of death, And prophesyingwith accents terrible Of dire combustion and confused events”- WilliamShakespeare (Macbeth, 2.3)

Ok, let’s talk about the bizarre.

Not the bizarre fascination so many people seem to have with reality shows... TOWIE, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding anyone?  Nor am I talking about the bizarre and scary world which has created the ‘Honey Boo Boo’ phenomenon.  Even the Blobfish and the Aye-Aye lose their bizarreness factor when compared to what I’m going to be talking about! (You may want to Google Blobfish and Aye-Aye, just so you get an idea how bizarre this is going to get...)

Ok, I think I’ve created enough suspense.  Today folks, allow me to introduce you to Hieronymus Bosch: artist extraordinaire, and possessor of one heck of an active imagination!  (Not to be confused with the fictive character of the same name featured in the Michael Connelly books!)

For those of you who may not be familiar with any of Bosch’s work, he created all kinds of mythological and mutant species within his artwork.  Some may be recognisable to us from myth and legend, whereas others are entirely figments of his astonishing imagination.  Many people have suggested, over the years, that Bosch was one of a series of artists suffering from hallucinations (attributed to ergot poisoning – caused by mould in grain), and so this was the source of his extraordinary characters.  Maybe, maybe not. The jury’s out.  But, take a look for yourselves:


The Last Judgement, triptych, c. 1450-1516

In one of Bosch’s works, The Last Judgement, we see a triptych of creation – God casting out the rebel angels, Eve being created from Adam’s rib, the serpent (in the shape of a woman...I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Bosch’s view was that Lilith was the serpent) giving the apple, the angel casting the unfortunate couple from the garden.   Then we have the Last Judgement.  Earth is rife with torments as humanity is shown with all of its sinful nature.  Jesus is above this, judging the souls.  Finally, on the right-hand side is Bosch’s interpretation of hell, where the wicked souls are punished and demons run rampant with giant fish and what appears to be different types of bird creations...I can see aspects of pelicans and penguins in there, and they happen to be wearing green coats.

Now that’s all well and good, but I’ve seen some of this ‘demons and hell’ creativeness before, in other forms.  What is new to me is the ‘Earth’ panel.  Virtually indistinguishable from the ‘Hell’ scenario, the colours and landscape blend together seamlessly.  And then you look closer.  To look at this canvas in person, try and get hold of a magnifying glass! On the computer, make good use of your ‘zoom’!

Perplexing figures of heads on feet, a turbaned head of a man attached to what looks like two spiked shields with a tail and clawed feet (on the top of the roof).


Close-up detail, middle panel, The Last Judgement

Now look to the bottom right-hand corner.  Is that a giant Swiss Army knife?  That’s what it looks like to me! Follow that line to the left, and you’ll come across the mutation of a hatching egg (on legs) with an arrow piercing it.  In between the egg and the Swiss Army knife is what appears to be a plague doctor (with a stork mask as was common in the period of the Black Death).

If this isn’t confusing enough, see if you can spot the other two eggs in this painting.  By their size, in proportion to the rest of the figures, they appear to be ostrich eggs, and are right next to what seems to be a Turkish man, complete with robes and turban.  What makes this especially interesting is that this figure seems to be the only one in the ‘Earth’ panel who is clothed (besides the demons), and then you look closer and see that this may not actually be a human after all – the bird claws acting as his feet give him away.

So, what is your verdict?  Was Bosch just another artist tripping on mouldy grain, or did he actually have a genius for imagining the bizarre and outlandish that few could hope to match (possibly with the exception of Tim Burton!)?

 

Undoubtedly one of the more inventive takes on dystopia that I’ve seen for quite some time, I would highly recommend anyone interested in investigating the fantastical to explore the ‘Fables of Flemish Landscapes, Bosch, Brueghel, Bles, Bril’ exhibition being held at the Palais des Beaux Arts  de Lille from 7^th October 2012 until the 14^th January 2013.  Myths and legends spring from the canvas in this remarkable collection of paintings, reality is exchanged for artistic license, and paradise and hell are created out of the fantasy one unexpectedly finds in the landscape genre.  If you want to brush up on your Bosch before visiting the exhibition, check out our e-book ‘Bosch’ by Virginia Pitts Rembert.  Alternatively, explore the full extent of dystopia in ‘Apocalypse’ by Camille Flammarion.