#427 - 09/13/07 10:23 PM
Surrealism Show
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Joseph Webb
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Registered: 05/15/07
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Loc: Astoria
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So I'm told that I've been selected or whatever to be one of the "judges" for this show, (Lisa, are you also a judge? Who is or are the other or others?), and so I thought I'd toss out some views and invite some feedback. Would somebody on the board tell me just what is expected of a "judge"? I mean, do we judge work in or out? Do we pick "winner(s)"? I have been Honorably Mentioned as well as juried out by the best of them from some of the worst of them, but not at AVA. Are there any guidelines or ground rules? If not, here's what I'm inclined to suggest unless somebody tells me different: In my opinion, "Surrealist" work very closely describes "Reality"; only not THIS Reality ! That is, it does not represent Chaos; it's not Abstraction; it's not Geometry. I guess a huge list might be concocted of all that it's not. But what it is, seems to me, is Art that depicts a world in which one or more of the physical laws of Nature are askew, or do not apply. Objects are not necessarily solid at normal temperatures; plants grow roots up; maybe the Spectrum lacks a few colors. There are some understandable or at least surmisable parameters, within which things appear "normal". How's that sound? Heretical? Irrelevant? Give me an argument, or some guidance for once in my life.
Thanky.
Joe
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#428 - 09/14/07 07:35 AM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: Joseph Webb]
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scottreuter
tiresian visionary
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Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 138
Loc: astoria, OR
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I would recommend we all dust off our surrealist books and discuss creating a definition of surrealism as applied to Astoria, although a thorough re-reading of "Andre Breton: A Revolution of the Mind" is probably out for me right now. As Dinah U. said the other night at the meeting: "Isn't mots of life in Astoria surreal?" (I'm paraphrasing, but she had a point)
By the way Joe, I'm not on the committee, just saying hello. Let me know if I can help you figure out what you want to know. I wish there was time t include a literary component this year, but alas, my fur-covered plate is full right now.
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#429 - 09/15/07 08:53 PM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: Joseph Webb]
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lisa ackerman
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Registered: 08/14/07
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Hello Joe and everyone else,
While it was originally my idea to be one of the jurors when I suggested we do the surreal show, I cannot be one since I would love to submit some work. We are happy to have you as one of the jurors, and I am not sure if there is another lined up yet.
You have a really good idea of what surrealism is. I always like to think of it as an altered reality. I have read in one of my surreal books that "Underlying all surreal art is the collage esthetic, or the reconciliation of 2 distant realities".(Surrealists on Art, edited by Lucy R. Lippard)
To me it is art that can be interpreted very differently by different people. It is visionary art. It can be unsettling, crazy, quirky, dark, beautiful, metamorphic, nonconformist,social protest,a return to childhood, something that stirs the soul and you just don't know why.
Of course there are the ones you typically associate with Surrealism: Magritte, Dali, de Chirico, Ernst, Delveaux, that had painted outright recognizeable forms with a twist. The concept of Surrealism though, is open to interpretation, and maybe the title of the painting is the surreal part. And maybe it's the frame. Maybe it only looks surreal when it's turned upside down and called something else. Sometimes it is just reaching into your automatic mind and drawing the first thing that comes out and piecing it together with other random thoughts, like a dream sequence.
Well more on this later,
I've got to puncture my umbrella so I can see the sun,
Lisa
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#430 - 09/16/07 11:17 PM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: lisa ackerman]
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Joseph Webb
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Thank you. Good stuff.
Joe
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#431 - 09/17/07 07:20 AM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: Joseph Webb]
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scottreuter
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Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 138
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In reading about Dali (Dali: A Shameless Life Bio I think it was) I found it very interesting that those strange rock formations and plants over which the clocks were draped were actually real rock formations from his childhood home. So that surreal landscape was quite real for him. Freud and the subconscious were all the rage in art at the time, Dali really cashed in on it, amazing stories of him sitting and signing stacks of unprinted paper every day to later be turned into signed prints by unscrupulous dealers, of which he knew many.
Enough of Dali, so many others were in the movement, and Dali was even ejected from the group! My favorite image of him is that of the night he was ejected from the Surrealists, him wearing a giant bearskin coat, and refusing to take it off during the meeting, so that he was absolutely drenched in sweat as the meeting progressed, or digressed I suppose from his point of view.
This makes me anxious to go back and look up Marcel Duchamp's surrealist work - he was not a joiner, liked to be out in front, but he participated for a while as he did with the DaDaists.
And then of course Man Ray - got to see a wonderful retrospective of his work in Los Angeles at MOCA - must have nbeen in the 90's... That wonderful Electric Blue Baguette floating in a vitrine! Not to mention the iron with nails soldered on. And they showed Man Ray films on a wall in one corner - great fun. One of my favorite Man Ray stories was when he was asked to come and lecture for an art class on DaDa. He walked in, cut up a bicycle inner tube into pieces, handed out paper with numbers, then used those to distribute the pieces of rubber inner tube to the class. End of lecture.
Thanks for getting me thinking about surrealism for a while - looking forward to the show!
Scott
....If not, here's what I'm inclined to suggest unless somebody tells me different: In my opinion, "Surrealist" work very closely describes "Reality"; only not THIS Reality ! That is, it does not represent Chaos; it's not Abstraction; it's not Geometry. I guess a huge list might be concocted of all that it's not. But what it is, seems to me, is Art that depicts a world in which one or more of the physical laws of Nature are askew, or do not apply. Objects are not necessarily solid at normal temperatures; plants grow roots up; maybe the Spectrum lacks a few colors. There are some understandable or at least surmisable parameters, within which things appear "normal". How's that sound? Heretical? Irrelevant? Give me an argument, or some guidance for once in my life.
Thanky.
Joe
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#432 - 09/17/07 07:30 PM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: scottreuter]
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tango2
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Registered: 05/01/07
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Sounds heretical!
Mare
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#433 - 09/18/07 08:15 PM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: tango2]
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Joseph Webb
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Oh good !!
Joe
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#434 - 09/20/07 10:31 PM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: scottreuter]
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Joseph Webb
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Scott,
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Actually I just wanted to get a discussion going, if I could, for something to do. Many visual artists, I've found, operate so much in the Right Brain that they hate all this kind of wordy crap. But not you. Nor I, nor my wife. She is a writer as well as a painter, and I also am a would-be word-smith. We are not alone, of course. The "Conceptual" folks, it seems to me, are into the verbiage to the extent they have abandoned any real concern about what the damn stuff looks like. Little piles of gravel in the corner of a museum, etc., with an essay attached. Anyway, thanks.
Joe
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#435 - 09/21/07 07:33 AM
Re: Surrealism Show
[Re: Joseph Webb]
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scottreuter
tiresian visionary
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Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 138
Loc: astoria, OR
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You are most welcome. Same here on writing. I need both - the writing and the making of actual objects to be happy.
I have a great book that you and Mary would enjoy called "The DaDa and Surrealist Word-Image" - can't remember who wrote it right now.
Finished my piece last night for the river show Saturday night. Hope to see you there.
Scott
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