Post #7 The Effect of War on Art

The beginning of World War I in 1914 brought about change in thought about politics and society. The tension between nations boiled to the point of all out war and the world saw death and destruction on a scale and level that had never been seen before. All of this change, destruction and chaos also made its impact on art. The thoughts about what is art and how it is created were once again shifted in a radical way. The first being the Dada art movement, who wanted to challenge and critique art itself. The second movement, Surrealism, came later and was very interested in social, sexual and cultural revolution, as well as the subconscious and dreams. What both movements shared was a question and desire to challenge the artist's role in creating art.

When looking at pieces from the Dada art movement it would be easy to conclude that anything goes. The only "rule" might be to break all the rules that already exist. But art from the Dada movement is still contrived, making clear commentary about politics and society through art. The use of humor and meaninglessness in these pieces at such a time of war and turmoil is where Dada gets its hold. The ironies and conflicts between where the world stands and what is presented in Dada art makes it attention grabbing. One prominent Dada artist, Marcel Duchamp, challenged all things art, even to the core of what it means to be an artist. He went as far as to question whether it was required to touch, manipulate or create for one to consider themselves an artist. Duchamp would "create" his art by coming across ready made or found objects and submitting them as finished pieces with little or no alteration to them. One such piece is titled Fountain and is simply a urinal fountain with a name marked on it. This goes back to the earlier point of challenging the artist's role in creating art. Duchamp felt that as an artist he need not handle material to make art but could find his sculptures and was then responsible for presenting them as art. I personally think that Duchamp's ready made sculptures do exist as art. At the time he started to do these, no one had thought of art in this way. This change in thinking about art can contribute as much to art as a collection of physical pieces. You can see in history that Duchamp had a large influence on other artists using found objects within their own work such as photo montages and sculpture.

The Surrealist art movement came about at the end of the first world war and latched onto Marxist and Freudian influence. Marxist in its strive for social revolution and Freudian in its interest in sexuality, subconscious and dreams. Surrealist artists wanted to convey their dreams through paint on canvas. To do this, many pieces maintain elements or realism and recognizable imagery but then radically distort them from how they exist in real life. Painter Salvador Dali and his piece titled Persistence are famous examples of Surrealist art. In the painting we see clocks with true to life colors, sheen, and appearance but are distorted to look melting, dripping or floppy as well. Blending elements of what we see in real life and how they may exist in a dream space is what Surrealist art is about. Surrealists also challenged the artist's role in creating art as well. They are interested in taking away some of the subjective control of creating art and to have more of their subconscious and dream existence come through.