Dimensions in Art - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Initially, this was considered inelegant and greatly criticized. However, by the time he painted The Stonebreakers, opinions on the realist style were changing. In painting The Stonebreakers, Courbet sought to depict the harsh lives that peasants went through as evidenced by the painting’s revealing illustration of trying conditions faced by the miners (Riat 101). The painting includes a peasant man and a peasant boy using mallets to break up boulders, while dressed in torn clothes. One is immediately drawn to the sharpness and depth of the canvas and the rigid details of the painting, which has no drama or romanticism. This trait is uniquely realist. One also notices the monotony of color used, reflecting the painting’s languid tone as the man and boy break up the boulders. This is especially important for Courbet as it allows him to draw attention to the peasants’ efforts. In addition, Courbet also seems to be drawing attention to the ages of the boy and man since the man seems to old and the boy too young to be breaking boulders (Riat 101). The painting also reveals the industrial era and the poverty that existed alongside it. Unfortunately, peasants were the most disadvantaged people during the industrial revolutions, especially in the mines and factories (Riat 102). Most of the peasants, with increased mechanization of farm work, were forced into the mines, while young boys were exploited for their labor as they could be underpaid. The Stonebreakers is reflective of the unease that Courbet felt for the abuse of the vulnerable by an increasingly capitalist society, as well as the agony and anguish they suffered in the mines with the hard work. This was a main theme in the realist era and Courbet uses mellow colors and unexaggerated style to draw attention towards the peasants’ plight (Riat 102). This work, alongside other works by Courbet, was an inspiration for future modernists and impressionists with its focus on contemporary society and events. This was suggestive of the improved innovation in art that finally led to the surrealist era. The Bullfight’s artist Joan Miro was born in Barcelona in 1893 and was a ceramist, a sculptor, and painter. As a painter, he evolved greatly throughout the early to mid-20th century with his work earning wide international acclaim throughout the same period (Brodskaia 56). While The Bullfight can be interpreted as surrealist art, Miro himself refused to ascribe his work to this art style and simply referred to his paintings during this era as semi-abstract. While surrealism stood out during this period, The Bullfight was more had a greater degree of abstraction as compared to other major surrealist artists at the time like Pablo Picasso. In The Bullfight, Miro seeks to represent his Catalan heritage of bull fighting in an abstract way, most likely due to the persecution he suffered under Dictator and anti-Catalan leader General Franco (Brodskaia 56). Miro had always been critical of contemporary painting styles, claiming that it was in support of the bourgeois, and The Bullfight was one of his ways to “assassinate painting” through an upset of established elements of painting (Brodskaia 150). The painting shows a raging bull being outmaneuvered by a skillful el-matador, although one has to look closely to actually make out the el-matador’s figure. Miro also exaggerates some of the bull’ ...Download file to see next pagesRead More