Eine Kleine Nachtmusik painting - Essay Example

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Eine Kleine Nachtmusik means a little night music in English this is intended to beironic as it has night music that is soothing to children. In fact, the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik can be de described as a dark piece that represents different paths that exist in the night. It is this dark title that inspired Tanning to name his painting after the dark music. The doll seemed to have had a fight with the petal, and the darker haired figure also has her hair spun like the tendrils of the sunflower. The positioning of the sunflower and the petals can be said to be dark and this might another reason as to why the painting was named Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik can be described as one of the best known Dorothea Tanning’s early painting. The painting depicts what appears to be a motel or hotel corridor with numbered doors, the farthest of which is open enough in order to offer a certain glimpse of incandescent light. There seems to be activity inside the open room that does not exist in the three doors. This is one of the signs of life that exists in the painting. The open door is the only unnumbered door and for this reason it can be said to hold a lot of mystery. The other three doors are named meticulously and they seem to be tightly locked. A giant sunflower lies on the top of the staircase and two petals lie further down the stairs. The giant sunflower is colossal as it occupies almost at the top of staircase. The third petal is held up by a doll that is propped up against one of the doorways number 207. There are two dolls that are in the painting and they are remarkably life like and wear clothing that is almost similar. The two dolls can only be described as toys because of their hairline as well as regularly molded contours of the torso. The walls are cracked indicating that either there was an earthquake or the building is very old. The cracks are especially located between doors 207 and door 208. It is in between these two doors where the girl and the doll are located. This might indicate also that there might have been a power struggle that existed between the doll and the girl or even the presence of supernatural forces. The doll that leans on the door is very tired and it is evident that she is half naked. She holds one petal of the sunflower in her hand and one can only guess that she had a fight with the aggressive sunflower or a confrontation of a certain kind. In front of the girl are some sepals that she has to confront if she wants to go and move towards the room with light. She has to work extra hard in order to move towards it. Peter Porter in his poem named Eine Kleine Nachtmusik argues that when one has lost whatever is to lose one goes to the House of Tatterdemalion proofs. It in this house that reality is adjacent to itself and Blake’s sunflower is stranded. The poem is based on the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Dorothea Tanning’s painting. However, it is imperative to understand that Porter presents a completely new aspect of the painting. He brings the perspective of partygoers and argues that the door 210 is ajar waiting to receive someone. Instead of the mysterious light being an intrigue, Porter argues that the door is just another open door and that there is nothing special about it. However, just like the painting, the poem emphasizes the concept of determination and in fact it shows that one cannot dream without determination as there is a need for one to have rage in order to run the dreams. This is the rage that the girl needs to use in order to cross to the other side of the aisle. It can be argued that the tattered state of the clothes that are worn by the dolls show indeed that there has been some sort of a struggle encounter with powerful forces. In fact, the girl’s long hair is propped up high into the air as if a powerful gust of wind has just pushed it up. The painting therefore, seems to be about confrontation, the girl and the doll seems to have been in confrontation with several forces. However, it is imperative to understand that the sex of the doll cannot be established, this is because the clothes that it is wearing are unisex and do not in any way depict the male or female species. Sunflowers can be described as the most aggressive of flowers and this might be the reason as to why the flower is used in the painting. It contributes to the overall aggressiveness in the painting and energy which exists in the painting. The painting represents life, while people do not always have giant aggressive flowers to contend with, they often have stairways, hallways, and private theatres that have suffocations as well as finalities are being played out. The painting has softer lines as well as colors, however, they retain the same disturbing qualities characteristic to his work. The young woman leans by the door, half dressed and exhausted the question that lingers is what has happened there or what is about to happen. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was made when Tanning was staying with a companion Max Ernst, in Arizona. It was their first trip into Arizona and it is an area that they lived for five years, in her memoir; Tanning remembers how Mozart could be described as her favorite topic of conversation at the time. In fact, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was titled after one of his serenades. By the door of the ranch, Tanning planted several sunflower seeds and with time she became fascinated with the plants. She argued that the sunflower in the painting represented all things that the youth had to face and deal with. The sunflower represented the never ending battle that people often wage with unknown forces, unknown doors as well as forces that existed long before the world’s civilization. The intervention of the unexplained supernatural forces that exist in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik are characteristic of the gothic novels that Tanning read in her youth and which were admired by many writers and artist at the surrealist groups in which she associated with and beyond. Historians such as Whitney Chadwick have often argued and suggested that the composition of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik could have been inspired by Danger of the Stairs 1927. The Danger on the stairs paints a large snake on a staircase by the Pierre Roy the French Surrealist. Tanning might have seen this work in the 1936 exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Chadwick argues that in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, what Tanning does is to remove the snake with all its Freudian content and in turn she replaces it with a writhing and torn sunflower. This is an image that can be strongly identified with Tanning’s Midwest origins. The sunflower image is closer to nature and unlike the snake it is able to convey impressions of both menace as well as fecundity. However, it is imperative to note that the resemblance that exists between the two paintings is not as compelling and in fact Tanning has firmly rejected the comparison that exists between them. Tanning argued that Eine Kleine Nachtmusik should not be compared to a perfectly proportioned and a near photographic depiction of an anaconda that exists on stairs, that is neatly painted and somewhat in a manner that can be described as Magritte and simple minded. He finished by arguing that the scene although it is infrequent, it might be possible in the natural outside world, however, it might not be able to exist in Tanning’s world. In conclusion, Tanning’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik can only be described as a master piece. The painting is painted in a realist fashion, and is a symbol of all the different and diverse things that the youth has to face and deal with. This includes the never ending battle that exists between different unknown forces. The painting is well detailed showing open doors and cracks in the walls. Tanning loved sunflowers after planting them in the ranch door and after some time the sunflower became a fascination. This is where she got her inspiration about the use of sunflower in the painting. There are several persons that have tried to argue where Tanning got her inspiration from, there are those that argue that she got her inspiration from several paintings. However, Tanning denied all these and argued that the painting originated from an original concept from within him and that he only got inspiration from the realist modern museum. Further, the intervention of the unexplained supernatural forces can also be said to have played a major role in influencing the painting. Works Cited http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/tanning-eine-kleine-nachtmusik-t07346​ Read More