Analysis of Paintings by Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp and Edvard Munch - Assignment Example

Prompt 1

When a picture is drawn, it keeps changing depending on who is looking at it. It doesn't have a permanent meaning from the time it is perceived in the artist's mind. When an artist comes up with an idea about something, say want to draw an image to express the suffering experienced by a person at a certain time. For instance, in Picasso's work, the weeping woman, the message is perceived differently as time goes by. For example, the actual meaning of the paint was illustrating global or universal suffering. During that time, it was understood about the effect of the Spanish civil war in 1937.

In the current world, the same picture would illustrate the suffering women been going through all from the past. Also, a weeping woman brings a reality that women have been suffering a lot, and they are considered as weeping machines. The same picture would have a general meaning for the future generation about the suffering the world has undergone. A woman being an inferior gender compared to men would not impede the viewer's ability to pity women.

Fig1. Weeping woman by Pablo Picasso 1937

Using a woman in the art would mention a lot to the viewer of the picture. First, it would mean that women are great influencers to their husbands. Looking at Picasso himself, his life was a lot made up of sex, love, and art. His wives inspired his most works. The message sent to every viewer would be suffering, and the power that women possess in controlling the world indirectly. Secondly, it would mean that most men live their whole life working to impress a woman. Picasso could have used another thing to illustrate the suffering of the world, but women dominated his mind.

Art isn't just drawing pictures. Cubism particularly doesn't copy anything from mother nature. Its someone's idea about expressing their view on something to society. In the 20th century, artists concentrated more on what was going on with their lives and society. Today, the art is different as cubists are taking the art to another level, fiction painting. They were painting something magical that doesn't exist. It also shows the ability of the artist to see things in their mysterious imagination.

Prompt 2

The most exciting thing to watch at the Dali/Duchamp exhibition would be "the fountain" by Marcel Duchamp. This art particularly leaves a mark in the world of history as the work itself signifies a lot about the artist and the real world. The artist not only applies analytical thinking but also poses a challenge to the viewer to draw but to represent the whole idea skeptically.

Fig 2: The fountain by Marcel Duchamp

The work is entirely a phenomenon as the art reveals a lot about the artist's personality, life, and what should be done in the world of art. It also imposes questions on why he opted to make the fountain instead of representing it in a drawing. To break this down, the artist chose to make instead of the picture because it was easier to make an impact in the society with a real thing in hand than an idea just present in a drawing. The idea came from a discussion with his friends, and he saw it better to make it out of the scheme.

The art reveals a lot on the artist, mainly on his ability to think differently from the normal. For this reason, it gives a challenge to every artist to think beyond the walls. The art is from a combination of many ideas put in one item. It is made of curves that are similar to a female body. It's a whole combination of existing things and other ideas to contribute to the world of art. The significance of that shows that art also revolves around human life and surrounding, and it's driven by other forces, which are love and sex. Duchamp demonstrated that art is more of a talent in solving modern problems.

The privilege to watch Duchamp's firsthand work would be intimate and powerful. It would be a chance to learn the impeccable details about the fountain and a time to remember the past and reflect the significant importance of the basin. The exhibition instills or strengthens one's interest in the world of art, particularly for young artists looking at the creativity in the art. To the world of art, the fountain represents a way of contextualizing and exhibiting art that makes it pertinent and handy to modern viewers.

Prompt 3

What the Water Gave Me

Explicate Kahlo’s painting, Petit’s poem, and how they work together.

Frida Kahlo’s work represents her experiences in life. What the Water Gave Me is an integration of several of Kahlo's paintings. It uses twelve elements extracted from some of her other paintings. What the Water Gave Me is a representation of games she played in the bathtub as a child and all the pain she went through in both her childhood and adulthood. It also consists of her other works and what inspired her paintings. Even though Kahlo was thought to be a surrealist, she often said that her paintings were a representation of her experiences. She did not get her inspiration from dreams; she painted what she had gone through in her life.

In 1953, the famous poet Pascale Petit produced a book of poems inspired by Frida Kahlo's paintings. He notably wrote a poem about What the Water Gave Me which is similar to the paintings in many ways. In both works of art, Water is a source of comfort to the afflicted person. In the painting water reminded Kahlo of the good memories she made as a child in the bathtub, while in the poem Petit describes Water as a lace wedding gown, hence showing that he perceives Water as beautiful. In Kahlo's, painting a woman is shown to be immersed in Water which presumably represents her while the poem starts with the persona laying in the bath. Both pieces of art show that Water was special to Kahlo.

Both works of art symbolize an incredible amount, both physical and emotional pain. In the painting, Kahlo included several aspects to show her sadness. In the poem, Petit describes suicidal thoughts. “My life dances on the silver surface, where cacti flower” even though the life of the afflicted may seem perfect, there is a lot of pain and trauma in it.

“Water, you are a lace wedding gown.

I slip over my head, giving birth to my death.

I wear you tightly as I burn –

                                             don’t make me come back.”

These lines speak of suicide; the persona is depressed to the point she wants to take her life. She slips her head in the water and waits for her death. She is tired of life and does not want to come back.

Even though both works shed light on depression, there are a few differences. Kahlo's painting only reflects her trauma and painful experiences, while Pascale's poem shows depression and suicidal thoughts.

Prompt 4

Back in the 1890's Edvard Munch created a composition entitled scream. In the writing and the paint drawn from oil, tempera, pastel, and crayon on cardboard, the color more likely showed a frightened man, and behind him, there is a vigorous sky. Most scholars argue that the energetic sky may be attributed to the eruption of the volcano. Munch was more of an expressive writer, and therefore the paint symbolized anxiety and human disorder.

Along exploring Munch's work on a scream, different opinions suggest that there was a different source of inspiration to draw the paint. Some scholars say that he got inspiration from the Krakatoa's eruption, which deeply tinted the skies for a couple of months in 1883 and 1884. It was the same time that munch piled his idea and wrote scream. Also, some inspiration came from the slaughterhouse and lunatic asylum, which are portrayed in the paint.

Fig 3: the scream by Edvart Munch

There is also a lame argument that suggests that his inspiration came after he visited exposition universal in Paris. Munch portrait resembles the Peruvian mummy, buried in a fetal position with hands alongside its face. His visit to exposition was in 1889 after he had created a scream in 1884. The art is now used widely as an icon in modern art to illustrate the anxiety of a modern man.

The scream was created in four versions, two pastels, and two paint. The first paint was exhibited and debuted in 1893. All the release of the scream has been kept in the collection of the Munch Museum in Norway, Oslo. Being a fine and rare art, there have been several attempts of theft in the museum. In one way or another, thieves managed like in 1994, but it was recovered undamaged. In 2004, the same scream was stolen in the munch museum in Oslo, and police later recovered it in 2006.

There were some damages made to scream after it was stolen twice to a point it cannot be repaired. The good news remains that inclusive integrity was not bargained. Munch's work continues on the top list of the most expensive painting, standing at number 4 with a sale auction of $199.9 million.