Senselessness

Surrealism

Out of all the movements that exist and to exist, Surrealism is my favourite by far. Especially on paintings and cartoons which I love to watch. They are just so much better than anything else, even when they had Breton on their backs, these are still the best and most interesting and greatest paintings and it is a bit underrated, but I like the fact that it is underrated, since not everyone knows it like everyone knows Monet or Van Gogh, and they surely don't know what they're missing. In my opinion, in literature, film, theater, poetry, paintings, cartoons, sculpture or just about anything, surrealism is the most interesting and the most worthy to watch. And the reason I think all this is that in one surrealist painting there can be like a thousand meanings and more and they are so interesting, unlike, realist or impressionist or even abstract in fact which yes are interesting but not anywhere near as much as surrealism. Also because they are the most creative, the most outside the box and the closest proof that painting can and is a great thing to watch when it is properly made since because it has absolutely no limits in how far imagination can go. Also most of them are violent and aggresive and I love that, even the titles are amazing.

I actually have two Salvador Dalí paitings (The persistance of memory and meditative rose) hanging in my room, who is probably the most know but still great. Few of them I knew already like Miro and Magritte. and 'Solitude' by Paul Delvaux.

There usually is but only this time there hasn't been an actual painting that I didn't like.

It actually is kind of sad. I can't begin to express how much I would like to go and see each and everyone of these and more surrealist paintings, much less express how bad it feels to know that that day is in fact, so far away. I've only had the chance to be in Fida Kahlo's museum in mexico city.

Surrealist Sculpture


Surrealist sculpture is very interesting because what the title says almost only remotely related to what you can actually see but completely relates to what the sculptor wanted to say. Just like in paintings none at all realist but way beyond that and also the most interesting, probably not the most shocking or amazing like the Gates of hell which has a billion figures but they are still more interesting to watch.

Surrealist Comics, Cartoons, and Illustration


I also love surrealist cartoons and comics as I mentioned before. It is just amazing and the most fun and interesting to watch.

For years and years when I was a young boy maybe age 4 or 5 I started to watch Courage, the cowardly dog, which is a surrealist humor cartoon. For almost 10 or 11 years I watched it every single day in the morning and I still would although it is not shown or produced anymore. He has ennemies from an army of eggplants to weird monsters and animals and each and everyone shows surrealist and sybolist features. His arch enemy was an alien duck and he was often helped by a floating white head with no eyes.

Cubism

Picasso and Braque

Although Picasso's paintings are intensely creative and they look very amazing and that they took a lot of work, I think this was an overrated movement (cubism). Because the shapes are basic, they don't require too much skill. I've been told that making a Picasso replica is very easy indeed since you only have to draw the boxes and them fill them with color. 
I'm not saying I don't like it, though, I do like the paintings and the effect that the squares and shapes create because it looks most of the times aggresive and harsh, but yes it probably is overrated, or maybe not, but there is no getting away from the fact that they are very easy to make and that they do not require high skills or technique like, say, realism, expressionism, symbolism, etc. Except from the paintings which aren't so cubic, of course, meaning he was a skilled painter. I'm only saying that cubism or cubist paintings weren't so hard.
Picasso's high notoriety and popularity is probably due, as its metioned in the notes, to the fact that he could promote himself and that he lived a public life.

Almost exacly the same goes to Braques' cubist paintings, although, I liked his a bit more. They have more shapes which aren't just straight lines.

Cubist sculpture

Cubist sculptures made by Picasso or Braque are actually more interesting than their cubist paintings. They look, although not too cubist, much more modern than any other sculpture we've seen so far. 
That being said, I liked them but I think still not too much work, creativity a lot, difficulty, not so much (except for the women's head), especially the paper sculptures and the ones made with off cuts of wood.

Expressionism

Woyzeck / Wozzeck

I like the play very much and I can easily see how this play fits in the expressionist movement, it is very tragic. All of Woyzeck's feeling and what he thinks are reflected in his visions and then he acts them out. Like in most cases, he murdering Marie and beating up the Drum-Major (although he probably had it coming), is a result of add up situations such as his violent hallucinations, his poverty, the critizism from people, him being a lab rat and of course, the anger produced by his wife having an affair.
Although, sometimes or most of the times he manages to keep his cool rather impressively.
The author probably had hallucinations of the type because these are very violent and creative so I think he must've had experiences alike and wrote about them to express what he feels and get it out of him.
Now, for the Wozzeck opera, I didn't like it very much. As I've said before in a post, I don't really like opera, although, the connection to the opera and the feelings of the play is very wide and easily  identified. Also I think opera is a great example of the expressionist movement since its almost purely expressions and emotions.


Expressionist Architecture

I fail to see the expressionism in a building. I think buildings follow form and because they are always for a purpose other than looking good, they do not transmit feelings or expressions all that well. Some of the are a lot of information and colors and forms, but with all this its hard to find emotions in a building.

Der Blaue Reiter

• Lyonel Feininger

His paintings are very near cubism, yet they show a lot of emotions in the way that when you see it you know it wasn't a commissioned painting and that Feininger did it to say something to the viewer. The Harbor Mole is very violent and scary but I loved it because it is so near abstract or cubist and it shows feelings like tragedy and pain.

Altthoug, I didn't like that much his more realistic and happy paintings such as Toy Town although thet are still amazing.

• Paul Klee

Very alike to the other expressionist painters. I think they are, apart from Saturn devouring his son, and The scream, the most expressionistic. I mean they produce more feelings or the transmit them more and more efficiently.

Austrian Expressionism

• Oskar Kokoschka

Although his paintings, in my opinion aren't as good and amazing as Egon Schiele's, these are still very amazing and I like them very much. I love the technique he used because it makes it look very violent and along with the colors it creates a great effect of violence and abstraction or weird forms. They are incredibly interesting to watch and try to describe them completely.

Expressionist Theater and Film

Theater and film is probably the easiest way (probably even more than opera) to express your feelings in an artistic and beautifull and not direct way. But, you are limited to what you can do. For example, in a painting you can make anything in any way but making a film you have to stick to human reality which could be limited in certain ways, but still, since there is movement and sound, very easily to express feelings and they are easily and successfully perceived.

A good example (at least for me, since its probably only slightly expressionistic), is Vincent by Tim Burton which is so expressive and I love it.

Expressionist Poetry

Poetry, in expressionism, was and is in fact the most educated and stylish way of expressing your feeling artistically. Most of them use vocabulary which some people might not normally now and also everything or almost everything is  in context and in between the lines. 

Fauvism & Silent Cinema

Les maudits

• Modigliani

My first reaction to this, and I must say it, Modigliani looks like a serial killer in the photograph. 

Just like when we saw 'poetes maudits', from the name you expect the paintings to be very crazy, dark and interesting, and unlike the poets, I think this has actually fulfilled that name.

Modigliani's portraits are very interesting and dark because they do not have bright colors. Also, I like very the way he made the faces and their necks. It is very interesting style and sort of mysterious; although, it was probably all the drugs, but they are still amazing.

Also in his portraits the brushwork looks very messy in some of them like in 'Chaim Soutine', and I like that. Also I love the blood red colors.

Whenever I know that a painting caused a scandal and was banned by the police and confiscated I know I'm going to like it. And although I don't lke very much the nude painting, it is very realistic and harsh in certain aspects that aren't pleasant at all, that we have in reality, which he could've omitted in a painting but its a great painting.

• Soutine

One of my favourite painters so far in this course. I do not like the idea of painting food, but 'Carcass of Beef' woman in red and Plane Trees at Ceret are just amazing. Especially the beef. I loved it so much I would in fact like one in my house or room. It is so violent and I love the contrast of the colors and the abstract background and how it seems the blood is spilling on the left and the intensity of that red and although blood isn't so bright, this is an amazing painting

.

After seeing Modigliani's portrait of him, I would't imagine that that guy painted such amazing and violent paintings.

• Valadon

Her paintings are great but I having trouble giving her much credit because she probably had the skill and everything but she didn't develop a style of her own at all, but she was entirely influenced by other great painters.

Even so, I like a lot the brightness of her paintings and the way it looks both realistic and like cartoons. Just like in 'The two bathers' in which they look realistic but at the same time more like cartoons because of the outline and the color. And when it comes to nude paintings and art I find it more interesting when they are not beautiful or perfect in any way like depictions of Venus and godesses, such as this one.

• Utrillo

His paintings are very realistic and good, but in my opinion they are the least interesting of les maudits, because they are very calm and bright and smooth brushwork which and too realistic. And all of these things add up to not draw too much attention to a painting.

Wild men of Music

• Igor Stravinsky

The fact that he had 'periods' in his career, I think is what is the most correct to do. When you do the same thing for your entire life, it may still be interesting and good and all but it won't shock people or cause disturb anymore, because they've gotten used to it or something. 

I don't usually like ballet, maybe because I can't understand it and mainly because what the do and how they move, at least 99.87% of the time has nothing to do with anything and it is very weird. Sometimes it is interesting to watch but most of the time it won't make sense at all and 'The rite of spring' is not the exception. But it is wild and a bit different which makes it interesting and nice in some moments.

Silent Cinema

I think motion pictures at that time must've been very interesting subject. I think is must've been to them as what we think now of flying cars, but they did it! and I hope flying cars as well. And silent cinema is very interesting and even today because you fill in in your head and the movie is not the same, something you can't do today. Now, in my opinion it doesn't really matter who got there first because we can't know for sure, but the Autochrome color photographs look amazingly good. It looks like a picture taken yesterday with a huge high-tech camera, and the program of 50 second films must have been amazing to watch when you didn't think a picture could move.

Its is in fact amazing how far we've come and how fast because prior to the 1880's there was probably not even beginnings of movied and nothing had been done for all those years befor 1880, but once the first ones were made it blew up and in less than 40 years we had movies which were longer, looked better, had color had better plot and weren't so complicated to produce anymore. 

Nosferatu from 1922, a movie I've watched several times, just 20 years later is more than an hour long and the detail is much better since the movie shows more real thing, unlike Le voyage dans la lune which looks quite fake.

Salome

This is a very interesting play. I liked it a lot because of the plot but also because I is a bit unconventional and it involves some weird or maybe creepy stuff such as she kissing on the mouth the head of the dead prophet. Also I thought it was overreacting when the Young Syrian killed himself and he fell between Salome and Iokanaan but they didn't seem to care, nor Herod or Herodias, who instead took it as an omen.

I really like the script, I think I would enjoy very much watching the play being performed.

I liked a lot, at the beginning, how they compared the moon to all those things, like a dead women, a woman dancing, it's just very nice to imagina that. 

I also liked how they start criticizing people for discussing religion and then they talk about their Gods. The Nubian says his gods are very harsh and they sacrifice 150 people every year but its not enough. The Cappadocian thinks the roman drove his Gods out, but he thinks they are dead. And the Jews worship only things that one cannot see. "the Cappadocian: that seems to me altogether ridiculous.", And that is true so that was funny.

After reading Salome I can understand how a painter could've come up with 'Salome with the head of John the Baptist' which at first glance if very weird and abstract and interesting.

Although, there could exists many different depictions or interpretations of Salome like in Richard Strauss' opera in which she is this crazy women not that beautiful, I think the best is the one in which she is interpreted as a crazy but beautiful and calm, almost naive women because it causes greater impact.

I thought it was funny that, at the very end, even though the decapitation and the near-necrophilia scene happens, Herodias, her mother is like 'yeah, she done alright'. If I could add something to the play, it would certainly be that they kill Herodias as well.

James Joyce "Dubliners"

Dubliners

A painful case

The story of a painful case is a story of Mr. Duffy who is a middle aged solitary guy who lives a very boring rutine life meets at a concert a married women called Emily Sinico. At first, they only met by accident, 3 times in fact. But they Mr. Duffy asks her to go out and meet somewhere. 

This then, becomes regular and they see each other regularly which is no problem because Emily's husband is nauve and doesn't think that his wife would be attractive and he thinks that Mr. Duffy is interested only in their daughter. 

But they always met in hidden or obscure places and Mr. Duffy didn't like this so he invites her to his house.

As time passes and they see each other very regularly, they become close and one day Emily takes Mr. Duffy's hand and presses it to her cheek because she thought he was very lonely. They both freak out and they don't meek for about a week and then they decide that they should meet no longer.

So then, Mr. Duffy's rutined life begins again. 

But one day, reading the newspaper, he sees an article which shocks him. An article about Emily's death.

He thinks a lot about how he could've done more to help her and that his life will continue to be the same, boring and lonely until he dies. He imagines she is there walking besides him and that he can hear her voice. Then he stops to rest under a tree, and he stops hearing her and he is all alone.

In my opinion this is a great story. Its just so tragic and I love it when a story doesn't have the most common and boring happy ending but instead a tragic and shocking one. Mr. Duffy's lonely life could've been fixed by Emily. But the same way, I think because her husband was never there, Emily was even lonelier and they could've done something more. Also, it is pretty dumb that Mr. Duffy will simply carry one with his boring and lonely life when he has seen where it leads.

Two Gallants

This story is about two yound men walking besides each other down a hill in Rutland Square called Lenehan and Corley. Corley is telling Lehenan a story. This story if about a girl who works as a housekeeper.

Corley is telling Lehenan how they met and how much fun he has had being with her. But most importantly talking about girls and sex. They mention that a 'slavey' girl is the best to have for a number of reasons. But Corley's hosekeeper girl is engaged in prostitution. And Lehenan constantly asks if he can 'bring it off'.

Corley meets with the girl and after a while Lehenan meets with him.

This story wasn't interesting to me, it was a bit boring and I didn't like it. I must be honest I skipped some parts because I wanted to move on.

Eveline

This is a story about Eveline who has been living in Ireland in the same house since she was a young girl taking care of her two siblings. But now time has passed. Her father is old a bitter. One of her brothers is dead and the other one is constantly away on business so she has to take care of her dad and she had promised her deceased mother that she would keep the house for as long as she could.

But her dad was mean and often violent. He sometimes was nice to her but not generally and she was tired. She worked all day and gived everything to the family and to the house to receive nothing.

She was planning to leave Ireland for good. She was going to leave Ireland and go to Buenos Aires with a sailor called Frank. Although, her father disliked Frank she loved him. He treated her like she deserved and told her interesting stories about him traveling around the world.

Everything was se and they were already getting on the boat to leave Ireland and never come back. But she is haunted by the thought of leaving his father to himself at such old age. She runs off the boat and runs. Frank follows screaming. Then she turned to him and looked him very indiferently, like a stranger, "[...] no sign of love or farewell or recongnition."

This was a very short story and I liked that. Because everything sort of happens a bit quickly and it is a big decision and it could be difficult but because it happens so fast you can feel the pressure. Also, the ending is very interesting and it makes you want to keep reading or at least know what she was thinking. I also love that type of endings and in general I enjoyed this story.

Counterparts

The story is a bout a man called Farrington who works for Mr. Alleyne who is a little bald and pink man who abused on Farrington and was always yelling at him and complaining about his work. 

He is told by Mr. Alleyne with a very short deadline to write a contract. But he goes out for a drink. And on the way back to work the chief clerk runs to him and tells him that Mr. Alleyne wants the copy of the correspondance of the Delacour case. Delacour is a middle-aged women with money and Mr. Alleyne was said to be "sweet on her or on her money".

Farrington give the correspondance hoping that he will not notice that the las two letters are missing. Then he gets back to work but he drifts of to thinking for a few and he is interrumpted by Mr. Alleyne screaming at him. But, he answers incorrectly or inapropiately to a rhetorical question and he now must apologize to Mr. Alleyne.

He paws his watch and goes all night drinking with friends and collegues. Later, they are introduced to a man called Weathers. Who arm wrestles with Farrington beating him and making him very angry and making him look bad. 

On his way home his anger grows and grows and when he gets home, his wife is not there and he orders his son Tom to cook him dinner but when he sees that the fire in the kitchen is out he chases the boy and beats him with a stick and the kid screamed "I'll say hail mary for you pa, if don't beat me".

This is a very interesting ending of the story because it even mentions that he wasn't drunk or anything. In my opinion it was all a sum of his anger because of Mr. Alleyne abusing on him all the time, his povery and the anger when Weather beat him and made him look band when he had been the star of the night by saying that to his boss, although, he didn't mention the apology part.

But still, what fault did his son have and also, even if being very angry and all that the son was very obedient so there was no reason to hit him. 

I didn't like this ending too much because it is very inconclusive, but not like in Eveline, this feels inconclusive literally. Also I didn't like how the jump from one place to another and then to another place and so on.

An encounter

An encounter is a story about Joe Dillon who introduces the wild west to their friends and he and his brother would invite several kids to play together. But Joe was too rough for the other boys and his band always won the battles.

But then the narrator doesn't get the same thrill about the wild west and wants to experience a real adventure. He does this with Leo, Joe's brother and a boy named Mahony to look for a real adventure.

They meet at the Canal bridge but Leo doesn't show. And they wander thought the streets and different neighborhoods, they eat lunch and they cross a river using a ferry.

When wandering in another neighborhood, Mahony chases after a cat to a field. By this time they had to go back home to avoid getting caught so they cross the field to take a train but they encounter a strange old man. The man asks them and talks for a while and then Mahony runs chasing the cat leaving the narrator with the old man. Scared, the narrator is pleased when he returns.

I didn't like this story that much. It is interesting and quite amusing to imagine the boys on a real-life adventure and all they went through but it still isn't the type of story I'm usually into. 

Natural design

Art Nouveau

• Germany

The german more 'somber' designs and patterns are very amazing but I don't think they would've worked, except for monuments and tombs like Obrist did, because not too many people would like to live in a place like that, and also, because of the shapes, the interior would be limited.

• France

Mucha's designs and posters are very interesting, although, some of them are a bit too colorful for me. Also the patters are very good and there should be, in my opinion, more patterning and less person.

I didn't like at all Lalique's designs but Galles are amazing. I would love to have those vases in my house, they are very beautiful and I love the colors. I like the way it is almost abstract and the way you hardly notice the mountains in the Engraved crystal vase. I actually can't decide between one of them so I would have them both.






















As for furniture, I loved Vallin and Guimard's desks, not so much the chairs, but I do like very much the desks, especially Vallin's because it sort of flows and it look very old and scary. I looks like it was made by a single piece of wood.

• Belgium

Horta's building are just so amazing I was stunned at that stairway and the museum. I want to be there in person so badly because I know it will look much more amazing. I might take some ideas from those hotels to build my house in the future, if I have the dough of course.

• Catalunya

One of the places I have always wanted to go is The sagrada familia in barcelona. It is just astonishing to look at in pictures and videos and to see that it person must be overwhelming. The beautiful roof and the desing are just too much, it doens't seem real. 

Gaudi's work should have a movement of his own. Maybe it was around that time and was influeced and so on but he was great and had differences like no other.



Chicago School

William LeBaron Jenney's buildings don't give much to talk about or react to, except from the big achievement and leap forward they were by moving with the times and starting to use metal as frames for the entire building and also to make them very tall.

All of the building are very boxy and symmetric so maybe a little uninteresting.