By: Fatmeh Ali For my 2-D contextual analysis, I chose Georges Seurat’s oil painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” Georges Seurat was a French Painter during the post-impressionest era. He was born on December 2, 1859 in Paris, France and passed away on March 29, 1891 in Paris, France. This painting is an example of Pointilism, as he invented the method and was known as the “Father of Pointilism.” This was a method he used when creating this piece which consisted of using small dots of color in certain patterns in order to form images. He studied at the École Municipale de Sculpture et Dessin, which was an art academy run by a sculptor near his family home. He later moved to the École des Beaux-Arts, where he focused on drawing and copying other artist’s work (Prahl, 2019). Later, he decided to diverge from the art style taught by his school and traveled to the island of La Grande Jatte, where he found his inspiration for this piece. Additionally, a source of inspiration for Seruat was a Grammaire, which was known as a book created from ideas on color that were derived from many different artists (“Artble”, 2017). When looking at the oil painting many visual aspects stand out to the viewers. The first thing a viewer many take into account is the composition of the piece. Seruat carefully position’s everything to create balance ( which is known as the distribution of apparent visual weights), and make the entire piece intriguing to look at. The river towards the left of the painting is filled with yachts and boats, while the right side of the piece is filled with large amonuts of people to match the balance. Also, his placement of people in the middle such as the mother and daughter holding hands, makes the piece more appealing, as there is activity in all directions. Additionally, he chooses to have all the people face sideways or straight, which makes the people seem more rigid and toy-like. Moreover, the color palette used by Serauts attracts the viewers. Traditionally, in painting shadows are portrayed by the color black; however, Seruat is able to create his shadows based on the color they come in contact with. An example that depicts this is the skirts of the women. The skirt of the woman sitting on the grass towards the left of the painting portrays a blue shadow on the ground. This is also repeated with the woman on the right as the light mixed with green cast a yellow halo on the trees. Her dress created a yellow line before the arrival of the shadow, this yellow hue (which is known as a specific visible color) can be seen towards the back of her dress. Furthermore, perspective ( which is identified as creating an illusion and depth on 2-D surfaces) plays a major role in this piece, as the figures towards the front of the piece are closer to the viewer; thus, intentionally making the woman’s dress enlarged. Her and the man beside her are largest figures in a painting of vast proportions and their size plays a role in balancing the piece. Seurat’s intention was to depict an interesting glimpse of wealthy Parisian life during the 19th century. The island itself is located in Paris and represented a high class get away for the Parisian community (“Artble”, 2017). Personally, when I look at this painting it reminds me of power and privilege. This piece indicates that certain individuals had the luxury of relaxing on Sunday afternoons in beautiful parks. As seen in the painting, they are all dressed similarly (fancy attire), which indicates that this area was solely for the upperclass. They have the luxury of taking days off and resting, as during that period the government favored the wealthy, and left the lowerclass working. This painting to me represents the leisure granted to Paris’s wealthier citizens. The piece of art I am comparing this piece to, is another oil painting by Georges Seurat. This piece is, the Bathers at Asnières which he created in 1884. This painting has a clear and bright tonality, and the bridge in the distance shimmers in the haze, which occurred because of the heat and smoke leaving the factory chimneys; thus, clouding the environment. Additionally, it portarys factory working men sitting near a river, which at the time were not identified as wealthy or apart of the upperclass. Suart portrays the lowerclass men relaxing, and from their skin tone illustrated in the painting, one can assume they hardly go out in the sunlight (Mattews et al). Both pieces depict different social classes, we can see that in this piece they are dressed in shorts, while in the first they are dressed in suits and dresses. A social angle this painting would compare to is class and highbrow/low. His work included a variety of characters including: women, men, soliders, boaters, the old and young people of different classes of dress (“Artble”, 2017). He illustrated the upperclass, otherwise known as the wealthy class on a typical Sunday for them. It portrays the lavish lifestyle they live in comparison to others. The painting depicts boats, yachts, animals, etc which were all indications of the presence of classes during the 19th century. Where on the other hand, the lowerclass has to work day and night to survive and make a living with hardly any rest days. Furthermore, the women and men are dressed in fancy attire, the women in dresses and skirts and the men in suits, this was also an indication of a lavish lifestyle. Seurat illustrates a normal Sunday afternoon for Paris’s highclass of citizens. I decided to choose this specific piece for my contextual analysis, as the concept of social classes (high/low) always intrigued me. Therefore, while I was conducting research I recalled a website I used in my visual arts class in highschool to discover artists. I began searching through the website and came across Geroge Seurat. I began looking into his work and this specific piece caught my attention. Word Count: 1003 Works Cited “Bathers at Asnières.” The National Gallery, www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/georges-seurat-bathers-at-asnieres. Mathews, Simone Mathews, et al. “Overview.” About This Exhibit, www.webexhibits.org/colorart/about.html. Prahl, Amanda. “Biography of Georges Seurat, Father of Pointillism.” ThoughtCo, July 2019, www.thoughtco.com/georges-seurat-4686278. “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” Artble, 19 July 2017, www.artble.com/artists/georges_seurat/paintings/a_sunday_afternoon_on_the_island_of_la _grande_jatte. By: Caroline Quast The art piece I chose to analyze is Salvador Dalí’s “The Persistence of Memory”. This very well known piece falls under the category of painted art and is classified as “surrealism”. Usually I m not a big fan of surrealistic art, however, Dalí is someone who has inspired me from a young age and I have long enjoyed his artwork. Thought provoking and often abrasive, Dalí’s work is nonetheless the epitome of surrealism. He broke norms within the surrealist movement during post-World War I, and he is to this day considered as one of the greatest artists of all times. Salvador Dalí was born at the brink of the 20th century, on May 11th, 1904 in Catalonia, Spain in Figueres, a small village outside of Barcelona. He died in 1989, aged 85 years old and is buried in his hometown. From an early age, Dalí’s talent for art was encouraged by his parents and in 1921, at age 16, he was enrolled in the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid which ironically, he was expelled from only 5 years later. In 1929, he visited Paris, France where he joined the surrealists group, led by André Breton. Here he was influenced and inspired by other surrealist such as Pablo Picasso. By 1930, Dalí had become a notorious figure of the Surrealist movement, sponsored by wealthy aristocrats. This very piece that I chose also is a prodigy of that time and today we can find the original hanging at the MOMA - Museum of Modern Art in New York City. When looking at this piece, before even starting to analyze it one may want to look at the physical attributes, or elements that make up the Form of this piece. The Form refers to the seven fundamental elements that make up the physical nature of an art piece. One thing that stands out to me are the colors he uses. Composed in mainly cool colors, the light blue horizon gradually fades into a warmer yellow. It contrasts the lower portion of the painting quite drastically as the bottom half (or the ground) is painted in mainly black and brown colors. The element of value is also represented as he, in order to create depth, used lighter browns in the background in contrast to darker browns in the foreground. This juxtaposition is a fundamental element in surrealism, the contrast between certain attributes such as color or shape, position or even symbolic reference of the objects in a painting. Furthermore, looking at the dimensional makeup of this piece we have to consider the lines Dalí used to depict each object. Depending on the shapes of the objects he is working with, he uses both, geometric as well as organic lines. For instance, while the mountains and the platforms are composed of mainly straight angles, making them very linear and symmetrical, the clocks on the other hand are much more fluid, composed of organic, free flowing curves and are much more asymmetrical in their linear composition. As abstract as this piece may seem, it is incredibly detailed. From the faces of the clocks, to the ants on the pocket watch to even the tiny shadow the fly on the other clock casts (which ironically looks more like that of a human than a fly), each of the elements is depicted in a very detailed and precise manner. Dalí uses a type of anthropomorphism to depict the white, pinkish figure in the middle of the painting, which appears to be a type of face, with a nose, a mustache and very detailed eyelashes, which still has a distorted connotation to it. The width of the lines he uses throughout the painting also vary from object to object. Most of the elements are of average width and length, with the exception of the eyelashes which are very thin and vary in length, as well as the contour of the mountains in the background. When looking at the texture of this piece, I was able to identify different brush techniques around certain objects, for instance, everything surrounding the clocks appears rough, whereas the clocks themselves are fluid and smooth.The shading of this piece, I believe is the soul of this piece, creating a surreal environment, giving the piece it’s well known “out-of this world” feel. Not only that, but the shading and the color in combination with the fluidity of the clocks give the piece a three-dimensional look to it. Although it may not seem so, this piece is very dynamic. Overall, all the above mentioned elements bring this piece to life. Analyzing surrealistic art, including this piece, can become a bit of a challenge, however I believe that is also one of the intriguing aspects of analysis. It makes the viewer think and reflect and interpret certain elements from their own perspective. In terms of Iconography, Dalí is known for his symbolism. Just like in many of his other works, in this piece he uses a variety of techniques while incorporating reoccurring elements that portray a certain style that is typical for all of Dalí’s work. Being the focal point, the clocks for instance represent time, the fluidity in their appearance may mean that time is not as rigid as we often assume, while the ants on the other hand, are an indication of decay and death, while the mountains and ocean landscape are a reflection of his childhood in Catalonia. I believe that Dalí wanted to create a eulogy to time and was trying to say is that as humans we let time get in our way far too much. Always in a rush and always pressed we don’t think about spending time on things we truly enjoy. All of these elements, I believe can be an indication of an internal struggle Dalí was battling pertaining to growing old as well as death. According to dalipaintings.org, Dalí’s mother passed away when he was 16, stating that “In February 1921, Dalí's mother died of breast cancer. Dalí was sixteen years old; he later said his mother's death "was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. I worshipped her... I could not resign myself to the loss of a being on whom I counted to make invisible the unavoidable blemishes of my soul” (dalipaintings, n.d.). Since in Humanities we do not look at art from the angle of critical analyzation alone as we would in art appreciation, we also have to take the socio-cultural context into consideration. When we try to analyze the context of this piece we may want to consider the time it was created. It was painted in 1931, a time when surrealism was at its height. In a historical art context, the 1930’s were a time within the surrealist movement in which artists explored the prospect of automatism which, as stated by tate.org “refers to creating art without conscious thought, accessing material from the unconscious mind as part of the creative process” (Tate, n.d.). Although it had started as an artistic movement, surrealism quickly evolved into a social revolution, since alongside Dalí, other artists at the time followed suit, wanting the public to consider the concept of free thought and the mind. This being said, Dalí uses automatism to guide his process, letting his mind control the creation rather than consciously thinking about what he is creating. Later artists such as Jackson Pollock are a good example of how automatism makes up a fundamental part in surrealism. In reference to “The persistence of Memory”, Dalí never revealed the actual meaning behind the painting but experts have speculated that it depicts a dream sequence. Unlike often assumed, Dalí’s work were not drug-induced creations but rather inspired by his vivid dreams. Through his art, Dalí challenged traditional views within art and he became to be one of the most sought after artists of his time. Eccentric, bold, provoking and unafraid to express, attributes he did not only display in his private life, but more so in his art, make him one of the most iconic artistic visionaries of his time. Having been inspired by other surrealists, classical painters such as Rembrandt, as well as prominent figures within the Sciences such as Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein. The Social Angel I was able to identify here was not only memory and history but also identity as well as body and mind. As above mentioned, his works often were inspired by his lucid dreams and I think he portrays that very well in this piece especially since it has this certain unrealistic, “dreamy” feel to it. As a vivid advocate of the sciences, Dalí was particularly interested in quantum physics, which explains his fascination with time, represented through the melting clocks. Furthermore, the social angle of body and mind can be discovered through a variety of elements in this piece such as the distorted figure. It may be a self-portrait of Dalí himself which makes me think that he saw himself as decaying with time. All of these angles may explain what the symbolic references are behind this piece. The concept of Psychoanalysis as introduced by Sigmund Freud often guided Dalí’s creative process and as mentioned earlier, he used his dreams and his own analytical approach to his dreams as sources of inspiration. According to Melissa Soto, “In the 1930s, Dalí would pioneer what he coined ‘paranoiac critical method,’ where he would tap into his subconscious to unlock his inner creativity and imagination” (Soto, 2017). This being said, the unconscious mind is most certainly in the forefront when looking at the social angle of this piece. In a historical context, there was a shift in Dalí’s work as those sources of inspiration changed post-World War II. He became obsessed with the Sciences, the splitting of the atom and the atomic bomb in particular. Some critics exclaim that anything Dalí produced after 1939, was considered to be junk, however I believe that those works are just as powerful as any of his earlier pieces. As layered and multifaceted as his work is, so was Dalí. As World War 2 took a hold of Europe, him and his wife Gala moved to America, where he tried his hand in pretty anything art related. From Sculpting to Drawing, to Fashion and so forth, Dalí was the persona of artistic expression. His obsession with the atom and sciences are represented in another one of his work,The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory which is a re-creation of The Persistence of Memory. Painted in 1954, the elements he used are almost the same, the melting clocks, the white figure,the mountains and so forth. It is critical to note however, that some of the main elements such as the platforms are now dissembled and disarranged, clearly reflecting a different mindset in Dalí. Still holding true to his style, he still used great detail and the symbolic meaning of this piece in comparison the The Persistence of Memory also heavily leans on his mindset during that time. Knowing that he was obsessed with the nuclear sciences and the splitting of the atom, the dissembled, neatly lined up blocks, represent exactly that. In addition, he introduces a couple of new elements such as the dead fish above the white figure, and the landscape of the picture has also changed drastically. While the clocks are still present, the landscape seems to be flooded, and while the surface looks calm and smooth, the turmoil underneath says otherwise. I believe that this represents Dalí’s new mindset about life as well as society since we have to keep in mind that he had experienced a global war by then. I think the greatest indication of that is the olive tree, which stands for peace, is broken with pieces flying around it. The Cold War I believe also influenced his mindset greatly and while the atomic bomb is clearly represented in this piece, one can also make out that this was the indication of change within Dalí as an artist. He had lost his interest in surrealism, and with “breaking down” or splitting up one of his most iconic and original pieces, it may seem like a goodbye per se to surrealism. While one could analyze Dalí’s work for a long time as there is so much to discover in his pieces, I would like to conclude this analysis at this point. As eccentric and bizarre as Dalí may seem and have been, in his public as well as private lives, he was without a doubt, a genius of his art. He was unafraid to express himself and this confidence is something we can all take away from his art. Not for nothing is he to this day, one of the (if not the) greatest surrealists of all time. Word count: 2,150 Works cited: Meisler, S. (2005, April 1). The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí. Smithsonian.com. https:// www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-surreal-world-of-salvador-dali-78993324/. Richman-Abdou , K. (2019, July 1). Exploring Salvador Dalí's Strange and Surreal 'Persistence of Memory'. My Modern Met. https://mymodernmet.com/the-persistence-of-memory-salvador-dali/. Salvador Dalí. Salvador Dalí Museum. (2020, December15). https://thedali.org/about-themuseum/timeline/. Soto, M. (2017, January 3). Salvador Dalí, The Life Of The Iconic Surrealist. Culture Trip. https:// theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/salvador-dali-the-life-of-the-iconic-surrealist/. Tate. (n.d.). Automatism – Art Term. Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/automatism.
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