Module 11 Video Blog

The two videos that I selected were Dada & Surrealism and The Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19^th Century to the Present. The reason I selected both of these videos, is because some of the artists in them were alive around the same time period, however different movement/styles were being used.

In the video Dada & Surrealism, one of the movements that Kurt Schwitters and Hanna Hoch used among many other Dadaist was called Dada. Kurt Schwitter’s style consisted of collages. At first, he did not consider himself a Dadaist, however, around the 1950’s he revived the movement through his works of art. One of the reasons he used collages, was because with this he didn’t have any limitations as far as the kind of materials he used and how they could be used. Another Dadaist, Hanna Hoch, had an understanding that Dada was more of a state of mind and that it could be use as weapon to attack society. In the Mystical North: Spanish Art from the 19^th Century to the Present video, it mentioned various Spanish artists, like Antoni Gaudi, Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso and others. The video speaks about the black paintings of Goya that he created after the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808. These paintings are known for the dark content in them. Goya, during this invasion, saw mass murder, rape, and torture, among many other things that would cause a psychological change in a human being. Antoni Gaudi uses the Familia Sagrada cathedral to portray his religious beliefs.

One thing that the textbook describes and made very clear, is the difference between the Dada movement and Surrealism. Dada influenced the creation of Surrealism, since it came out the movement. Surrealism is not a movement but a way of life. Surrealist’s focus themselves in the understanding and logic of dreams, the mysteries of the unconscious, the complexity of what is bizarre, irrational, incongruous, marvelous as well as the understanding of it. Dada is a form of an artist protest movement.

One thing that I noticed about the films is that each video contains a form of criticism, either to society or to the religious attachment to the work of art. The movements mentioned in the films are what appears to have some sort of darkness in them due to the notion of how they came to be works of art.