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Course: Modernisms 1900-1980 > Unit 5
Lesson 2: Surrealism- Surrealism, an introduction
- The Case for Surrealism
- Surrealism: Origins and Precursors
- Surrealism and Psychoanalysis
- Surrealist Techniques: Automatism
- Surrealist Techniques: Subversive Realism
- Surrealist Techniques: Collage
- Surrealist Photography
- Surrealist Exhibitions
- Surrealism and Women
- Man Ray, The Gift
- Magritte, The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe)
- Conservation | René Magritte, "The Portrait," 1935
- Dali, The Persistence of Memory
- Dali, Metamorphosis of Narcissus
- Giacometti, The Palace at 4am
- Meret Oppenheim, Object (Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon)
- Meret Oppenheim, Object (Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon)
- André Masson, Battle of Fishes
- Oppenheim, Object
- Giorgio de Chirico, "The Anxious Journey"
- Room: 1930s
- Surrealism
- Room: 1940s
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Room: 1940s
This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk
Curator Chris Stephens explores the 1940s.
Learn more about the art featured in this video:
- Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944
- Sir Jacob Epstein, Jacob and the Angel. 1940–1. Created by Tate.
Curator Chris Stephens explores the 1940s.
Learn more about the art featured in this video:
- Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944
- Sir Jacob Epstein, Jacob and the Angel. 1940–1. Created by Tate.
Want to join the conversation?
Is Jacob supposed to be losing that wrestling match? It seems that not only is the angel much larger than Jacob, but the angel has a position called "double underhooks", considered a very dominant position. Is that intentional? Did the sculptor know much about wrestling? Didn't Jacob prevail (or at least not lose) according to Genesis 32? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underhook(6 votes)
You could think of the unusual pose and the size of the angel as contributing to a sense of tension and drama. Perhaps this is the moment just after the angel has broken Jacob's hip. Or maybe it represents the moment when Jacob realises that he has finally won, allowing himself to collapse with exhaustion into the angel's arms.
Like the Old Testament story it refers to, this sculpture could be read in a number of ways. (It's interesting to note that the sculptor's name was was also Jacob, so maybe the underlying "struggle" here has to do with the artist working with a difficult material like alabaster.)(6 votes)
- The paintings really do speak wonders, to the way the artist and people were feelings during g the time of the war, the loss the devastation all depicted by art, that is amazing(6 votes)
I agree, I love how the art is reflected by the events (such as World War II) and the feeling of devastation during the time.(3 votes)
- Since this module covers international avant-garde - 1940s I would be interested in any links of information that would help me find if any non-German artists that - shall I say dared - to travel to Nazis Germany to paint what was happening there. Whether for or against the regime of the time, is there any documentation of outside painters being allowed in the country to actually paint what they saw?(2 votes)
Who has been to this museum, i so badly want too see them.(2 votes)- Hi Shaun, if you'd ever like to visit the Tate galleries, you can find Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, along with two other branches in Liverpool and St Ives. There's plenty to see, so if you ever find yourself here I'll be happy to send you some tips on which artworks to check out!(1 vote)
Chris Stephens at #28 in video appears to refers to Francis Bacon Three Studies as A painting, is this a triptych, the paintings do not appear to be attached, or are they separate paintings that can be sold separately(1 vote)- Yes, Francis Bacon's Three Studies is a triptych, or an artwork in three panels. The three paintings in a triptych can be presented as attached or stand separately from each other, depending on how the artist wants to show them.
Bacon often used the form of the triptych -- you can read more about his artwork here: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bacon-triptych-august-1972-t03073(2 votes)
Video transcript
There are two small rooms that bring together the art of the 1940’s a period inevitably dominated by the Second World War and the Holocaust. In this room here, you see art made during the war, scenes of devastation and of mutilation and also the very varied responses to that situation you see images of pessimism and optimism, horrific scenes and utopian idealism all different responses to the same horrific historic situation. The work behind me, Francis Bacon’s 'Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion'. occupies an important position in Tate Britain it’s literally on a turning point in the building and it is a turning point in the history of British art it’s one of the masterpieces in the Tate’s collection. It’s a work which was seen immediately as a brutally frank and horrifically pessimistic response to the Second World War. It was first exhibited in April 1945 and though the two were not directly related the fact that this painting was unveiled the month that the concentration camps were revealed to the world inevitably led to the way it has been understood as a statement of human brutality and suffering. The sculpture behind me shows Jacob wrestling with the Angel. It’s one of a sequence of monumental alabaster carvings made by Jacob Epstein in the later part of his career. It’s an image that depicts the material and the spiritual world in conflict if you like one which takes on an added resonance when you see it here in a room of art made in the 1940’s all of which in one way or another inevitably reflects or represents the events of the Second World War.