Salvador's Suit

Find out about Salvadore Dali and his Diving Suit escapade!

Articles

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

One of the most recognizable art pieces in the world - but what's the story behind it?

Klimt's Kiss

Find out more about Gustav Klimt & his controversial piece - The Kiss!

Salvador's

Suit

In a symbolic attempt to ‘dive into the human subconscious’, one of the most profound names in the Surrealist art movement – Salvador Dali – arrived at the 1936 International Surrealist Convention dressed in a scuba suit.

What began as a simple exhibition that was meant to showcase surrealism to the British public, soon turned into an event that would be remembered by everyone for years to come. Surrealism, an art movement that began in 1924, had spread rapidly through various geographies and entertained the most unique artistic minds the world has witnessed.

The motive of all revolutions is to bring about change and push society’s boundaries, and the surrealist movement was no different in this sense. Its founder, Andre Breton, wished to liberate the masses from oppressive rational thought, and hoped to release their intellectual capacities. The age of enlightenment that had preceded the surrealist movement was thought by many creatives to have repressed the irrational flow of the unconscious human mind. The responsibility of its’ liberation was therefore taken on by the likes of Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali and Picasso among many others that followed in Bretons’ footsteps.

Although the surrealist movement encompassed various forms of individual expression, Salvador Dali’s art mainly focused on hyper-realistic almost dream like visions. The International Surrealist Convention at which Dali spoke changed the course of British art, and was in fact designed to show the British people what Surrealist art was truly about. In order to make a true impact, Dali therefore arrived at the exhibition dressed up in a complete scuba diving suit. During the lecture, he almost suffocated to death because of his eccentric get up, and when he moved his arms in order to call for help, the audience, assumed that it was a part of his usual antics. He continued his lecture after he was saved from his near-death experience, and the rest of his slides were presented upside down which, after the scuba suit incident, didn’t startle many. In this way, Salvador Dali singlehandedly orchestrated one of the most interesting moments in the history of art, and like his peers, impacted the movement heavily.

Ujjwala Singh

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. The piece is understood to be the most renowned piece of Japanese art in the world, but what do we know about the art form behind it? Published roughly between 1829 and 1833, the piece was created by Hokusai as a part of his series – Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji. The piece was retained in Japan until1859 and wasn’t even recognized as true art until it found a global audience. It was through a huge flow of Japanese prints into Europe that The Great Wave found validation and appreciation from artists such as Monet and Van Gogh.

Although the piece is widely misinterpreted as a painting, it is actually a print. Woodblock Printing was first used in the 8th century in order to reproduce texts such as Buddhist scriptures. The usage of the printing form for illustrations only begun in the early 1500s, which paved the way for the now prevalent art form to come into existence.

In the beginning of its journey, ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) was used to mass produce pictures of kabuki actors and courtesans. Since the prints were produced in large numbers, their prices were about as much as a bowl of noodles at the time. It was only in the 19 th century that ukiyo-e artists began to focus on landscapes after the construction 5 major highways which connected Edo (modern day Tokyo) with the rest of the country. Travel was at an all time high, and Hokusai was one of the 2 greatest landscape artists of the time. Whilst his counterpart, Hiroshige, focused on his series – Fifty-three stations of the Tokaido – Hokusai directed his attention to the sacred Mount Fuji and its appearance during different seasons.

Although the piece is not purely Japanese (in style), since it takes inspiration from linear perspectives found in Dutch art, it does serve to be the face of the Japanese art world and continues to be showcased in museums across the world.

Ujjwala Singh

The Kiss

Anti Art

Hugo Ball & The Dada Movement

The tragedies of World War I were numerous, and it’s aftermath was felt not only in every day life, but in every sphere of the human existence. As a reaction to the horrors and insanity of World War I, many artistic and creative persona’s decided to break all the rules that regulated their respective fields. The result? A movement that would change the future of expression forever

The start of the Dada Movement was found in the likes of Hugo Ball, most known as the owner of the Cabaret Voltaire. Ball relished the performing arts and was a producer before The Great War broke out. However, this had no bearing on his readiness to fight alongside his fellow men for his country. As soon as the news of the war broke, Ball, like many others, attempted to enroll in the military. However, after being denied this opportunity due to medical conditions, Ball found himself in state of deep despair. His helplessness made it difficult for him to deal with the atrocities the war brought, and this difficulty all too soon became an encumbrance that Ball could not handle.

In response to the alienation from normal life, Ball decided to open the Cabaret Voltaire. It was here that the beginnings of the Dada Movement were formed. Ball used the medium of Sound Poetry, which uses phonetic sounds rather than actual words, to express his feelings about the war. The combination of unreal and nonsensical sounds that Ball exuded were meant to represent the incoherence of the war. It made no sense, not only to Ball but to thousands of people during the war, how living people could be used by those in power as if they were machines; As if the horrors of death and murder would have no implication on their well-being and health. He boldly stated, “The war is founded on a glaring mistake - men have been confused with machines.” , after which he was forced to flee from his country.

Through this new found language, Ball wished to "return to the innermost alchemy of the word". He felt as though regular language, which was controlled and regulated by thousands of rules, was the reason (or at least a cause) for the war. His blatant disregard for rules served to allow artists in other fields such as literature and art to follow suit.

Revered artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali and Francis Picabia, to name a few, picked up on the message behind the Dada Movement and contributed to it in ways no one thought were possible. The aim of the movement was simple: To destroy the traditional and replace it with the new. Boundaries were broken and longstanding conventions were met with total disregard, all of which culminated in the complete removal of boundaries from creativity & expression. In addition to changing the narrative within creative realms, the movement inspired the birth of other forms of expression, such as Surrealism, Pop art, Fluxus, etc.

All in all, the Dada movement stood to represent post-war disillusionment in a way that no other movement had come close to doing. By going against the grain and amplifying the disgust many around the world felt about the war, the Dada Movement housed artists that are now looked at with unparalleled respect, and allowed creatives to truly reveal their most intimate emotions at a time when such an outlet was paramount.

Ujjwala Singh

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