Today in class, our discussion of magical realism piqued my interest. More specifically, I wondered what magical realism looked like in its art form. How exactly do Magical Realist painters depict a scene in which the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred? As you will see, the artists who painted the pictures below have an extraordinary ability (in my opinion) to visualize and then create artwork that portrays an actual reality--but one with mystical features. According to the source I've included below, "the merging of present and past, the invention of strange objects, the juxtaposition of unlike things, and the depiction of alienation are just a few of the ways in which Magic Realist painters evoke the mysteriousness and uncanniness of everyday reality." Once again, these Magical Realists set themselves apart in their exploration of reality. They did not want to be associated with Surrealists, and as a result "did not wish to probe the unconscious, dreams, or interior states."
Buckle up, and get ready to see some famous artwork!
Some analysis of the paintings is included on the website if you're interested, but post your thoughts before you take a look!
Source: https://www.theartstory.org/movement-magic-realism.htm
On this website, you can also learn more about the movement and its beginnings! You should check it out.
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Beach of Dangast with Flying Boat (1929)
By Franz Radziwill
(My favorite)
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Late Visitors to Pompeii (1931)
By Albert Carel Willink
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New York Movie (1939)
By Edward Hopper
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Tree of Hope (1946)
By Frida Kahlo
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4 comments:
I hadn’t given much thought to how artists would depict the ideas portrayed through magical realism, though I can imagine it requires a lot of imagination in order to translate the sometimes blatant narrative style. The pieces posted are so interesting and evoke both thought and emotion. I particularly like “Beach of Dangast with Flying Boat” as it effectively incorporates everyday objects in a way that is a bit unsettling and as a result makes the viewer question the reality that exists within the painting. If you were to look at the different quadrants of this painting individually, you wouldn’t see anything clearly strange, however when the elements are combined it makes for a beautiful yet mysterious and otherworldly scene. Your connection of literature to art reminds me of Paradise Lost and the artwork we looked at last year. It’s amazing how writing can inspire such creations and reveal the power of individuality (almost like it puts a visualization to the world we create in our minds when reading).
It's really coincidental that you would post about this style of art, as I took the SAT this morning and encountered a passage that discussed this exact topic. I knew that the emergence of Magical Realism marked a new trend in art of experimenting with different topics, paints, materials, colors, etc. What the passage revealed to me that I did not know, however, was that the introduction of Magical Realism into the artistic world was met with such backlash. The initial public consensus was that this new movement was too disconnected from reality and often much too obscene in nature. As Jessie mentioned, magical realists strove to "evoke the mysteriousness and uncanniness of everyday reality." It isn't difficult to imagine that this goal yielded some rather shocking material. Despite its rough beginnings, the movement of Magical Realism quickly gained popularity when several well-known artists adopted the style. I found it quite interesting that even such a successful movement had rough beginnings.
Alana, I thought of the artwork we saw last year based off Paradise Lost as well so it is funny you mention that!
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has inspired others with the term, not given by himself, "magical realism." It is super interesting to see how others interpret that to mean something we would may or may not visually correlate with that term. Going off of your post, Jessie, but not completely relating to it, it got me thinking about inspiration in general and where we get our ideas from. Marquez has laid pavements in people's minds correlating his works to different aspects of literature and history, such as magical realism and the Banana Massacre, respectively. But what about Marquez's own literary inspiration? We have discussed his admiration for Hemingway and Faulkner in class in the way he developed his writing style, but why not read about it in his own words? I found an article he wrote himself in 1987 of him analyzing Hemingway and Faulkner’s writing styles and other literary works. Check it out if you'd like :) https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/reviews/marquez-hemingway.html
These are all fantastic pieces of artwork, and they all display to me what Gabriel Garcia Marquez was trying to achieve in 100 years of solitude. It also made me realize the talent it takes for these artists and Marquez to translate such a complex, layered concept into the fantastic pieces they have created. This post had me thinking of what Marquez's works did after they were published, and I found that in an article NPR published shortly after his death in 2014 (which will be linked down below). In there article, there is a quote from Marquez about giving a voice to Latin America which I found very compelling, "I write mostly about the reality I know, about the reality of Latin America," Garcia Marquez said. "Any interpretation of this reality in literature must be political. I cannot escape my own ideology when I interpret reality in my books; it's inseparable." I thought that it is amazing to be able to be a voice for so many people who for decades did not have one because of severe oppression. Heres that NPR link if you want to read more.
https://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/156561881/writer-gabriel-garcia-marquez-who-gave-voice-to-latin-america-dies
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