Surrealistic Artists

Francis Picabia was born in 1879 in France. Picabia began his artistic apprenticeship at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in 1895 where he studied under Corman, Humbert, and Wallet. In the 1910s, Picabia shared the interests of a number of artists who emerged in the wake of Cubism, and who were inspired less by the movement's preoccupation with problems of representation than by the way the style could evoke qualities of the modern, urban, and mechanistic world. He began to use text in his pictures and collages and to create more explicitly disgraceful images attacking conventional notions of morality, religion, and law. Figurative imagery was central to Picabia's work from the mid-1920s to the mid-1940s, when he was inspired by Spanish subjects, Romanesque and Renaissance sources. Initially he united many of these disparate motifs in the Transparency pictures complexly layering them and piling them on top of each other to exaggerate confusion and strange associations. Some critics have described the Transparencies as occult visions, or Surrealist dream images, and although Picabia rejected any association with the Surrealists, he steadfastly refused to explain their content. Picabia always handled these motifs with the same playful and anarchic spirit that had animated his Dada work.

Florence Henri was born in 1893 in New York. Henri began her artistic career as an abstract painter but, upon studying at the Bauhaus in Germany, turned to photography as what she perceived as the medium of the future. She than settled in Paris in 1924, where she played with mirrors and light, to create these beautiful mind- trick masterworks. She used mirrors as a way to add more perspectives to her imagery. She made her name as a major player in avant-garde photography.  In 1929, just two years after leaving the Bauhaus, Henri’s Paris portrait studio became as well-known as that of Man Ray. She taught classes, and her students included future luminaries such as Gisele Freund and Lisette Model. Her use of collage is original; it differs from that of the Surrealists, because for her it is not about creating a link with the unconscious, but about organizing in different patterns the reality that she photographs with her camera.

Artist's Name : Francis Picabia

Title:  Hera

Date: 1929

Description:  Different Faces added in different areas, along with flowers. The values of both are similar. A lot of transparency happening. You can see like 5 different faces and a couple of different hands. You can see everything that’s going on the picture, there is not just one focus point.

Analysis:  The faces take up most of the photo, which is the main focus point of the photo. A lot of the faces are transparency so there is a bunch of faces on top of each other. The lighting is what emphasizes the main point of the picture. The flowers really go along with the photo too. It’s not a boring picture at all it has your mind going at all times

Interpretation:  I find this piece to be really deep. You really have to look deep into the picture so find something else that you didn't notice. When I first looked at the picture I noticed the faces right away and then I saw the flowers. But, I had to keep looking at the picture to actually see the hands in the photo.

Judgement:  I enjoy this piece for how busy the picture is and how deep you actually have to look into it to see the actual picture. There is not a place where my eyes don’t stop and you’re not always focus on just one thing in the photo. One thing I do think they should do is actually kind of tell the meaning of the photo, there is anything I really know about the photo.

Artist's Name: Florence Henri

Title: Composition with still life

Date: 1931

Description:  3 roses one white and one black. with a dark shadow blocking where the rose and then stem connects. Black and white effect.

Analysis:  I think this photo should emotion.  It’s dark and sad and could just make you cry.I feel she made this photo when something horrible happened her life and she put black roses to show the sign of death. Then I think the bright rose shows the love for the person to show that it just wasn’t just a sad moment.

Interpretation:  I find this piece to be really interesting but also dull because of the colors. But the black and white really makes the picture.  This picture is really emotional it seems, it makes you depressed because of the black flowers.

Judgement:  I really enjoy this picture because it different than other photos. I like how you see the end of the stems on one side and then you see the flowers on the other side. I feel the black and white effect really makes the photo better. Also the way the black roses look is interesting