In Wonderland

Ugh, A Day at the Museum??? 

Exhibit #2: In Wonderland  

Day: 5-3-2012

Location: Los Angeles County Museum of Art 

Hello again blog reader! Last time we met, I ventured into the world of fashion photography at the Herb Ritts: L.A. Style exhibit at the Getty Center. It was at the Getty where I lead you through the dynamic and optically intriguing world of photography, and its abilities to mesmerize the mind with its astounding abilities to intertwine optical truth and artifice. 

Well, I am pleased to announce that this blog is going to head into an even more mesmerizing direction as we plummet down the rabbit hole, into an illusory wonderland of surrealist art, penned by the delicate and serpentine hands of the world’s most graceful and imaginative female surrealist artists. 

In Wonderland is an unreal exhibit, a gorgeous carousel of poignant and introspective canvases that encapsulate the trails, thoughts, and emotions of many female artists during the 1930’s-1970’s in both the United States and Mexico. To be honest, as a young women living in a world where females are gaining loads of momentum in all aspects of modern day society, I was never really interested in the ideals and manifestos that encapsulate the feminist movement. In Wonderland, while not solely conveying a strong feminist message (which is what I expected going into the exhibit), was an engrossing exhibit that pulled every museum-goer into the pathos infused spirits of women torn, broken, and isolated. I was also shocked to just find myself enjoying the purely fantastic visions of the infantile world, meticulously rendered on many canvases. The female artist's attention to detail, similar to many Flemish renaissance male artists, is extremely scrupulous and heartfelt. But before we delve into detail regarding some resonating paintings at the exhibit, let us learn a bit about the surrealist and feminist art movements that exploded in both the United States and Mexico during the 1920’s up to the 1960’s. 

Surrealism, an art movement that emerged out of the momentum of the Dada movement in 1924, was determined to escape the expressionist renderings of the brutal, war-manifested industrial world in the early 20th century and delve instead into the illustrious and intangible world of the unconscious. Drawing their inspirations from the rising notions of psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, many Surrealists aimed to delve into the inner mechanisms of the psyche, exploring the enigmatic and mysterious world of dream and fantasy. The subconscious experience was to be intertwined and incorporated into outer reality. Many new artistic mechanisms were thus implemented to simulate the world of the unconscious for a greater audience. 

Giorgio De Chirico, a metaphysical artist whose work is considered more of a precursor of Surrealist art, painted highly ambiguous and menacing cityscapes that delve into the realm of the surreal. I chose to talk about De Chirico because of his powerful ability to extract emotion and response from images that transcend the physical, images that implement light, void, distortion, and shadow to instill discomfort and fear in its engrossed viewers. In his painting Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, 1914, De Chirico implements long shadows that pierce the late afternoon pavements of a empty cityscape to depict a scene of intense suspense and foreboding. A shadow of an innocent carefree child is just feet away from colliding with a mysterious and menacing shadow of a male figure, looming at the end of an elongated alleyway. De Chiricos' shadows and elongated spaces that warp reality disquiet the viewer, perplexed by the location they are plopped inside. The eerie modes and sharp incongruities in his paintings inspired many surrealists to paint worlds that rouse intrigue and confusion. 

Paul Klee, a painter who explored the realms of surrealist painting using simplified and child-like forms, was also renowned for his abilities to touch deep into the mysterious dream world. In his painting Twittering Machine, 1922, Klee sought ways to touch base into the deeper and intangible realm of humanity through primitive shapes and symbols. His image implements rudimentary, simple shapes and forms to imbue his paintings with lyrical undertones, inviting the viewer to come closer and decipher the whimsy mechanisms and shapes. The viewer is encouraged to find their own meaning in the mysterious and juvenile world, unique interpretation is what adds to the painting's complexity. The many stories and meanings that surround Klee’s work is what makes them so dynamic and complex, even though what is presented in front of us is so simple. 

The communicative, provocative, and intriguing nature of Surrealist art is what inspired many feminist artists in the 1960’s and 1970’s to use art as a way to investigate the issues of gender and sexual orientation. Implementing many forms of media to replicate and project the “male gaze” onto a wider audience, many feminist artists passionately exposed how society has always viewed women, as sexual objects and commercial matrons. In Cindy Sherman’s, Untitled Film Still #35, 1979, Sherman stars in a self-directed series of photographs that reproduce a highly generic and stereotypical image of the modern-day female, socially confined to her duties: to tend to the house, and her husband. Sherman constructs her own petty identity of a vain and self-absorbed housewife in a sardonic image meant to simulate the “male gaze,” bringing her audience face-to-face to a highly commercialized and artificial state of mind and beauty.

Now that we have gained some knowledge about the Surrealist and Feminist art movement, shall we delve deeper into the exhibit? 


WARNING: the following paintings might be just too awesome for your minds to grasp.

When I entered the cement plastered halls of the exhibit, I truly felt like I was falling through a deep, industrial rabbit hole, away from the LA traffic, smog, and sun and into a wonderland of surreal masterpieces. LACMA kept the exhibit looking clean, streamlined, and simple, the walls accentuating the complexity of the paintings hanging on them. But why should an art exhibit that draws focus on the feminine soul be covered with flowers, pastel colors, and delicate tracery? Here, the wonderland transcends stereotypes and expectations, the eerie nodes of surrealism are strewn across the confining gray walls, studded with images that evoke daydreams and visions. 

One of the most horrifying, but riveting paintings at the exhibit is Frida Kahlo’s The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1939. Commissioned by the late actress’ friends to paint a remembrance portrait after her devastating suicide, Kahlo implemented her surrealist aesthetic and her knack for depicting poignant and unrelenting depictions of the pain of human existence to paint an unyielding account of the Hale’s suicide. Mortified by the gruesome and bloody subject matter, Hale’s socialite friend had the painting stored away, where no one can experience the breathtaking visual obituary. It was not until decades later when greater audiences were able to view the painting,  allotted the chance to be sucked into this graphic and poignant account of a national tragedy. Hale’s suicide is systematically mapped out in front of the viewing audience: first her small, frail body stands at the edge of a skyscraper, followed by her ever graceful fall enveloped by cushioning clouds, then finally her body limply strewn across the bloody New York pavement. Kahlo incredibly depicts how the pressures of socialite society and the loss of luxury living, can take a toll on a wonderful beauty. Socially confined to her beauty as the only thing modern society will ever appreciate, Hale’s physiologically deteriorated spirit takes a supple leap of faith, her inner pain strewn across the sky and the pavement for all to see. 

Another painting that particularly struck me mainly because of its wit and satire was Gertrude Abercrombie’s Courtship. A staunch commentary on the predatory nature of flirting and courtship, Abercrombie blatantly lampoons romantic pursuit by depicting a innocent young women under gun point of a suave, masked criminal, there to rob her of her freedom and innocence. The misty shore, which is supposed to be veiled with the light and intoxicating breezes of mutual attraction, is transformed into an eerie and surreal dali-esque oceanside, inhabited by awkward elongated figures arrested in a menacing gray sky. The murky tones convey the arresting confines of a typical relationship, where a female is perpetually held hostage by an overbearing male partner. The viewer is powerfully exposed to the desolate and hopeless world of a woman, who holds no power in courtship ritual, left to surrender to the social confines of society. 

Left to their thoughts throughout most of their lives, it was an absolute pleasure delving into the powerful and expressive minds of many female surrealist artists, eager to expose the world to their inner struggles and feelings, always veiled underneath an apron and curling rolls. In Wonderland is a powerful and fun exhibit that is just filled with paintings that you can just fall into. The female spirit is finally allowed to openly display herself in front of wider audience, uncensored and genuine. 

Unfortunately, by the time I post this blog, the exhibit will have left LACMA, off to mesmerize other places with its magnificence. But I hope that I have at least satisfied your thirst for female surrealist art, or maybe coaxed you into the tantalizing world of the surreal. 

Well, that is all for now folks, tune in for my last installment of my blog when I step out of the twilight zone, and into the concrete and powerful world of realism at the Armand Hammer Museum.