Expressive Landscape

For Project Expressive Landscape

Research the eerie, dream like landscapes painted by the surrealists; Dali, Ernst, Chirco, war artists such as Paul nash and Graham Sutherland, and landscapes by the German Expressionists like Nolde and the Symbolist movement, Klimt, Moreau, Bakst and Kahlo.

I think an over exposure to the work of Dali has not helped me in the appreciation of the surrealist movement. Most famous for his soft clocks painting,’ The Persistence of Memory’ and his DADA school of thought, Dali’s landscapes and painting style do leave me cold. The surrealist movement’s aims were ”a meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order”[1] In other words, completely removed from a realist point of view, or indeed one that may make normal sense to the viewer. The landscapes themselves were inspired by his local Spanish Catalonian views, in a much more simplified view.

Dali The_Persistence_of_Memory 1931

A fellow surrealist painting by Max Ernst, takes the notion of a foxed cosmic order to the extreme, his cityscape ‘The entire city’ a dark painting symbolizing ( rather then representational) the political mood of the time, and the rise of the Nazi movement.

The Entire City 1934 Max Ernst 1891-1976

Paul Nash (11 May 1889 – 11 July 1946) An English Surrealist and war painter has as style that I feel more empathy with, I think the painting that comes to most people mind when thinking of Nash his stark, brutal depiction of the battlefield in ‘The Menin Road’ 1919, and later during the second world war the battle of Britain. Nash’s landscapes convey the horror and futility of conflict.

Paul Nash The_Menin_Road_(1919)

Paul Nash Battle_of_Britain_(1941)

German Expressionists

Emil Nolde ( German, 1867–1956) on the other hand vivid use of colour was banned by the Nazi party, having his work removed from public museums during their reign in Germany. Again, I find his work quite beautiful, and I love his expressive use of colour.

Emil Nolde colored-sky-above-the-marais 1940

Quite far removed from the previous expressive landscapes, Symbolism in art is more concerned with the gothic romanticism, dreams, and idealism, Klimt was concerned with the cycle of life, visited many times in his beautiful and intricate landscapes.