Contemporary artists often use shock value in order to alert their viewers to causes such as inequality, violence, or even just a political affiliation. However, the idea of shock value is very modern, prior to the advent of modern art and it's deviation from conventional artistic techniques and standards the concept of catching a viewer's attention by something unexpected would have been absolutely impossible to perceive merely because there would have been no means with which to carry it out. This is one of the many reasons that I love the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. A prime example of analytical cubism, its muted color scheme reveals a feeling of dry agony. Picasso, a deeply political man, painted this in response to news of the fascist bombing of the city of Guernica in Spain. He used barely recognizable, mutated human forms to emphasize the horrific circumstances of the crime The viewer can see women jumping from burning buildings, being trampled by horses, and screaming with their dead children in their arms. The painting is blatant and unforgiving. Because of the style, it can reveal more than a realistically painted work could. The painting serves as a hyperbole of the destruction of the bombings and a fierce outcry against them.
No comments:
Post a Comment