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Thursday 27 June 2013

WordPress Daily Prompt: The Artist's Eye

Is there a painting or sculpture you’re drawn to? What does it say to you? Describe the experience. (Or, if art doesn’t speak to you, tell us why.)

Photographers, artists, poets: show us ART.


I was never really into art until I met Mr. Swiss. He paints, aquarells mostly, but also in oil. Me that cannot even draw a straight line married to a “hobby” painter. As a boy he had lessons from a painter and brought some very nice paintings into our marital home. We have paintings on our walls, mostly original Mr. Swiss paintings.


Now and again a painting might be bought as an addition so over the years I have learned to appreciate painting. I was always keen on visiting museums and art galleries when going to another town or country. I was fascinated by the Louve, saw Mona Lisa which was so protected by alarm systems, that you were lucky to see anything between the people stealing a glimpse of the lady with the strange smile. One of my Swiss nieces studied art and gave us a sort of private tour of a Georgia O’Keefe exhibition which once took place in Zürich. That is the lady that lives in the desert and likes to paint animal skulls and other things she finds in the desert sands. I quite like her paintings.

I suppose I am drawn to the surrealists basically. Salvador Dali, Miro, Man Ray etc. my favourite being René Margritte, although I am not really sure if he qualifies as a 100% surrealist. I am not here to discuss art, that is beyond my knowledge, I just know I like Margritte paintings especially this one.

magritte3

I like this one so much that I tried it myself with a little help from Photoshop and one of our neighbour’s felines. The feline goes by the name of Rosti, is not one of my felines favourites.

“Yes Mrs. Human, that is true. He is permanently treading on our territory and why you had to feature such a stupid cat as a work of Mrs. Human art, we do not know.” Spoke my feline trio infernal Nera, Tabby and Fluffy.

“Felines I am writing this blog, not you and the only art you understand is a plate of tuna fish or still life in the form of departed mice.”

“OK Mrs. Human, message taken. We will leave you to your blog ramblings.”

At last some peace and quiet. They have now circled into a sleeping dimension, so now I can continue. And here is my example of surrealism in the style of René Margritte with an apple, but this time with Rosti the feline.

roschti and apple

Being in Switzerland my attention was also drawn to the work of Meret Oppenheim. She designed a fountain for Bern, which I like very much (see link). I also had the pleasure to see her Fur Cup in the New York Museum of Modern Art. It is really an experience to see an original of work that you admire.

Meret-Oppenheim-fur-lined-tea-cup

So I decided to have a go with this one as well in Photo shop. Here is my humble result.
cup, spoon and fur


Not the original colour or texture, but I had to borrow some photos of my cat’s fur and colour them for the picture.

Of course I also appreciate the “old masters” especially William Turner, but surrealism seems to be the comfortable place for me in the art world.

4 comments:

  1. There's a co-incidence!! Surrealism is also my favourite art-form, although I do like others too. I am a great admirer of Dali, but my favourite artist of all also happens to be Swiss!! His name is H R Giger, and I have loved his work for many many years. It is very dark and disturbing, but it just appeals to me.

    Did you have a look at my 'fun' entry for Creative Challenge?

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  2. Sorry, I forgot to say, I really like your interpretation of Magritte's painting!! :-))

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    1. will get around to having a look at your fun entry.

      I think I found my art taste with surrealism. Dada is also a cultural movement that appeals to me. It originated in Zürich - You can find some images in Internet.

      Yes we have had a few programmes with Giger on our tv. He did the designs for the Alien films and I also like them very much. Nice and dark and dismal, but really with good effect.

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    2. Just popped in when I saw the Magritte painting - also one of my favourite artists. There was an exhibition at the Tate recently featuring many of his which I much enjoyed. I like the one with feet boots on the beach.
      https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-PmQR1wFZhY4t_cupm-Jl23b9rjj5q2wpaTWQuJKmKyuJLrCP

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