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Here are two more video reviews!

The video Expressionism explores the emotions that are expressed in the art style Expressionism. Many paintings such as Ashes, or Scream by Edward Munch, use colors and facial expressions to create emotions within the painting. This emotion is a pessimistic view of woman, passions, and the world. He once said “In my art I tried to clarify life and its meaning to me”. This is perfect example of the definition of Expressionism. Similar to Munch, the German artist Osloo Franz Marc’s uses color to express emotion. The Blue Horse is an example of color used to take a subject of out its natural environment and transport it into its own world. A blue horse is not natural in the real world, which is exactly what Marc wants to portray. Expressionism also uses abstract forms which can make objects resemble another symbolic object or to dull the shape to enforce the meaning behind the object. Die Brucke Kirchner’s work shows how an artist’s style is able to change throughout the years. A painting of his peers uses a blue color scheme and somewhat realistic faces. However when he moved to Berlin his style changed to short brush stokes as well as jagged and pointed forms as seen in Five Woman in the Streets. I chose this video because I wanted to learn more than what I read within the chapter. Also, I found it very interesting to see different artist pieces that use the same style. Comparing the art works make understanding expressionism easier because I am able to see how and why the artist chose to express himself in that way. I believe this video was very insightful.

The video Dada and Surrealism explores the two styles, the artist who created to art, the worldly situations that influenced the art, and the materials that were used. Dada is anti everything, especially war. Much of the Dada work was done in and after World War 1. Kurt Schwitter denied he was a Dada artist, however his work reflects the basic elements of the art style. His collage Merbild 25 used paper clippings, a name of a politician and an old tin can lid. Dada is used as a revolt against modern society and glorifies the everyday items. Schwitters used these objects not to conform to Dada but what he could find after Germany was brought to destruction because of the war. Surrealism is an art form that is unnatural and is meant to explore to deepest darkest layers of the human unconscious. This can be seen in Salvador Dali’s The Burning Giraffe. This painting is of abstract human forms with drawers on their legs and is held up by stick supports. This is a vision from a nightmare and pictures civilization as it reached decay. The landscape which is seen in many of Dali’s paintings derive from his own home in Northern Spain, however here it is turned into a barren waist land. I thought this video did a very good job in explaining the meaning and craziness behind the Dada and Surrealism movements. Every detail was examined and combined showed the hidden message behind the abstract paintings. The symbolism used in each movement reveal details about the artists feelings about the current time they were living in and their opinions. I thought this video did a great job taking the information within the chapter and relating it to various artists of the time. I like to gaze upon Surrealism paintings because they are always so mysterious to me and I like to try and figure them out. I though this video was very inspiring and I especially enjoyed the segment on Dali.