Surrealism

Leonora Carrington

Leonora Carrington was a Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist, born in Clayton Green, Chorley, Lancashire, England on April 6, 1917. She lived most of her life in Mexico City. She first recognized surrealism when her mother gave her a copy of Herbert Read’s book, ‘Surrealism’, although her family gave her very little encouragement to pursue an artistic career. In 1927, when she was ten years old, she saw her first Surrealist painting in a Left Bank gallery. She had the opportunity to meet other Surrealists like Paul Eluard. She was largely influenced by Max Ernst. The first important exhibit of her work was showcased at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York City in 1947. At this time she was the only professional female English painter. In 2005, Christie’s auctioned “Juggler” for $713,000, which set a record for the highest price paid at an auction for a living surrealist painter. Leonora Carrington died in Mexico City on May 25, 2011 due to complications from pneumonia.

Martin Stranka
Martin Stranka is a self-taught professional surrealist photographer from the Czech Republic, born on April 13, 1984. His vision of photography is shown as a type between balance and serenity. He has won over 30 international photography awards such as, Professional Photography of the Year, Emerging Talent Award in Nikon International Photo Contest, International Photo Awards, Sony World Photography Awards or Digital Photographer of the Year two times in a row. He has also created book covers for the biggest New York publishers like Harper Collins Publishers or Sterling Publishing.



Bird Bath, Leonora Carrington



Artist’s Name: Leonora Carrington
Title: Bird Bath
Date: 1978
Description: Two women standing over a bird bath. Birds are incorporated often throughout the picture such as the cut out in the house, the women on the left’s face, the person in the back holding a bird, and the obvious big red bird inside the bird bath.
Analysis: This vertical piece is much focused I feel on the red bird in the bath. The bright red color used as the bird causes it to stand out as the focus of this piece.
Interpretation: It is very difficult for me to interpret this piece. It seems like it’s very dark because of the colors used in the sky and ground, and also the people’s clothing. They are old and scary and look like they are cleaning the bird.
Judgment: I find this piece to be successful just because it really makes somebody who is looking at it wonder what the artist was thinking when she made it.

I Found The Silence, Martin Stranka

Artist’s Name: Martin Stranka
Title: I Found The Silence
Date: 2012
Description: There is a man who is walking on the a dirt surface of the Earth and he is shielding himself from everything flying around him. The sky is dark and cloudy and it the man seems scared or to be trying to get away from anything.
Analysis: The focus of this piece is the man walking in the center of the photograph. The photograph also includes leading line which leads to the direction in which he is walking away from.
Interpretation: My interpretation of this photograph is that the man is walking away from the world ending behind him. You can tell that there is chaos all around him and it seems he has just given up and decided to walk away from at all.
Judgment: I really like this piece as well as many other photographs by Martin Stranka. He is a current surrealist artist who brings a lot to all of his photographs and this was one of my favorites. The lighting and colors all worked very well.

Comparison: These two artists, although very different, are also very much alike. Both of their pieces of work that are shown above both seems to have a dark meaning to them. I don’t know what was intended with ‘Bird Bath’, but it also has frightening aspects to it. They are different though because all of Martin Stranka’s photographs follow the same dark, golden color scheme, when Leonora Carrington uses multiple dull colors in her pictures.