Analysis of Vedder's "Memory"-Remembering the Last Gasps of Surrealistic Romanticism in Painting, Before Hogue and Steichen's Intrusions of Surrealist Realism
The painting entitled "Memory" by the American artist Elihu Vedder exhibits a dreamlike horizon and vista of an unidentifiable, yet distinctly foreign land in sunbathed romantic colors. Over Vedder's illustrated ocean the viewer can see face hanging, as if the individual's image were suspended in the overhanging clouds. It is a Romantic vision of the presence of the individual in nature. The memory of the artist or the gazer is present eternally in the natural world, so long as the artist is in the act of remembering an individual. In contrast, Alexander Hogue's "Erosions No. 2: Mother Earth Laid Bare" (1938) is also another medium-sized oil on canvas (40 x 56) but reflects the Great Depression when this work was created, long after the Romantic surrealism of "Memory." "Erosions No. 2: Mother Earth Laid Bare" shows the pillow-like fields of a farm that look like the nude flesh of a female. Hogue's painting is also surrealist, and suggests the presence of the human form in nature, a presence that is intensified by the sharp, phallic cutting scythe lying beside the female figure. But the surrealism present in the Hogue strives to create a social message of humanity's rapacious attitude towards agriculture, rather than a person
Rather than questioning America's social vision like Hogue, Steichen used surrealism to question the common language of symbols and art accepted by Vedder. Like Vedder, Steichen studied in Paris during the early part of his career, and worked afterwards commercially for publications. But Steichen during his European time of study was deeply impressed by the work of Rodin, and made use of his inspiration by the master in his art, rather than creating derivative works inspired by pure Romanticism, or dream like vistas of a envisioned 'old Europe.' Steichen took his European training to return to America and infuse his American landscapes and art with what he had learned from the European tradition. In "the range and quality of his production in the fashion and advertising fields, Edward Steichen might be said to embody the development of utilitarian photography in the 20th century," bringing surrealism to commercial photography during the roaring 20's of American capitalism as Hogue later did to social criticism during the Depression. ("Masters of Photography," 2005) Unlike Vedder's reproduction of European surrealistic spirit and technique, Steichen's photographic images and Hogue's sweeping brushstrokes gave a new life and realistic relevance to the treatment of the human body and human form under the surrealist's ever-changing artistic eye. Hogue and Steichen showed that surrealism, rather than being a form of escapism, can also bring the viewer more squarely in tune with the reality of the world around them, or the expansiveness of their own artistic and visionary perceptions. But there is still greater cultural relevance to the forms of Steichen's photography than the image of Vedder, for Steichen chooses not to depict vague and dreamlike faces of purely individualistic relevance along the lines of Vedder, but instead chooses the form and faces of works of great art, as seen through the vision of another artist, in another medium, and thus forces his viewers to see their own artistic culture anew. The realistic medium of photography shows the viewer that, under proper lig
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