Surrealism, Abstract

Expressionism, Pop
Art, and Optical Art
By: Juezan, J.P.
Definition, Characteristics and Artists of the
style
 • Surrealism was a cultural movement
What is Surrealism? which developed in Europe in the
aftermath of World War I and was largely
influenced by Dada. The movement is
best known for its visual artworks and
writings and the juxtaposition of
uncommon imagery.
• A movement which sought to reflect the
creative potential of the unconscious
mind.
 • According to Salvador Dali Surrealism is
What is Surrealism? said to be the symbolic language of the
subconscious. And to Guillaume
Apollinaire it is the truth beyond realism.
• Artists painted (occasionally disturbing)
illogical scenes with photographic
precision, created strange creatures from
everyday objects and developed painting
techniques that allowed the unconscious
to express itself.
 • Surrealist often took inspiration from
What is Surrealism? dreams. They were interested in
exploring the subconscious, and for this
reason they worked closely with
Sigmund Freud (the father of modern
psychology).
Characteristics of • Dream-like scenes and symbolic images
Surrealism • Unexpected, illogical juxtapositions
• Automatism and a spirit of spontaneity
• Bizarre assemblages of ordinary objects
• Distorted figures and biomorphic shapes
• Distorted figures and biomorphic shapes
Artists of
Surrealism
 Man Ray
1890 - 1976
 An American surrealist.
His arts are mostly photograph of
strange and manipulated objects.
Artist of an artwork entitle “Gift”

which is created in 1958.
Founder of the “Rayograph” which
he created in reference to himself.
 Méret Oppenheim
1913 – 1985
 A German surrealist who moved in Switzerland
and learned the style.
 Her artwork entitled “Luncheon in Fur”
became the emblem of surrealists. In addition, it
is one of her major works
 She also appeared in Man ray’s Photographs as
a nude model.
 She is a symbol of women in the world of art.
 Salvador Dali
1904-1989
 One of the most famous figures in art history, Salvador
Dalí (1904-1989) is remembered as much for his
extravagant persona and iconic mustache as he is for
his creative output—which spanned painting,
sculpture, and product and set design, as well as film
 Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical
skill, precise draftsmanship and the striking and
bizarre images in his work.
 He used Freudian imagery in most of his works.
 Surrealism in the
Philippines
 Galo Ocampo (1913-1985) and Hernando
Ocampo (1911-1978) were the artists the
pioneered surrealism in the Philippines.
 They attracted a number of adherents and
gave direction to what Filipino modernists
for.
 Its is said that the movement gave relief and
provided personal solution to life during the
years following the trauma of World War I.
Definition, Characteristics and Artists of the
style
What is Abstract Expressionism?
 a painting movement in which artists typically
applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge
canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions.
 non-geometrically, sometimes applying paint with
large brushes, and looks as if to be an accident but
is really quite planned.
 Produced in New York roughly between 1940-
1960. Also known as “The New York School” art.
 Abstract Expressionism was the first art movement
to influence artists over seas, rather than vice versa.
 2 forms of Abstract
Expressionism
 Color Field (Mark Rothko) -
A style of painting that features large
 flat areas of color spread across the 
entire canvas to suggest that they ext
end beyond the canvas into infinity.
Action Painting (Jackson Pollock)
- is a style of painting in which paint
is spontaneously dribbled, splashed
or smeared onto the canvas, rather
than being carefully applied.
Characteristics of
Abstract Expressionism?
 Spontaneous
 Large canvases
 Generally applying paint rapidly (gestural, non-
geometrically)
 Expressive/emotional (most often how people felt
about the fast pace and confusion of modern society)
 Non-representational/non-objective (no effort to
represent subject matter)
 Emphasize physical process of painting (throwing,
dripping)
Artists of
Abstract
Expressionism
 Jackson Pollock
1912 - 1956
 An American painter of the movement and
considered as the Father of Abstract
Expressionism.
 He is labelled as “Jack the Dripper” because
of the way that he do his painting.
Canvases were usually on the floor, or the wall
where he dripped or poured on the paint.
 He invented the style Action Painting in which
what was to go on the canvas was not a picture
but an event.
 Willem de Kooning
1904 - 1997
 A Dutch-born painter and
decorator who went to New
York and became one of the
most consistent longest-lived
abstract expressionists.
 only abstract expressionist that
Woman 1, !950-52
does abstract art and one of the
pioneer of the said movement.
Blended traditional forms, with
a sense of uncertainty.
 Franz Kline
1910 - 1962
 An American painter who invented the technique Impasto.
 Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid
on an area of the surface in very thick layers, usually thick
enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible.
Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, it
also provides texture; the paint appears to be coming out of
the canvas.
 large black & white compositions
 action painting
 like Chinese calligraphy almost
Cardinal, !950
Abstract
Expressionism in
the Philippines
 Jose T. Joya
1931 - 1995
 A nationalartist and a pioneer of abstract
expressionism in the Philippines.
 Embraced the value of dynamic spontaneity and
quick gestures in painting.
 Hisworks was influenced by Kline however he
developed his own style by using heavier
impastos and added with sand for textural effect.
 Hiswork that best describe the style he
developed is entitled “Granadian Arabesque”
which is created in1958.
 Lee Aguinaldo
1933 – 2007
Also a pioneer or modern art in the
Philippines.
 A descendant of Emilio Aguinaldo.
One of his major works is entitled
“Homage to Pollock” which is created
in 1953 from his Flick Series was said
to be inspired by the artist Pollock.
 Granadian Homage to Pollock,
Arabesque, 1958 1953
Definition, Characteristics and Artists of the
style
 What is Pop art?
 A style grounded in consumer culture, the
mass media, and popular culture , thereby
making it more accessible to the average
person. Pop art is short for popular art.
 Late 1950s and 1960s and reflected
everyday life and common objects.
 Pop artists blurred the line between fine
art and commercial art.
 What is Pop art?
 According to Gretchen Berg, “Pop
Artists did images that anybody walking
down the street could recognize in a split
second…all the great modern things that
the Abstract Expressionists tried so
hard not to notice at all.”
Characteristics of Pop Art?

Pop Artists reflected 60’s culture by using
new and different materials in their artworks
including: Acrylic Paints Plastics Photographs
Fluorescent and Metallic colors Silkscreen ink
Canvas and Rubber for Sculpture.

Pop Artists used common images from
everyday culture as their sources including:
• Advertisements • Consumer goods
• Celebrities • Photographs
• Comic strips
Characteristics of Pop Art?
Pop Artists used bold, flat colors and hard
edge compositions adopted from commercial
designs like those found in:
•Billboards • Murals
• Magazines • Newspapers
 As well as new technologies and methods:
• Mass production • Fabrication
• Photography • Printing
• Serials
Characteristics of Pop Art?
Pop art was appealing to many viewers,
while others felt it made fun of common
people and their lives.
 Some people didn’t understand why Pop
Artists were painting cheap, everyday
objects.
 The function of art historically was to
uphold and represent culture’s most valuable
ideals. 
Artists of Pop
Art
 Andy Warhol
 A prominent figure in pop art.
 Partof his artistic practice was using new
technologies and new ways of making art
including:
• Photographic Silk-Screening
• Repetition • Mass production •
Collaboration • Media events
 Warhol used the repetition of media events
to critique and reframe cultural ideas
through his art. 
 Andy Warhol
Warhol took common everyday items
and gave them importance as “art”. He
raised questions about the nature of art
“What makes one work of art better than
another?”
 Pop artists stretched the definitions of
what art could be and how it can be made.
“The Pop idea, after all, was that anybody
could do anything, so naturally we were
all trying to do it all…” Andy Warhol
 Roy Lichtenstein
 well known pop artist
for him comic book is another center
piece of American culture.
Lichtenstein adopted a commercial art
style, showing everyday objects in a
comic book style by using bold and
bright colors, prominent black outlines,
balloons of speech or thought (or
music) and patterns of dots to create
distinctive popular works.
 Roy Lichtenstein
 Lichtenstein’s Painting process would start
with selecting a character from one of the
various comics available. These were mostly
blond, anonymous, beautiful women, often
unhappily bothered by men. 
 He would modify the existing picture a little
bit,(sometimes taking liberties with the
original piece) but still imparting his personal
style to it , giving it a mystical quality.
 “We don't copy the objects we use, we try to
transform them and we hope they go on
transforming as look at them. ”
 Pop Art in the
Philippines
 Filipino artists also made icons of the
crassest consumer items that surrounded
them.
 Primarily characterized by an interest in
popular culture and imaginative
interpretations of commercial products,
the movement ushered in a new and
accessible approach to art. Ranging from
quirky to critical, the pieces produced by
Pop artists in the 1950s and 1960s
commented on contemporaneous life and
events. Here are some of the pop arts
living in the Philippines.
Definition, Characteristics and Artists of the
style
 What is Op art?
Optical Art is a mathematically-theme form of
Abstract art, which uses repetition of simple
shapes and colors to create vibrating effects,
foreground-background confusion, an exaggerated
sense of depth, and other visual effects.
It is all about physical sensations and it was
developed in the United States sometime in the
1960’s.
 was coined to describe the work of a growing
group of abstract painters. This movement was led
by Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley.
Characteristics of
Op Art
It exist to fool the eye. Op
compositions create a sort of
visual tension in the viewer’s
mind that gives works the
illusion of movement.
Characteristics of
Op Art
 It is geometrically based nature
and almost without exception,
eliminated realistic subject matter.
 The elements (color, line and
shape) are carefully chosen to
achieve maximum effect. The aim
is to draw the viewer into the work,
in more or less systematic ways.
Characteristics of
Op Art
Technique used are perspective
and careful juxtaposition of
color (like black-white) as well
as positive and negative spaces
in a composition have equal
attraction. Without both, op art
could not be created.
Artists of Op
Art
 Victor Vasarely

 A Hungarian-French artist
According to the Masterworks Gallery in
California, Vasarely is considered the
father of the Op Art and the leader of the
movement.
 used disorientating effects to create often
impossible images to the human eye,
such as these Vasarely prints and
sculptures.
 Victor Vasarely

confined to academic painting and

enrolled in the Bauhaus Muhely
Academy in 1929. 
 Bauhaus trained its artists to create
paintings based on foundational
geometric forms such as the cube,
rectangle and the circle. 
He created Zebres(Zebras) in 1937 and
it is considered as the earliest example of
Op art.
 Victor Vasarely

Vasarely also experimented with cubist,

futurist, and surrealist painting briefly in
1944; however he abandoned these styles
in favor of optical art.
His op-art paintings are distinguishable
by their hypnotizing colors and distorted
surfaces. 
 Bridget Riley
she is a British painter and designer who is
the most celebrated exponent of Op art.
She explores optical phenomena and
juxtaposes color either by using a chromatic
technique of identifiable hues or by selecting
achromatic colors (black, white or gray).
Her works are inspired by Vasarely and she
developed her own style by turning into
colors.
 Bridget Riley
Riley's work shows a complete mastery of
the effects characteristic of Op art,
particularly subtle variations in size, shape, or
placement of serialized units in an overall
pattern.
Cataract 3 which is created in 1967 is her
famous artwork.
End of the
Lesson
By: Juezan, J.P.