LITERATUREMEETS ART

Valeria Bentez Prez

Thursday, May 1, 14

I N T R O D U C T I O NJ U S T I F I C A T IO N

SONG OF MYSELF THE INFERNAL BRIDEGROOM STREET HAUNTING WAITING FOR GODOT DEMIAN THE METAMORPHOSIS T H E G U E S T

LITERATURE MEETS ART

Thursday, May 1, 14

I N T R O D U C T I O N We have art in order not to die of truth Friedrich Nietzsche

The exhibition : Literature Meets Art, as well as this catalogue propose encounters and relations

between several literary works and paintings. The exhibition encompasses literature, history, art and philosophy. Regardless of the period in which they were created, the curation has the purpose of conceiving similarities in these two very different forms of expression while inviting the observer to dig deeper into the meaning of art .

As you walk through the exhibition you will find several paintings, which just by themselves are

incredibly beautiful; however these works of art are each intended to represent a different literary piece. Along this carefully planned exhibition, pieces of art that are related with the

following literary pieces will be found: SONG OF MYSELF by Walt Whitman, THE INFERNAL BRIDEGROOM by Arthur Rimbaud, STREET HAUNTING by Virginia Woolf,

WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel Beckett , DEMIAN by Herman Hesse , the THE METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka and THE GUEST by Albert Camus .

Relating a painting to a novel or short story might just be the encouragement needed for the

intellect to understand more about both pieces, as well as developing passion for both forms art. The objective of the exhibit is to give you food for thought.

Thursday, May 1, 14

J U S T I FI C A T I O N

Art is, undoubtedly, the most sublime form of expression. Both literature and painting are powerful conveyors of emotions and ideas, and it is through them that we are able of experiencing the world in different terms. Unfortunately the fact is that arts and literatures importance has been disregarded in recent years, even the concept of art has been distorted. We are not capable of conceiving the ideas that language nurtures our existence, and that art uses language as means of expression. The world has turn into a productiveness concerned, consumerist, blindfolded whirlwind with little regard for the sublime. We are in desperate need of art and sensibilisation.

As mover and awakener of the world, art can help us understand history and human condition throughout it. This exhibition tries to create bonds between a painting and a literary piece, as en encouragement for the viewers to get in touch with the feeling conveyed by art. It is by relating this contrasting forms of expression form different time periods, and identifying similarities between them that we are being engaged to discover affinities between points of views and ideas. We are drawn to put in contrasts our own ideals and confronted to the idea of the constant and ever-changing interaction with the world.

Thursday, May 1, 14

b y W a l t W h i t m a nS o n g o f M y s e l f

Whitmans song of myself is a

captivating and exceptional

poem. Without the classic

poetic structure, Whitman

manages to bring rhythm and

rhyme into the poem, and

what seems recklessly written

is real ly a superbly and

carefully structured wordplay.

This poem profoundly conveys

sensations and strong feelings

by the use of sensorial writing,

as well as certain music to it.

The poem by Whitman is

related to the impressionist

painting by Claude Monet,

firstly because they both

greatly evoke nature. The

poem states the absolute

d e s i r e f o r t h e a i r , t h e

atmosphere, the dry leaves ;

and in Monets painting we

can also see the prevalence of

nature, the fascination for it as

it prevails of all over the rest.

Grass it self is a predominant

theme in both artists works of

art.

Another relation between this

two works of art is that they

both defy the rules of their

time. Whitman writes Song of

Myself as a free verse with no

a p p a r e n t s t r u c t u r e ,

disregarding the basic rules

of poetry, and grammar; While

Monets radical technique,

and the

b r i g h t c o l o r s o f h i s

impressionist canvas were

shocking for eyes accustomed

to the more sober colors of

Academic painting. Both artists

opened the doors for a new,

definitely more creative and

freer form of expression.

In a way, though the content of

the poem and the painting are

truly important, it is the feeling

they convey what matters the

most. Impressionism is not

supposed to be looked at

directly in order to appreciate

details and light, and this poem

i s n o t t o b e u n d e r s t o o d

completely, but rather enjoyed

to the fullest.

C l a u d e M o n e t

1 8 7 6

D a n s l a p r a i r i e O i l o n c a n v a s

60.3 x 82 cm.

Thursday, May 1, 14

...

The smoke of my own breath,

Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread,

crotch and vine,

My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the

passing of blood and air through my lungs,

The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and

dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,

The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the

eddies of the wind,

...

Whitman

Thursday, May 1, 14

b y A r t h u r R i m b a u dT h e I n f e r n a l B r i d e g r o o m

Stphane Mallarm, Paul

Verlaine, and Arthur Rimbaud

all formed part of the french

symbolist movement. This was

a n i d e a l i s t i c m o v e m e n t ,

created by artists discontented

with their culture. French

literary critics in the 19th

c e n t u r y u s e d t h e t e r m

Decadents to dismiss these

writers, but some writers

embraced the term, taking

pride in their opposition to

e v e r y d a y m o r a l i t y . T h e

Decadents lived tumultuous,

bohemian lives, and the affair

b e t w e e n V e r l a i n e a n d

Rimbaud has been the source

o f m a n y l e g e n d s a n d

dramatizations. In the infernal

Bride Groom, poem found in

the book

A Season in Hell, Rimbaud

uses the catholic image of the

foolish virgin to represent Paul

Verlaine. The image of the

Virgin, along with other

religious subjects such as

confession and hell are cleverly

mocked along the poem.

Rimbauds writing is plagued

with cynicism, and his own

des ire to f ind a way o f

changing the perception of love

a n d m e a n i n g o f l i f e .

Unfortunately, the young poet

soon found that deranging his

senses, and disregarding

morals had not borough him

closer to the re-invention of

love.

The painting The Rooster in

Love by Chagall

was chosen to represent this

poem firstly because Marc

Chagall, as the symbolists,

favored the associative powers

of the imagination in his art. In

addition, both of the selected

works of art reject their

predecessors tendency toward

n a t u r a l i s m a n d r e a l i s m .

Observe carefully, this painting

inevitably conveys a sense of

derangement of the senses.

It is also possible to notice that

Chagall, too, uses religious

images in his art, and he

manages to express absolute

f reedom through i t . The

m y s t i c a l m o v e m e n t t h a t

Chagall captures on canvas is so

poetic that the painting seems

to dance to the rhythm of a

musical score.

M a r c C h a g a l l1 9 4 7T h e R o o s t e r i n L o v eO i l o n c a n v a s

Thursday, May 1, 14

I am slave to the infernal Spouse, he who ruined the foolish virgins. Its indeed that

very same demon. Its no spectre, its no phantom. But I who have lost my wisdom, who

am damned and dead to the world they wont kill me! How can I describe him to

you! I cant speak any more. I am in mourning, I weep, I fear. A little coolness, Lord, if

you please, if you graciously please!

...

He says: I dont like women. Love must be re-invented, thats certain. All they do is

long for security. Once gained, heart and beauty are set aside: only cold disdain

remains, the fodder of marriage, nowadays. Or else I see women, with the marks of

happiness, whom I could have made into fine comrades, devoured from the start by

brutes as sensitive as posts

Rimbaud

Thursday, May 1, 14

b y V i r g i n i a W o o l fS t r e e t H a u n t i n g

V i r g i n i a W o o l f ' s " S t r e e t

H a u n t i n g , A L o n d o n

Adventure" provides a unique

and detailed perspective of city

life. As the narrator walks

along the London streets, we

are given glimpses into other

peoples lives by what our

narrator observes. Virginia

Woolf uses extensive imagery

to describe London from

different perspectives as the

narrator watches the energy

bursting streets. The story also

opens a window for the reader

to understand the role of

women at the time, as well as

characteristic traits in society.

The woman trying on shoes,

the blind men on the street, the

woman in the the balcony,

even the stain on the carpet,

are all part the moment that

Woolf attempts to capture.

Street Haunting is related to

the character is t ic cubist

painting Dora Maar by Pablo

Picasso. He, as most of the

cubist painters rejected the

inherited concept that art

should copy nature, or that

t h e y s h o u l d a d o p t t h e

traditional techniques of

perspective, modeling, and

foreshortening. This trait is

also seen in modernist writers

such as Woolf, in which the

central preoccupation is with

t h e i n n e r s e l f a n d

consciousness. In contrast to

the Romantic world view, the

Modernist cares rather little for

Nature.

P e r s p e c t i v e i s a l s o v e r y

important in both Works or art;

since what we see in cubism is

the interpolation of multiple

perspect ives what causes

distortion, as in Virginia

Woolfs Street haunting the

perception of the eye and of the

I are put in contrast in the

precise moment that the

narrator is observing it.

P a b l o P i c a s s o1 9 4 1 O i l p a i n t1.28 m x 95 cm

Thursday, May 1, 14

...

How beautiful a street is in winter! It is at once revealed and obscured. Here vaguely

one can trace symmetrical straight avenues of doors and windows; here under the

lamps are floating islands of pale light through which pass quickly bright men and

women, who, for all their poverty and shabbiness, wear a certain look of unreality, an

air of triumph, as if they had given life the slip, so that life, deceived of her prey,

blunders on without them. But, after all, we are only gliding smoothly on the surface.

The eye is not a miner, not a diver, not a seeker after buried treasure. It floats us

smoothly down a stream; resting, pausing, the brain sleeps perhaps as it looks.

...

Woolf

Thursday, May 1, 14

b y S a m u el B e c k e t t W a i t i n g f o r G o d o t

Becketts absurd play Waiting

for Godot is possibly one of the

literary modern works with the

most interpretations, it is also

one Becketts most famous

plays. This play forms part of

the Theater of the Absurd,

which means that it is meant

to be irrational, and to lack of

meaning. The Thtre de

l'Absurde expressed the belief

of many writers that, in a

godless universe, human

existence has no meaning or

purpose and therefore all

communication breaks down.

In Becketts play two men wait

for Godot siting by a rock and a

tree, but he is never to show

up.

The entire play revolves

around the waiting of the men

for something o someone that

never comes. Beckett often

focused on the idea of "the

suffering of being, and most

of this play deals with the fact

that the men are waiting for

something to alleviate their

boredom.

Godots identity has been

s u b j e c t o f c o u n t l e s s

interpretations; however the

writer assures us the only

purpose of the play is to be

absurd.

Rene Magritte, one of the most

w e l l k n o w n a n d f a m o u s

surrealist painters of all time,

said that everything we see

hides some other thing yet we

still want to see what is hidden

by what we see.

There is always some sort of

interest in what is hidden and

what the visible does not show

us. We can observe that what

happens with Waiting for

Godot is similiar to what

happens with the painting the

Son of Man by Magritte; both of

this superb Works of arts leave

p l e n t y o f r o o m f o r

interpretation. We always

desire to see what lies hidden

beneath the obvious , because

the thought of the absurd is

simply unbearable .

R e n M a g r i t t e

1 9 6 4O i l p a i n t116 cm 89 cm

Thursday, May 1, 14

...

VLADIMIR:

Sometimes I feel it coming all the same. Then I go all queer. (He takes off his

hat, peers inside it, feels about inside it, shakes it, puts it on again.) How shall

I say? Relieved and at the same time . . . (he searches for the word) . . .

appalled. (With emphasis.) AP-PALLED. (He takes off his hat again, peers

inside it.) Funny. (He knocks on the crown as though to dislodge a foreign

body, peers into it again, puts it on again.) Nothing to be done.

...

Beckett

Thursday, May 1, 14

b y H e r m a n H e s s e D e m i a n

The book Demian by Herman

Hesse relates the story of the

journey from childhood to

manhood of Emil Sinclair.

During this journey our main

character gets to know himself

by undergoing a series of both

e m o t i o n a l a n d p h y s i c a l

changes., and it is through this

changes that he gets to

appreciate and interact with

the world in different ways. It

is Demian, Emil Sinclairs

friend and guide who acts as a

catalyzer for change and

reflection thought the story..

The book by Hesse is crucial,

since it does not narrate a

story that begins with birth

and ends with death. It is

rather the journey though the

self to the self.

The master piece of Hesse has

been paired with a rather

unknown self portrait. The

genre of the self-portrait was

b o r n , o f c o u r s e , i n t h e

Renaissance, when the History

of Art became the History of

Artists. Since then, the self-

portraits have turned into one

of the r ichest and most

fascinating genres of the

history of painting

The chosen painting self-

portrait as Ecce Homo by

Albrecht Drer is arguably one

of the most interesting self

portraits of all times. While at

f i r s t g l a n c e t h e f a c t o f

portraying himself as Jesus

Christ could be interpreted as

an act of self-idolatry, it should

be noticed that the image of the

Ecce Homo is the quintessential

representation of pain and

suffering. Humanity as a

symbol and essence of the

artist. The self portrait as

Demian depict profound self

knowledge, achieved by the

questioning of the self.

A l b r e c h t D r e r

1 5 0 0O i l o n w o o d p a n e l66.3 cm 49 cm

Thursday, May 1, 14

...

I did not know myself, for I was too deeply involved. It had begun with Beatrice, but

for some time I had been living in such an unreal world with my paintings and my

thoughts of Demian that I'd forgotten all about her, too. I could not have uttered a

single word about my dreams and expectations, my inner change, to anyone, not even if

I had wanted to. But how could I have wanted to?

...

Hesse

Thursday, May 1, 14

b y F r a n z K a f k aT h e M e t a m o r p h o s i s

In The Metamorphosis Franz

Kafka confronts us with the

with the premise of physical

a n d p s y c h o l o g i c a l

transformation. Gregor Samsa,

a regular man, finds himself

turned into a horrid vermin

one morning. From this point

o n w a r d s , t h e r e a d e r i s

introduced Gregors new life

as an insect .It is natural for

the reader to be ful l of

questions since the begging of

the story. Is it a dream? Is it

metaphor? A manifestation of

how the main character feels?

A dehumanizing regression?

Why did this happen to him?

Being unable to fulfill his job

and obligations with his family,

Gregor is alienated and his

human condition denied. Since

he is no longer a productive

member of the society he is

isolated and left to die.

A v e r y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c

expressionist painting was

c h o s e n t o i l l u s t r a t e t h e

Metamorphosis.

Expressionism is an artistic

style in which the artist

a t t e m p t s t o d e p i c t n o t

objective reality but rather the

subject ive emot ions and

responses that objects and

events arouse in him.

The painting of The Scream by

Edvard Munch provides us with

a psychological blueprint for

Expressionist art: distorted

shapes and exaggerated colors

that amplify a sense of anxiety

and al ienat ion. Both the

m e t a m o r p h o s i s a n d T h e

Scream express a profound

despair , which arouses from

alienation of a modern society

w h e r e p u n c t u a l i t y

productiveness and obedience

have replaced the sublime.

Both works of at can be seen as

a scream, a gasp for air, an

attempt to escape the absorbing

machine known as progress.

E d v a r d M u n c h

1 8 9 3 1 8 9 3

T h e S c r e a mO i l o n c a n v a s

91x 74 cm.

Thursday, May 1, 14

...

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered

that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. He lay on his

armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen

divided up into rigid bow-like sections. From this height the blanket, just about ready to

slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in

comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.

...

Kafka

Thursday, May 1, 14

b y A l b e r t C a m u sT h e G u e s t

In the story The Guest, Albert

Camus presents us to a

secluded character, Daru, who

its forced into making a

uninformed decision about a

m a n s l i f e . T h e m a i n

character is ordered to take an

Arab , who is a prisoner, to

where hell be imprisoned.

Overwhelmed by the fact that

any decision he makes will in

s o m e w a y c h a n g e h i s

monotonous and secluded

lifestyle, and trying to evade

the decision, Daru lets the

prisoner escape, laying the

decision on the prisoner to

e a s e h i s b u r d e n .

In the story author confronts

us with the harshness of

c o m m u n i c a t i o n b a r r i e r s

between the prisoner and

Daru, as well as the fear of of

assuming responsibility for our

choices.

With this moral dilemma the

individual must make a choice,

but how to make it, if he

doesnt know anything about

the other man, theyre both

isolated. In this case the

isolation occurs because the

barrier of language, but it

depicts a barrier that stands

between everyone.

T h e s t o r y c o n v e y s v e r y

powerfully the solitude that

these characters embody even

though they are together.

The painting by Hopper:

Room in New York, also depicts

two individuals in the same

room; we dont know their story

yet we judge them. In this

painting we can see a barrier

between the man and the

women, not a physical one but

it conveys the feeling of

loneliness. They are evidently at

each other company but same

as Daru they are lonely .

Loneliness, whether a state of

being alone, feeling lonely, or

exper ienc ing so l i tude , i s

portrayed as an essential aspect

o f h u m a n e x i s t e n c e .

Understanding loneliness is key

to understand existentialism.

E d w a r d H o p p e r1932R o o m i n N e w Y o r kO i l o n c a n v a s

Thursday, May 1, 14

...

Daru surveyed the two directions. There was nothing but the sky on the horizon. Not

a man could be seen. He turned toward the Arab, who was looking at him blankly.

Daru held out the package to him. "Take it," he said. "There are dates, bread, and

sugar. You can hold out for two days.

...

Camus

Thursday, May 1, 14

R E F E R E NC E S 1. Hellstein, Valerie. "The Cage-Iness Of Abstract Expressionism." American Art 28.1 (2014): 56-77. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

2.Hart, Stephen M. "From Realism To Neo-Realism To Magical Realism: The Algebra Of Memory." Romance Studies 30.3/4 (2012): 251-267. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

3. PIRNUTA, Oana-Andreea, and Anca BADULESCU. "Poetry And Art: Rethinking Symbolism And Impressionism According To Semiotic Interferences." Proceedings Of The Scientific Conference AFASES (2012): 409-412. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

4. Clark, Robert C. "Keeping The Reader In The House: American Minimalism, Literary Impressionism, And Raymond Carver's "Cathedral.." Journal Of Modern Literature 36.1 (2012): 104-118. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

5.Shingler, Katherine. "Poetry Into Painting: Mallarm, Picasso And Punning." French Cultural Studies 24.4 (2013): 346-358. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

6. TABAN, CARLA. "Samuel Beckett: Du Discours Descriptif, Fictif Et Critique Sur La Peinture La Contigut Du Discursif Et Du Pictural. (French)." Word & Image 27.2 (2011): 220-233. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

7. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/preraphaelite-legacy

8. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1469

9. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/claude-monet-dans-la-prairie-5176268-details.aspx 10. Little, Stephen. Ismos para entender el arte Turner

Thursday, May 1, 14

Thursday, May 1, 14