Appreciation of Art - Hamlet
Artist: - Angel PlanellsNationality: SpanishDate: 1938 Title: Hamlet Genre: Surrealism Medium: Oil paint on canvas Size: 39 3/4 x 37 3/8 in. (101 x 95 cm) About Angel Planells
Angel Planells was born in 1901 in Cadaqués en and lived the majority of his life in Barcelona where he lived all of his life. He was an introverted man who was motivated by his dreams and imagination. He was a close friend of Salvador Dalí. He participated in a number of Surrealist Exhibitions with fellow artists such as Miró, Spaniards Dalí, and Oscar Domínguez. He died in 1989 in Barcelona.
Description (what I see)
The painting is by Catalan artist Angel Plane, who was a surrealist and his main works can be seen at the famous museums in Madrid and collections in New York. The introverted artist was driven by dreams and visions . The artwork shows a room with a man in a sitting position with his right leg across over his left leg. His left arm is placed backward in an awkward position and the right hand is placed on the right knee. The man is seated but there is no chair or stool to hold him. He sites on a green cushion floating in the air. He wears a white shirt and trousers in a reddish tint. He wears shoes on his feet and his hands are covered with blue gloves. There is a huge fold of garment in the same tint of blue of the gloves that seems to float in midair and covers the face of the man completely. A bright red lounge appears from behind the blue cloth and apparently from the mouth of the figure and balances a skull in its expanded tip. The floor of the room are done in bright orange tiles and there is a pool of blue water within the room. The wall behind the figure opens out into two rooms. The room towards the right is completely dark, while the left side room shows a partial view of a door, a painting on the wall and tiled floor in brown. There are overlapping square geometrical planes on the wall and a larger rectangular plane superimposing the square ones. A small part of the wall is chipped and shoes the underlying brickwork. There is a small raised stool just behind the cushion in orange. A brown wooden object sits in the blue pool. If one observes the color, lines and shapes in the painting, one finds the lines are straight and horizontal as well as curved. The doors, geometrical shapes, floors corners in the wall and the frame of the painting make sue of a straight line. Planells uses curved lines to draw the figure, the folds of the cloth and garments, the stool, brown wooden object, the skull, tongue and the cushion. The upper corners of the obeying of the left door are curved. There is a slight curve on the small raised stool. The boundary between the pool and the floor of the room is done in wavy curved line. The colors used by the artist are bright and sharp. The primary colors that draw your attention are orange white and blue that make a nice contrast and give each object in the artwork a definite boundary and place.The artist tries to create space in the artwork by showing perspective in the orange floor tiles and narrows them slightly as they disappear into the darkness of the room behind. The tiles in the other room are smaller in size and the complete darkness in the other room add to the depth. He drops slight shadows behind the geometrical planes on the wall. The shape of the man is real, but his portrayal is surrealistic. His tongue is unrealistically long and holds a skull. The tussles of the cushion hang down in the vertical direction to display gravity, but the hanging cushion in midair seems unreal. Surrealist artists made their work hovering between the real forms and the abstract realities. The artist makes use of smooth and smaller brush strokes to create shadows and textures in the art. For example, one can see small and gentle waves in the blue pool of water. He creates folds and shadow in the blue garment and the clothes worn by the man. There is a darker shadow under the green cushion, and it looks smooth in texture. Planells was a more active participant of the avant-garde as stated by Robinson, Falgàs and Lord (2006).
Analysis (How did the artist do it?) The painting carries asymmetrical balance because of the use of colors. For example, the blue color of the garment in the upper right side is backed by the blue pool on the lower left side. The presence of two rooms behind the figure add to the symmetry. The floating seated figure seems to be balanced by the skull placed on the tongue. Àngel Planells was introduced to Surrealism through Salvador Dalí . The artist uses rich, bright colors such as blue, green and orange but offsets them with white. Thus, one does not find any one color overpowering the canvas. The emphasis is on the man because of his hidden face, the way he is seated and the skull he carries on his tongue. The artist is successful in grabbing the attention of the viewer to the figure and what he is doing. It is said that the 'surreality' has always existed in human consciousness and the fantasy and symbolism in these artwork are an evidence of this. The surrealist art connects the real material world to the abstract spiritual realities The concept of the "rule of thirds", which is used more in photography , but can be applied here. There is no split of the painting top to bottom or side to side in half. The horizon here is slightly lower, and the proportion shows more focus on the man even though he is not in the center of the artwork. The movement can be seen the way the man is balancing himself in midair and the way his tongue lashes out and lengthens to support the skull. Surrealism made a substantial divergence from the traditional art and stripped ordinary objects of their rationality. The resulting abstract images forced the viewer to think deeply and evoke empathy from him (Bhatt, 2012).Interpretation (what I think about when viewing the image) Angel Planells has been linked to Salvador Dalí and certain elements in his paintings worked towards goals of absolutely poetic reason. “Hamlet” is a symbolic painting and shows everyday objects in a peculiar setting. When I look at the man, I see a mystery about the man and the way he is sitting can be confusing the public. As a viewer I am curious to know more about the man and what his face would be like. While his body seems perfectly normal, his tongue holding the skull adds to the surreality of the image that is possible only in an imagination. The room is filled with familiar items, except for the tongue and skull. Their placement provides new meaning and suddenly the image becomes larger than life. The blue cloth blocks the vision and perhaps the artist is trying to convey that somethings are happening regularly but their source remains hidden, or the man prefers to hide what he doesn’t want others to see. The green cushion is meant to stand for comfort and leaves the man hanging in midair. Still, the man seems to be seated comfortably. The exceptionally long and bright tongue supporting the skull raises questions and I wonder as a viewer as to why the man is hiding behind the blue cloth.
References
Angel Planells. (2016). Cadaques Retrieved from http://www.cadaques.co.uk/index.php?page=angel-planells
Ángel Planells. (2016). artic.edu Retrieved from http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/125663
Bota-Cibert, J. (2001). Ángel Planells, el surrealista desconegut. Revista DeGirona, 1(1), 18–27. .
Robinson, William H., Falgàs, J., and Lord, C.B. . (2006). Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso,Gaudí, Miró, Dalí. Yale University Press, 1(1), 1-524.
Surrealism Art: Seven Iconic Surrealist Artists and Paintings. (2016). gosurreal Retrieved from http://all-that-is-interesting.com/most-iconic-surrealist-paintings
Surrealism: The Art of Self Discovery (2016). gosurreal Retrieved from http://www.gosurreal.com/
The Basics of Landscape Composition. (2016). Articles by Diane Johnson Retrieved from http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/L_Diane_Johnson/The_Basics_of_Landscape_Composition.htm
