The Tenants of Schools, Essay Example

It is almost foolish to speak of the tenants of schools such as Der Blau Reiter and Dada, because the main “tenant” of both movements seems to be to fight against tenants and restrictions. Nevertheless, the followers of Der Blau Reiter tended to believe in expressing the harmony of shapes and colors, in a way similar to musical harmony. Such efforts toward harmony can be seen quite clearly in Erich Heckel’s “Two Painters at the Table, To Dostoevsky,” in which the artist balances the opposing colors of reds and greens. He also attempts to make every shape square-like – a departure from classical artwork which made his people somewhat disproportionate, but harmonized the shapes of his artwork. In the background of the work, there is a picture of Christ who has been crucified – which, perhaps, symbolizes a rejection of tradition.

They also championed the freedom of expression and frowned upon restrictions which they felt were too conservative. The primary goal of Dada was to reject the standards of the day. Therefore, Dada artwork tended to be rather extreme and unconventional. Marchel Duchamp’s L.L.O.O.Q, for instance, took the traditional and revered painting of the Mona Lisa and defaced it. DuChamp gave Mona Lisa a beard and a mustache and passed the work off as art. Such a move showed DuChamp’s distain for tradition and the values of those who had come before him.

In a way, Dadaism and Der Blau Reiter are similar to the school of romanticism, which also began in protest to the ideals of the day. Like Der Blau Reiter paintings, Romantic artists stressed the importance of spirituality in art. While Der Blau Reiter hoped to evoke a spiritual response, the romantic painters hoped to evoke an emotional reaction from their works. This can be seen quite clearly in some of the horrific paintings of the day, such as “Saturn Devouring One of his Sons,” which is a dark and emotional painting, which depicts a shadowy, monstrous looking Saturn with exaggerated but somewhat realistic human features biting the head and arms off of a highly realistic child. Yet romantic art maintained the same sorts of colors and forms as much of the art before it, while Dad and Der Blau Reiter rejected it.