Surrealism began in the early 1920′s, and it’s work is known for being imaginative, surprising and explores the world of dreams. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris.

This exhibition features the works of the celebrated European painters and the less known works of the British Surrealists. Many pieces stood out for me as favourites, a few being Landscape at Port Lligat by Dali, Head of a Catalan Peasant by Miro and The Joy of the Worlds by British Surrealist Cecil Collins. (click on title to view image)

The painting I looked at the longest was Dali’s The Signal of Anguish (below). Dali uses his clever double imagery in this piece, and although I could see the woman with tangled hair, I could not see the profile of the old man, thank you to Iain for finally pointing it out to me.

An artist I knew nothing about prior to my visit was the French painter Yves Tanguy (below). I loved his technique of the ‘wash’ style backgrounds, his choice of colours and his bean-like forms. Tanguy decided to become an artist one day whilst riding a bus and seeing two paintings by Giorgio de Chirico in an art gallery window.

I greatly enjoyed this exhibition and I recommend this to all those who love the work of the Surrealists.

To read more about Georges Mathieu click here

Click on each image to reveal the source

As its ironic title indicates, Warhol’s painting paraphrases the painting-by-numbers sets advertised in countless department store catalogues, promising that amateurs can become real artists simply by filing out the numbered fields with the “right” colours.

Text extract taken from Landscape Painting, Taschen

I visited Checkpoint Charlie Museum, Topography of Terror and the largest remaining section of the Wall. These historical sights presented a large documentation of World War II, amazing stories and memorabilia from those trying to escape the Border by digging tunnels, building a hot air balloon, squeezing into two suitcase’s joined together to travel by train or going underwater and attempting to snorkel across.

The Art within Berlin is everywhere, from various galleries housing many of the great names to sculpture after sculpture situated on every other corner across the city. I visited the Neue Nationalgalerie, the building itself is worth a mention, the famous ‘Temple of Light and Glass’ designed by Mies van der Rohe. This holds a selection of 20th Century painting and sculptures from some of my favourites – Picasso, Klee, Braque and Kandinsky, plus a painting that I had never seen before from Dali.

I then went on to visit the Gemaldegalerie, this holds one of the world’s leading collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th Centuries. I saw pieces by Raphael, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt and Scotland’s Sir Henry Raeburn.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Dali Exhibition. I have had the chance to also attend his museum in Montmartre Paris, but here in Berlin differed slightly, stripping back the artist and exhibiting drawings, sketches, illustrated books, as well as some of his less well known paintings and sculptures.

Another lovely thing I came across was Berlin’s collection of ‘Buddy Bears’ these fibreglass, life-size bears can be found outside various organisations who sponsor the bears and results in them being decorated accordingly to that organisation, they range from the underground map, a pint of beer to The Statue of Liberty who can be found outside the American Embassy. View the Bears we spotted on our travels here.

With regards the architecture within Berlin, this is very exciting. From the traditional buildings of the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate to the more recent Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz and Berlin Hauptbahnhof the most expensive Train Station in Europe. Apparently they introduced robots to clean the roof, they done a great job cleaning but once they reached the edge rather than stopping and turning around they fell off the edge… woops!

To attract further interest and contrast to the city, a modern glass dome has been constructed on top of the rebuilt Reichstag, this can be known as the Cupola, this allows visitors to get a 360-degree view of the city.

This was lovely, friendly and history filled city, I would recommend a visit to anyone who has an interest in history, art or architecture. Thanks Berlin

This book was brought to my intention back in University. I read it then 5 years ago and have picked it up several times since. Ways of Seeing shows you how to look at paintings, and has taught me how to read them, evaluate them and I think it has changed the way I now look at paintings.

“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled” J.Berger

Written across 7 essays, thay can be read in any order and is packed full of images to illustrate and support the text. I recommend this book to anyone who loves art, or to anyone wishing to understand art a little more.

“One of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art” J.Berger

Note: All quotes above are taken from the cover artwork of Ways of Seeing by John Berger.

I love the colour choice of brown, black and white. I believe these neutral colours allows me primarily to see the fast flowing, varied width strokes, before getting drawn further into the depth of this painting, and at this point I can explore the shapes and negative space that this painting holds.

I think if this painting was painted using more primary colours, the colours would distract me away from seeing the flowing journey of the strokes and not allow me to appreciate the complexity of this painting.

Autumn Rhythm, Number 30. 1950
Oil on canvas
266.7 x 525.8 cm

It opened up some great, valuable points. The outcome is as follows;

It suggested a designer should/will have their own personal flair and style. But you have to work hard to keep up and adapt within an ever changing marketplace. Although it is important not to box yourself into a certain set style. The client is the most important factor, and designers may have to change their style to service the client.

“Too many people that get pigeon holed as one kind of artist are not working right now” Cheryl Cook

“There are some specific places that did not hire me because my portfolio wasn’t chocked full of whatever they were looking for, but it’s more rare in that a company wants a single-vision designer and not somebody adaptable”. Lynne H

“I have a style, but it doesn’t show in all my work because the clients needs come first and foremost.”  Steve O’Connor

You can read the full discussions here
Creative Design Pros
Graphic Design Professional Group

Thanks everyone for your input.

Thanks to mlg for the quick turnaround.