Interior Design Student
Arts 1301 - Art Appreciation Haya Hachem 1110239 Instructor: Caroline Attie, PHD
Art Critique Assignment 1: Part 2: Interpretation & Judgement
Title: Landscape with Butterflies Artist: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 35 x 40 cm Date: 1956 Location: Private collection
INTERPRETATION: Looking at this painting for the first time, you literally see a ‘Landscape with Butterflies’. The setting is in a desert on a hot summer’s day with clear blue skies, and somehow abnormally large butterflies have found their way to this desert. This peculiar setting is what gives away its belonging to the Surrealist movement, which Salvador Dali as perfected so well. Knowing that its a surrealist painting, we cannot think that this is merely a landscape with butterflies, it must have a much deeper, darker meaning that cannot be given away through the strokes and colors used to paint it. With such paintings, the elements and principles of art merely enhance and accentuate the hidden meanings of the painting, but they never tell the story. For example, in Landscape With Butterflies, Dali tells an emotional story of how his
Arts 1301 - Art Appreciation Haya Hachem 1110239 Instructor: Caroline Attie, PHD
mother, father, and wife have impacted him throughout his life. He paints the relationship he’s had with them, and the relationships they have with one another, and he does this using the vaguest approach of all. Such paintings require knowledge of the artist’s life and his experiences through life in order to grasp as much meaning as possible behind such odd expressions of art/ self. After researching and discovering the meaning of the painting, everything begins to make sense. The strong bold colors reflect the intense emotions the artist has towards this subject matter. The strong shadows (lines) and dynamism (fluttering butterflies) show the instability of his relationships, or his personal instability with those people. Butterflies
Art Critique Assignment 1: Part 2: Interpretation & Judgement
Title: Landscape with Butterflies Artist: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 35 x 40 cm Date: 1956 Location: Private collection
INTERPRETATION: Looking at this painting for the first time, you literally see a ‘Landscape with Butterflies’. The setting is in a desert on a hot summer’s day with clear blue skies, and somehow abnormally large butterflies have found their way to this desert. This peculiar setting is what gives away its belonging to the Surrealist movement, which Salvador Dali as perfected so well. Knowing that its a surrealist painting, we cannot think that this is merely a landscape with butterflies, it must have a much deeper, darker meaning that cannot be given away through the strokes and colors used to paint it. With such paintings, the elements and principles of art merely enhance and accentuate the hidden meanings of the painting, but they never tell the story. For example, in Landscape With Butterflies, Dali tells an emotional story of how his
Arts 1301 - Art Appreciation Haya Hachem 1110239 Instructor: Caroline Attie, PHD
mother, father, and wife have impacted him throughout his life. He paints the relationship he’s had with them, and the relationships they have with one another, and he does this using the vaguest approach of all. Such paintings require knowledge of the artist’s life and his experiences through life in order to grasp as much meaning as possible behind such odd expressions of art/ self. After researching and discovering the meaning of the painting, everything begins to make sense. The strong bold colors reflect the intense emotions the artist has towards this subject matter. The strong shadows (lines) and dynamism (fluttering butterflies) show the instability of his relationships, or his personal instability with those people. Butterflies