Raoul Hausmann - Talin
at Home
Tatlin
at Home presents
a situation in which the human mind is controlled by rational,
unemotional thought. Hausmann believed the source of the war that
ravaged Europe was a result of a society that made decisions that
were influenced too much by emotion.
The work’s central
subject is the Russian Constructivist artist Vladimir Tatlin. Tatlin
was a painter and architect of the Constructivist movement.
Constructivism was devoted to using art for practical, social
purposes. Hausmann was attempting to use his art to send a message to
society about the dangers of their irrationality. Therefore, Tatlin,
a non-traditional artist, was an excellent subject for Hausmann’s
photomontage. One of Tatlin’s most well known works was a model for
a large tower. The tower was intended to be used as an office
building. Tatlin did not waste his talents on art that had no
valuable use. Hausmann chose Tatlin because the Constructivist
artist understood the importance of having purpose.
trange mechanism
replaces Tatlin’s brain. The large machine juts from his head. Next
to Tatlin, on a wooden stand, is what appears to be part of a human
body. The two objects seem to have switched places. Where the human
brain should be, a machine now sits; the organic structure of the
human body separate from the rest of the body. The machine represents
“mechanical thought.” Hausmann portrays Tatlin’s methods of
thought as being free from emotion. Emotion is what causes the human
to make poor decisions.
The
unusual aspect of Tatlin
at Home
is
that although Hausmann is promoting rational thought, he is doing it
in an irrational manner. This is the essence of the Dada movement.
The entire photomontage is supposed to be Tatlin in his home. Yet,
the back wall is made of the bottom half of a large ship.
The layering and the
textures generated by juxtaposing various materials cut outs express,
an inconsistency and is irregular in every way. Nevertheless, the
meaning generated from these rough, uneven montages is indeed too
underlying and uniform in every way.
Das (2012), claims
that despite its various inconsistencies, Hausmann’s collage work
is ‘underlying and uniform in every way.’
Archino, 2012
Richard Hamilton - Just what is it that makes todays homes so different, so appealing
collage was one of the
first artworks to comment on the conditions of modern life, depicting
a fantasy of an ideal scenario that everyone supposedly wished for.
With images taken mainly from American magazines and re-appropriated
in the name of art, the collage consists of a modern-day living room,
a body builder and a burlesque dancer suggesting the perfect bodies,
a tv as something every house needs, a bold use of color and much
more, for a proper ovation and critique of consumerism.
Among the most famous in
British post-war art. It has come to define the rise of consumer
society
The finished collage
presents all the multiple ways of communicating information available
at that time, reflecting Hamilton’s ironic interest in popular
culture and modern technology. It shows a domestic interior complete
with armchairs, coffee tables, pot plants and lamps. Such domestic
appliances as a hoover, a television showing a woman talking on the
phone on its screen, and a tape recorder that would have been
considered state of the art in the 1950s now appear extremely
out-dated. A framed comic strip on the wall, sandwiched between a
traditional nineteenth century portrait and a window onto a movie
theatre, also belongs to a passed era. Prophetically in the centre of
the work, a crowned FORD motorcar logo alludes to cars; it is a
similar size to the head of the muscular man, standing in a
body-builder’s pose next to it. He holds a giant lollipop bearing
the word ‘POP’ at the level of his groin, pointing towards the
semi-naked woman sitting in a ridiculously artificial pose on the
sofa opposite.
tate^^^
Within it are a
contemporary Adam and Eve, surrounded by the temptations of the
post-War consumer boom. Adam is a muscleman covering his groin with a
racket-sized lollipop. Eve perches on the couch wearing a lampshade
and pasties.
drawing up a list of
the image's components, Hamilton pointed to his inclusion of "comics
(picture information), words (textual information) [and] tape
recording (aural information)." Hamilton is clearly aware of the
work of Dada photomontage art, but he's not making an anti-war
statement. The tone of his work is lighter. He is poking fun at the
materialist fantasies fueled by modern advertisement. This whole
collage anticipates bodies of work by future pop artists. The
painting on the back wall is essentially a Lichtenstein. The enlarged
lollipop is an Oldenburg. The female nude is a Wesselman. The canned
ham is a Warhol.
Written notes from
journal
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