Exercise 5.2

What would be the significance of reversing the arrows in Barr’s chart? Make two columns – one ‘forwards’ the other ‘back.’ List as many relevant concepts as you are able to develop the contrast between the two columns. Feel free to ‘cheat’ with a thesaurus.

Barr’s Chart Forwards	Barr’s chart Backwards
Neo-Impressionism (1886) Fauvism (1905) Expressionism (1911) Dadaism (1916) Surrealism (1924)	Surrealism (1924) Dadaism (1916) Expressionism (1911) Fauvism (1905) Neo- Impressionism (1886)

By comparing the two columns, it is possible to see that going forwards through the chart suggests a move towards primitive art and that going backwards sees a reversal of this – from primitive to socialised or civilised. Neo-impressionist art was representative of the object with traditional perspective and often urban subject matter. There was a scientific and logical approach to optical colour mixing theories (Dempsey, 2002:27). In Fauvism and Expressionism, emotional content became more important, firstly in the viewer and then in the artist. Dadaism rejected reason an logic and the systems enforcing them, replacing them with anarchy and the irrational (Dempsey, 2002: 115). Art was an an idea, made from anything. Surrealism attempted to liberate the unconscious(Dempsey, 2002:153) and to revolutionise human experience (Tate online Accessed 22/07/2020). As a revolt against society, Surrealism was described as ‘thought expressed in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all moral and aesthetic consideration’ (Breton 1924 cited in Dempsey 2002:151). Logic and reason were seen to block the natural human state accessed via the unconscious mind.

By reversing Barr’s chart, art moves from a primitive state (Surrealism) to a more logical and rational one (Neo-Impressionism). Going forwards, logic gives way to the primitive which is a reversal of how the human race has developed!

We could also view the reversal of the chart as moving from the internal world of the mind, passing through emotional states (Fauvism and Expressionism) to the external world (Neo-impressionism) -Visually passing from the unconscious world to the conscious one. It is almost as though (going forwards from conscious to unconscious) artists were trying to purify their art and find some deeper human truth.

Reflections

I wasn’t entirely sure that I understood the exercise above. I had no idea what concepts I was supposed to find and just had to go with what I observed when I reversed the chart. By reversing the charts some quite big concepts became apparent. By looking backwards and then forwards again I could see the transition of this period in art that moved towards rejecting social constructs and realities. By shedding conventions, the artists were moving back towards a more natural and primitive state. They were attempting to capture the pure human condition, residing in the emotions and the unconscious mind.

Bibliography

Dempsey, A. (2002) Styles, Schools and Movements Thames and Hudson:London

Tate online at https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms (Accessed 23/07/2020)