Surrealism

Vladimir Kush is a Russian surrealist painter and sculptor. When he was seven years old he began to attend art school. At age seventeen Kush went to the Moscow Higher Art and Craft School. He painted propagandistic posters for the military. When he came back home he painted portraits on Arbat Street to support his family. Kush began to take part in exhibitions organized by the union of artists. At one show in Germany in 1990, almost all of his displayed paintings sold. He bought a ticket to go to Hawaii using money he had earned by drawing portraits on the Santa Monica Pier. A dealer from France organized an exhibition in Hong Kong of his work. In 2001 he opened his first gallery called Kush Fine Art in Lahaina, Hawaii. As of now he has four gallery locations in the USA and plans to open more throughout the world.



Jerry Uelsmann was an American photographer born in Detroit on June 11, 1934. He received a B.F.A degree at Rochester institute of Technology and his M.S and M.F.A at Indiana University. In 1960 Uelsmann started to teach photography at the University of Florida. His work has been exhibited in over one hundred shows in the United States. Many of his photographs are in permanent collections at museums throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art, and so on.

Artist's Name: Vladimir Kush
Title: Behind the Trees
Date: Unknown
Description: A deer is off in the distance with the hunter down below searching for him. There are trees and a beautiful light shining through.

Analysis: This piece is fairly symmetrical vertically with all of the trees, except for the sky and deer. It is asymmetrical horizontally.

Interpretation: I think this painting illustrates the whole "hunter and prey" theme. The hunter is so focused on finding and killing the deer. His future trophy is all that is on his mind. This manipulates the way he perceives things around him including how beautiful the world is surrounding him.

Judgment: Overall, I think Kush created a great piece. It has a deep and meaningful theme to it. I love the fact that the four darker trees in the front almost looks like the deer's legs.

 

Artist's Name: Jerry Uelsmann
Title: Mechanical Man 2
Date: 1959
Description: A man contains wires and mechanisms inside his body as if he were a machine.

Analysis: This piece is fairly symmetrical vertically,  but not horizontally.

Interpretation: I think this painting illustrates how our (human) bodies are like machines and each part has a certain task to do. Our bodies are hardwired and are built like "machines". On the other hand maybe he simply thought it looked cool.

Judgment: Overall, I think Uelsmann was successful with this piece. I love the fact that he uses negatives to create his works, unlike how we use Photoshop today. The idea behind this is amazing.

Comparison: Uelsmann and Kush's work is very different from each other. Uelsmann's works are in black and white and all he used were negatives from films. Kush's works has a lot more detail and color. It may seem that Kush spent more time on his work, but based on Uelsmann's strategy it's hard to say. Overall, they both are very creative and original. It is clear that they carefully think about what they want to achieve in their works.