THE AGE OF MODERNISM - ART IN THE 20TH CENTURY
4. Dream and Myth
To capture dream states within a pictorial reality, and to give visual expression
to myth, are the guiding principles of the last of the four paths, 'Dream and
Myth'.
Max Ernst, Ubu Imperator, 1923, 81 x 65 cm, Musée National d' Art Moderne,
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1975)
The melancholy, angst-ridden visions of Giorgio de
Chirico stand for the attempt to find the hidden truth behind objects. The
subconscious and the unconscious, fears and dreams, collective and individual
memories, are the chosen themes of artists as diverse as Max Ernst, Marc
Chagall, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali, Paul Klee and
Wols. Edward Hopper poetically intensifies the isolation
of the individual in the modern metropolis. In constant variations on a
single still-life, Giorgio Morandi conveys a deep insight
into the mystery of the objects that surround us. By way of the mythologies
of a Cy Twombly or a Christian Boltanski, this path brings us up to the present
with the work of Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman, Katharina Fritsch and Robert Gober.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled No 93, 1981, 62 x 123 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,
Rotterdam