Magic Realism and Surrealism in Mexican and American Art.
bill walsh
<p...@tca.net> wrote:
> A few days ago I read two posts from ?? (Sorry, I've lost the thread)regarding
> Surrealism and Magic Realism in Mexican arts and Literature. I have been very
> eager to respond to this, so be forewarned, this may go on for a bit. In the
> thread, the writer asked why the fantasy and spiritualism as found in "Like
> Water for Choclate", is missing in American literature, or art movements akin
> to Surrealism.
>
> Anglo-American artists are inheritors of the Roman's warts and all kind of
> realism, a no nonesense, pragmatic approach to art and life. This, in art
> terminology does not mean that our art is necessarily 'realistic' as opposed
> to abstract, although there has always been a strong preference for Realism
> in America. Abstraction was a European import. Surrealism, based on dreams,
> fantasy, spirituality and other realities was imported but never 'took'.
> There was never a significant Anglo-American Surrealist artist.
>
> Our only important Magic Realist painter was Ivan Albright, whose works may
> be seen at the Chicago Art Museum. Albright was considered a major artist,
> but an outsider, one who did not spawn a school of followers.
>
> When the French Surrealists visited Mexico they were astonished to find that
> the Mexican artists were already Surrealists ... as Kahlo said, "I didn't
> know I was a Surrealist until Andre Breton told me." The Mexican mind set,
> accepts the seen and the unseen, that magical blending of reality and
> fantasy, what is, what was, and what still could be. This is mirrored in the
> arts and literature in the fine arts and literature, as well as the popular
> culture.
>
> Anglo-American artists and writers show us the values of the Anglo-American
> society. This society has no place for dreamers ... only doers. We are the
> poorer for it.
I'll object, anecdotally, although this is a tad off-topic. Mark
Helprin's books, especially "Winter's Tale," have strong magical-realistic
elements in them, and he's thoroughly anglo-american in cultural
sensibility. And Albright's less magical than deliberately grotesque (not
that I don't like him--I do. But he infuses the everyday with the
decrepit and malevolent).
bill walsh
ott...@xnet.com
Patricia Zeitoun
PatZ
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