Dreams and Art

Rousseau: The Dream

The Dream

Henri Rousseau

Oil on Canvas

6' 8 1/2 inches x 9' 9 1/2 "

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1910

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The woman in the sofa dreams that she has been transferred to this fores and she listens to the sound of the snake charmer...

It is often said that my heart is too open for my own good.

Henri Rousseau

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Self Portrait of the Artist with a Lamp

Oil on Canvast

23 by 19 cm

Musee Picasso, Paris

1903

Magritte: Key To Dreams (1927)

Key to Dreams

Rene Magritte

1927

If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.

Rene Magritte

Magritte: Intepretation of Dreams

Interpretation of Dreams

Rene Magritte

81 x 60 cm

Oil

1930

What one must paint is the image of resemblance—if thought is to become visible in the world.

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From 1927-30, Magritte painted a series of "word paintings." In an article he wrote for a Surrealist publication titled, "Words and Images," Magritte discussed the relationship between the two: "An object is not so attached to its names that one cannot find another which suits it better." In his systematic, compartmentalized composition, Magritte points out the arbitrary nature of language. (It is difficult to read the words in this reproduction, but they do not correspond to the images) Alphabetic symbols have no direct correlation to the objects to which they refer; this is the nature of semiosis.
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http://hem.passagen.se/paro1234/artgallery.html

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Magritte: Restless Sleeper

The Reckless Sleeper

Le Dormeur téméraire
Oil on canvas

1160 x 810 x 20 mm

Tate Museum

1928

My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, "What does that mean?". It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.
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Beckman: The Dream

The Dream

Max Beckmann

Oil on canvas

71 3/4" x 35 7/8"

1921

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On November 7, 1920, Beckmann wrote to J. B. Neumann, his art dealer and friend: "I think you'll be glad to know that The Dream has progressed nicely and begins to give me pleasure. With me that means a lot, since most of the time I'm in a state of deep anger. Which I'll probably be in again tomorrow. But today The Dream is so clear before my eyes as if I were asleep."
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What a curious, yet highly artistic paradox: clear as if I were asleep. Many artists have pictured dreams as nebulous, fleeting fancies, but Beckmann's Dream is razor-sharp. It remains a clear picture of unclearness.
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"Each of the five characters is enslaved by a different illusion; each is trapped within his own shell of inhibitions and incapacities. The three male inhabitants of the cage are cripples. The drunken maid at the bottom is wrapped in a sexual fantasy and uses a cello as a substitute lover. Her face is flushed with excitement; her mouth smiles in coarse delight, but her eyes remain tightly closed to reality or reason. A yellow trickle at the bottom left corner shows what shabby relief fate has allotted her. We have to think back to Titian's Danae and her golden stream of delight to appreciate the full measure of Beckmann's irony. But we really must look to Hieronymus Bosch in order to find similarly gross ideograms for the vengeance which reality inflicts on dreamers who disregard its laws.
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http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/beckmann/dream.jpg.html

Beckman: Dream (Small)

The Dream (Small)

Oil on Canvas

Max Beckmann

My heart beats more for a raw, average vulgar art, which doesn't live between sleepy fairy-tale moods and poetry but rather concedes a direct entrance to the fearful, commonplace, splendid and the average grotesque banality in life.
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Redon: The Dream, 1906

The Dream

Private collection

1904

My originality consists in putting the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible.

Odilon Redon

Redon: The Dream

The Dream

Odilon Redon

Watercolor

Private Collection

(undated)

I have often, as an exercise and as a sustenance, painted before an object down to the smallest accidents of its visual appearance; but the day left me sad and with an unsatiated thirst. The next day I let the other source run, that of imagination, through the recollection of the forms and I was then reassured and appeased.

Odilon Redon

Redon: The Dream Finished by Death

The Dream Finished by Death

Charcoal and chalk on paper on board

19 3/4" by 13 1//2"
Museum of Modern Art

c. 1886

I await joyous surprises while working, an awakening of the materials that I work with and that my spirit develops.

Redon: Dream Polyp

Dream Polyp

Odilon Redon

Charcoal and chalk on colored paper

19" by 14"

Museum of Modern Art

1891

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While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies in a reality that is felt.

Odilon Redon

A whole website devoted to him:

http://www.odilonredon.net/biography.html

Marc: Der Traum

Der Traum

Franz Marc

Oil on Canvas

1913

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Art is nothing but the expression of our dream; the more we surrender to it the closer we get to the inner truth of things, our dream-life, the true life that scorns questions and does not see them.
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Franz Marc

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Self-Potrait in Breton Garb

Franz Marc

Oil on Canvas

99 cm x 60.5 cm

1905

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Matisse: The Dream

The Dream

Henri Matisse

1940

It is my dream to create an art which is filled with balance, purity and calmness, freed from a subject matter that is disconcerting or too attention-seeking. In my paintings, I wish to create a spiritual remedy, similar to a comfortable armchair which provides rest from physical expectation for the spiritually working, the businessman as well as the artist.

Picasso: La Reve

La Reve

Picasso

1932

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Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.

Blake: Jacob's Dream

Jacob's Dream

William Blake
29 cm x 37 cm

1800

From the Book of Genesis (28:11-19).

Jacob left Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to the place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth bless themselves. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it." And he was afraid, and said, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Birkhauser: Cathedral Dream

Peter Birkhauser

I experience a power within myself which is not the same as my conscious ego. It has forced me to adopt a path quite foreign to my conscious attitude, a path which totally contradicted my will and everything I considered important. Before I was able to obey this power, I first needed to be crushed and almost destroyed. I often felt it was a pity this process had taken so long, but now, looking back over thousands of dreams and the sacrifices of a long, hard development, I can see how valuable the experience has been.

—in conversation with Dean Franz, ca. 1975
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Birkh%C3%A4user

Source of Image

http://www.cgjungpage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=888&Itemid=1