Punk and pop surrealism
Author: Joseph Smith
Punk and Pop Surrealism
Joseph Smith
22 April 2021
Smith, J. (2021). Punk and pop surrealism. (A dissertation in partial fulfilment for the Master of Fine Arts degree at the Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand).
Abstract
I have written about punk in art with reference to punk as a subculture. I have examined Dada and attempted to make the case that punk evolved from Dada and owes some of its ideas, styles and attitudes to the movement. I have examined the use of text in art and the use of humour in art, as these are two aspects to my own art work. I have also examined pop surrealism as my work has a lot in common with this movement. My work is punk with pop surrealist influences. I have examined contemporary artists who are making work similar to mine in various ways in an attempt to help place myself in a contemporary context in the art world. I make paintings that feature a bright, optimistic colour palette juxtaposed with dark and heavy themes of anger and depression, usually politically motivated. I like to bring the ideas behind punk to the canvas, the painting equivalent of simple angry riffs and shouting into a mic. My portraits lie somewhere between caricature and realistic, and tends to swing somewhere in between these two extremes.
Joseph Smith's supervisors were Michael Greaves and Ed Hanfling.
License
This abstract is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International. The dissertation is not publicly available online.
