Comparative Study

By: Ahleah Hernandez

Salvador Dali
-

Salvador Dali is a very popular international artist that created paintings which are part of the Surrealism movement.
All of Salvador Dalis paintings could be something that would show up in one of your dreams and probably wouldnt
be something that you see in a state of consciousness.
Salvador used a large variation of line, shape and color contrast in his paintings. His use of line and shape is a big
contributor to what makes his pieces surreal. He uses very squiggly lines that flow throughout the piece like flowing
water or something liquidus. The shapes are very non- geometric and there are not a lot of sharp shapes like
squares or rectangles. Instead there are a lot of curvy, round shapes that help create the affects of things melting or
distorted objects.
For example, in The Persistence Of Time, there is a lot of wavy lines and curvy shapes, which forms the melting
clocks and the other irregular objects.

Surrealism
-Surrealism is a major art movement that many artists include in their works. This style of art can often be described as
weird, quirky and something out of a fiction book. The defenition of surrealism is A twentieth century avant-garde
movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconcious mind, for example by the
irrational juxtaposition of images.
- Two examples of surrealist art are the paintings shown below. The painting on the left is The Sleep by: Salvador Dali
which shows surrealistic qualities in the main focus which is the deformed face that is held up by sticks. This is very surreal
because it is stretched out and the size of this face is not normal and the artist plays around with lines and shapes to
demonstrate just how

Mark Ryden
-Mark Ryden is a popular artist that paints with the style that could be classified as pop surrealism.
-Mark Ryden is a national artist and he showcases his paintings throughout the united states.
-The paintings of Mark Ryden could also be seen as dream like or something that doesnt happen in real life.
-His artworks often feature young girls or children in fantasy like places with animals and they almost seem like a cartoon.

Pop surrealism
-Pop Surrealism is an art movement that is similar to the art movement Surrealism.
-Pop Surrealism is also fantasy like and it could be something that you see in a dream.
-Pop Surrealism is a little bit different than Surrealism because it just looks a bit different. They both have similar
concepts.
-Pop Surrealism is inspired with modern pop culture but in the same time also by old masters and vintage
fairy tales, mystery and also symbolism which is characteristic for surreal movement. Pop Surrealism /
Lowbrow art is breaking the wall between high art (fine art from mainstream galleries) and low art
(tattoo, illustrations, comics books and so), between popular culture and high art culture, between fine
art and folk art.

-www.postersandprintsblog.com

-www.bleaq.com

Surrealism vs. Pop Surrealism

-Surrealism is just classified as fine art.
-Pop surrealism is classified on a fine line between fine art and low art.
- Surrealist art is majorly just dreamlike and it involves things that are unproportioned or stretched out.
- Pop Surrealist art is more fairytale like and it also incorporates modern elements to it.

Painting Styles
-The painting styles of Salvador Dali and Mark Ryden are fairly different too.
-In Salvador Dalis paintings it is very obvious that he uses a lot of bold fiery colors and his lines are varied which
contributes to the dream like state that each of his paintings have. He either uses a lot of cool colors or a lot of warm
colors, it depends on which piece you are looking at.
- Mark Ryden uses a lot of subtle colors in his paintings, including pastel colors. His brush strokes are soft and he
doesnt use a lot of harsh lines. The soft brush strokes contribute to the whimsical fairy tale themes of his paintings.

Pastel colors,
soft brush strokes

cool colors
and stretched

Similarities
-Even though there were a lot of differences between the two artists, I believe that they shared some of
the same concepts in their artworks.
-They both focused on things that couldnt be real and that was what the majority of their art was about
- They both came up with pretend characters that were unique and they made things that people have
never seen before and both of their artworks are very whimsical and quirky.

Jessicas Hope vs. Sleep

-Jessicas Hope is a painting by Mark Ryden and it reminds me of a story that I wouldve read when I
was a kid.
-This painting is very different than Sleep by Salvador Dali because Mark Ryden used a different color
scheme and he tries to make his painting look realistic in a way while Salvador Dalis painting looks
very unrealistic.

Themes
-

In the artworks of Salvador Dali he often uses the themes of time, perception, hallucination, dreams,
eroticism, death, decay, and psychoanalytical theories of his time.
In the artworks of Mark Ryden he often uses the themes of pop culture, fairy tales, juxtaposition of
child innocence and the mysterious recesses of the inner soul.
Both of their artworks often have themes with deep meanings that make you think.

Why are dreams a major theme?

-While going through this project I was wondering why were dreams such a
reoccurring thing in the works of both Salvador Dali and Mark Ryden?
- After doing some research on the internet I realized that the use of dreams might
ve had to do with their early life or childhood.
-Salvador Dali uses images that we could picture having in dreams and it couldve
been what he saw in his own dreams or thoughts in his mind.
-Mark Ryden uses images that you would see in a creepy, dark childrens story
and in an article it said that he loves to work with the juxtaposition of a childs
innocence and whether a child is actually innocent or not and that could do with
what they dream about.

Nature
-Most of both of their artworks are based on scenes that are outside and there arent many paintings that
are based inside and i thought that it was something that was interesting enough to talk about. In both
artworks the landscape in the background looks like something out of dream and it takes your mind to a
whimsical fantasy place.

Early lives
-Salvador Dalis early life was filled with art influences and he has been encouraged to practice art since
he was a little boy and his parents wanted him to get better and better at his paintings.
- Art was a big part of Mark Rydens early life and even his brother became a famous artist. Mark Ryden
has done a few cd covers for some popular bands and he even made a book cover for a Stephen King
novel. Based on the early pieces done by Mark Ryden and Salvador Dali, is the perfect example of how
their themes and style have developed and changed into what it is today. There is a difference between
the early works that they have created and their later works, their artistic growth and development is
shown in the progression of artwork.

Salvador Dalis Influences

-Salvador Dalis Influences were Pablo Picasso, Joan Mir, Federico Garcia
Lorca, Sigmund Freud, Diego Velazquez, Hieronymus Bosch, and Arnold
Bocklin. In his artwork you can see where

Mark Rydens Influences

-Mark

Rydens influences were Salvador Dali, Hieronymus Bosch, JeanAuguste Dominique Ingres, and Jacques-Louis David.

Technological Death

This sculpture was inspired from the works of

Salvador Dali. The representation of Dali is very
subtle, but I thought about some of his paintings that
I have seen and how they utilized things in ways that
told a story or held a message, but wasnt so obvious
about it. The materials that I chose for this project
were unusual, but each one represented part of the
story that I wanted to tell. In comparison to Dalis
paintings, I think I executed my piece in a way that is
similar to how he would make a sculpture.
When examining his paintings in order to gain
inspiration for this piece, I noticed that a few of them
didnt have tons of things going on in the painting
and they were sort of simplistic in a way that they
had one main focus and a few minor things in the
background, so I wanted to replicate that in my
sculpture, hence the reason for having this main,
attention-catching piece and nothing surrounding it.

Disconnected City

This painting was inspired by the works of

Mark Ryden. The reason why I chose Mark
Ryden as my inspiration for this piece is
because I admire his art and I am inspired by
the way he can take a piece and make it look
like a fantasy scene with a touch of
morbidity. That really fascinates me because
he takes an image that looks like it could be
in a childrens novel and he adds certain
aspects and details to it that makes the
scene look out of the ordinary or in some
cases, slightly disturbing. In this piece, you
can clearly tell that I used that concept and
added things like the floating head, the
beheaded girl and the girl with the wires
running from her head to the buildings
behind her. My goal was to tell a story, but
also add the slightly morbid aspects to my
painting just like Mark Ryden does. On the
contrary, my use of colors isnt exactly the
same range of colors that he uses because
he tends to use a range of light almost pastel
looking colors and I used dark, bold colors.

Similarities Between My
Work And Dalis Work
-

I manipulated line and shape in my

sculpture to show the dream-like aspect
in Dalis paintings. For example I used
the wire hanger to sort of be like the
sticks holding up the face in his painting
The Sleep.
In Dalis paintings and my sculpture
there is a big main focus object and then
there is a simplistic background that
doesnt take away from the main focus.
In my sculpture I utilized my materials to
represent pieces in the story that I am
subtly trying to tell and I got this idea
from some Dalis paintings because I
noticed that the objects in his paintings
kind of tell a story when you look at the
whole piece.

Differences Between My
Work And Dalis Work
-

One main difference that you can see

right away is that my piece is a
sculpture and the pieces by Dali that
inspired me were paintings.
Another difference between my
sculpture and his pieces are that the
colors in my sculpture are really dark
and dull and they dont really call
attention to themselves, but in Dalis
paintings I saw that he often uses
bright, bold colors that draws the eye
to it almost immediately.
The last difference that I noticed is that
in my sculpture I used a mix of natural
and artificial materials to get a point
across and I didnt really see that in
any of his pieces since they are mostly
paintings.

Similarities Between My Work

And Rydens Work
-

A similarity that I noticed in my work and Mark

Rydens work is that we both use a similar
theme concept in which there are aspects of
fantastical ideas mixed with a bit of morbid
ideas.
Another similarity is that in my painting and
some of Marks paintings there is a large use
of soft brush strokes and they are thinner and
smaller which creates a smoother line that
flows better and isnt as harsh as a thick, large
brush stroke.
Both of our pieces contain scenes in which you
look at it and kind of wonder what is going on
or what it is trying to represent because they
are out of the ordinary and when you first look
at the piece it might not make sense right away
and its something that you have to ponder for
awhile and everyone could come up with their
own meaning for the piece.

Differences Between My
Work And Rydens Work
-

One difference between my painting and

Mark Rydens paintings is that he uses light
colors that could be described as pastel or
soft versions of normal colors, but my
painting used a lot of darker, more bold
colors because I didnt want to exactly match
his pieces.
Another difference is that in my painting I
used a city-scape as my background and
Mark Ryden often has the subjects of his
paintings in a nature scene or in a room of
some kind.
A major difference that I saw between our
pieces is that I used a lot of dark, sharp,
harsh lines and Mark Ryden doesnt really
use that as much in his paintings, but I had to
do that since I was working with buildings in
my city background.

The reason why I chose these two specific

artists to talk about and use as inspirations
for my artwork is because they paint
Surrealist paintings and Surrealism is the
one art movement that I was ever really
drawn to right away. Most of my pieces are
weird and mystical like the pieces that both
of these artists have done and they are both
a huge influence on my artworks because I
want to master Surrealism like they did.
Both of these artists use color schemes and
themes that I really adore and in the future I
want to make more pieces that are inspired
by Salvador Dali and Mark Ryden because I
want to be a Surrealist artist too.
Surrealism is a great way to replicate your
dreams or the things that are in your mind
because to me, thats what it seems like its
meant for. It fascinates me that with
Surrealism you can basically bring to life
anything you want and thats what I want to
do with my art in the future.