“Visual metaphors are of the nature of what Kant called an aesthetic idea—a representation of the imagination which occasions much thought, without however being reduced to any definite thought. That is, with visual metaphors, the image- maker proposes food for thought without stating any determinate proposition. It is the task of the viewer to use the image for insight. This is not to say that the image-maker has not provided some direction for the viewer to follow. And the ingredients in the image obviously constrain the viewer’s imaginative flights. Rather, there is no single, fixed propositional meaning, for the visual metaphor is not a proposition.”
Carroll (1994)
The treachery of images. 1929 Oil on canvas. René Magritte (1898-1967) Los Angeles museum of modern art
“A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.”
— Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity
Art can be lots of things but it isn’t reality, it’s a construct created by the artist. To that extent every artwork is a metaphor even if it is illustrative. Artists have used visual metaphor in their work instead of, for example, adopting a narrative. In using a metaphor, the artist is not trying to tell a story or demonstrate what an object looks like. It is using images which might suggest a meaning to its viewer. It is an image that is used to suggest that it represents something else. It is a strategy which presents a clue as to the artists intent while leaving room for the viewer’s understanding/experience of the piece and its content.
A comprehensive study about the ways in which artists use visual metaphor by Daniel Serig 2008 https://www.academia.edu/6613346/Visual_Metaphor_and_the_Contemporary_Artist_Ways_of_Thinking_and_Making
Just what was it that made yesterday’s homes so different, so appealing?
Here Richard Hamilton explains his work below.
“was to throw into the cramped space of a living room some representation of all the objects and ideas crowding into our post-war consciousness: my ‘home’ would have been incomplete without its token life-force so Adam and Eve struck a pose along with the rest of the gadgetry. The collage had a didactic role in the context of a didactic exhibition, This is Tomorrow, in that it attempted to summarize the various influences that were beginning to shape post-war Britian. We seemed to be taking a course towards a rosy future and our changing, Hi-Tech, world was embraced with a starry-eyed confidence; a surge of optimism which took us into the 1960s. Though clearly an ‘interior’ there are complications that cause us to doubt the categorisation. The ceiling of the room is a space-age view of Earth. The carpet is a distant view of people on a beach. It is an allegory rather than a representation of a room.”
Quoted in Exteriors, Interiors, Objects, People, p.44. and below:
Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? ( 1956) Collage. Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) (Kunsthalle Tübingen Germany)
Brushstroke
“Throughout his career, Lichtenstein addressed the issues of what it meant to be a visual artist, especially a painter. In particular, he wrestled with the symbolic and literal power of the painter’s mark – the brushstroke.”
https://www.miandn.com/exhibitions/roy-lichtenstein2/installation-views?view=thumbnails
Strange Suspense Stories 1964 #72 Charlton Comics. Artist Dick Giordano
“Lichtenstein embarked on his Brushstrokes series in 1965. He intended the series to be a satirical nod to the abstract expressionism movement, from which he had departed with the creation of Look Mickey in 1961. He stated, “Brushstrokes in a painting convey a sense of grand gesture, but in my hands, the brushstroke becomes the depiction of a grand gesture.” Lichtenstein was parodying artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, declaring “The real brushstrokes are just as pre-determined as the cartoon brushstrokes.” https://blog.singulart.com/en/2019/11/04/the-story-behind-roy-lichtensteins-brushstrokes-series/
Brushstrokes (1965) Oil and Magna on canvas. Roy Litchenstein ( 1923-1997) © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2017
The starry night
The starry night 1889 Oil on Canvas. Vincent van Gogh ( 1853-1890) Museum of Modern Art, New York
The starry night Murat Yildirim. Digital artwork
Murat Yilderim is a Turkish visual art director working in Istanbul. He says about his work:
“it has long been common to reproduce the world’s most famous paintings by imitation. in this abstract idea, i used furs as a creative tool to move world-famous paintings forward. with this effect, i combined the colors of all pictures in an innovative and vibrant way. i have been impressed by classical paintings since my childhood. however, since modern art has become digital, i have turned all this into my favorite 3d artwork.”
Since the original painting The starry night was made, copies have appeared in many forms and in a variety of media e.g. mugs, puzzles, tea towels and a digital immersive exhibition.
I feel that Murat Yilderim’s work isn’t just an imitation using a different material. The reason I chose to show this work in the context of metaphor is as follows. Van Gogh’s work is so famous, so revered, so popular that this, one of his most famous and most popular works, has become like a familiar pet. It is a pet that is loved and stroked by its owner and who bestows a sentimental persona upon that pet. To me, the furry starry night provides a visual metaphor about what the original starry night has become.
See more work by Murat Yilderim:
https://www.behance.net/muratyildirim
Picasso and the metaphor of the Minotaur.
Bull, Horse, and Woman 1934 Etching. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Click here to find out how Picasso used metaphor in this print and other works:
https://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/806.html?page=2&events=1
Persian miniature art
"Due to the religious and spiritual learnings, the way which the miniature artists saw and perceived reality had totally altered. For the miniature artist, objective reality stood counter to the subjective reality and one way to show this was to minimize the size of the artwork. That is to say, the smaller the size the bigger the meaning, or the smaller the signifier the larger the signified. They believed that any alteration in size or distortion in dimension would change the way one looked at an object, and by changing the way one looked they could change the outlook.”
https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/catalogo/online/interarts/pdf/02
khamseh. 15th C Illustration. Nezami Herat school. https://www.iranchamber.com/art/articles/history_iranian_miniature.php
Metaphor in Dutch ‘vanitas’ paintings 1580-1800
Still life with imaginary view 1645 Oil on canvas. Laurens Craen (1620-1670). Art gallery of NSW, Australia.
Dutch still life paintings were codified to project a message for their viewer. Click here to unravel meanings in paintings such as the one above.
The viewers perception of metaphors in art
“Before exploring the viewers’ perception of metaphors communicating through art, it is important to mention here what the artists want from the viewer to ‘see’. Artists that are true to their practice simply want to generate other metaphors to their spectators. In other words, they only wish to trigger the spectators’ conceptual system in order the latter to make their own personal connections with the art piece. Sharing Serig’s (2008) conclusion on this matter, he states; “The artists want their work to be viewed; they want reactions, but they do not create art with the mindset of getting one, right interpretation from viewers. Rather, the artists speak of creating art that enables multiple interpretations within a range prompted by the piece” (p.96).
John Berger in his text ‘Ways of seeing’ (1972) makes a similar point by stating; “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe”. “We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves” (p. 8-9).
On the other hand, in his text ‘Montage of Attractions’, Einsestein had a different opinion since his vision was to be able to trigger a sensual and psychological stimuli for the working class people, in order their perception to be manipulated towards an establishment of certain final thematic effects. He wrote this text in 1923 when the proletariat was trying to raise a strong voice against the Russian bourgeois and probably that was why it was very important for Einsestein the working class to have class consciousness.
“Approached genuinely, this basically determines the possible principles of construction as ‘an action construction’ (of the whole production). Instead of a static ‘reflection’ of an event with all possibilities for activity within the limits of the event’s logical action, we advance to a new plane –free montage of arbitrarily selected, independent (within the given composition and the subject links that hold the influencing actions together) attractions –all from the stand of establishing certain final thematic effects –this is montage of attractions” (p.182-183).
In his theatrical and film work he always used strong metaphors that referred to the ‘one day the working class will stop being suppressed by the bourgeois’ concept.
The cognitive operations of the brain are responsible for creating conceptual systems in order man to experience his world, to build up experiences thus to create memories and furthermore concepts when standing in front of his world. This is actually Berger’s ‘Ways of seeing’ and also Eisenstein’s ‘Montage of Attractions’ leading the human to new perceptions, explanations and inventions that only emerge through the experience of the phenomena trigger.
Surrealists are always a good example for metaphors created in artworks. That is succeeded through juxtapositions of familiar things placed out of context creating a visualization of a completely different meaning. In other words, we can see in their works one thing and recognize the absurd connections between that thing and something else. Duchamp’s READYMADES, Magritte’s paintings and Dali’s works are only few of the numerous examples that we can place in order to clearly present the visual metaphors through art.
An excellent example of metaphors created by artists and metaphors conceived by the spectators is Duchamp’s essay ‘The Creative Art’ (1989). According to this; “… the artist goes from intention to realization through a chain of totally subjective reactions. His struggle towards the realization is a series of efforts, pains, satisfaction, refusals, decisions, which also cannot and must not be fully self-conscious, at least on the esthetic plane”, (138-140). This is Duchamp’s way to describe the conceptual system of thinking towards creating art and thus creating metaphors through art. He suggests that the human brain’s ability to channel experiences/memories helps the artist to express him/herself.He continues by describing the personal ‘art coefficient’ like an arithmetical relation of ‘the unexpressed but intended and the unintentional expressed’.This is how Arnheim’s intelligence of perception operates and the artist cannot be aware of these operations.
In the same tone, Duchamp places the spectator experiencing ‘the phenomena of transmutation’ at the point where the spectator transforms the artist’s inert matter into a work of art. But, then again, it is also the spectator’s intelligence of perception that acts unconsciously and dictates the aesthetic value of an artwork.
The ‘art coefficient’ of the artist is best described in Serig’s (2008) statement: “The artists΄ reflections on their influences, content, idea generation and art making imply art practices pregnant with metaphor” (p.134). Where, in terms of the viewer’s interpretation, Serig (2008) states:
“The role of the viewer that the artists’ express seems to mirror their process of creation: Interpretation connects to the physical engagement of the artwork like the artist physically engages with the materials. Artists emphasize the desire for the artwork to allow for multiple interpretations that invite the viewer to bring their histories and experiences to bear on it in much the same manner that they do so in their processes of idea generation and art making” (p.97).
In Harrison’s text ‘Introduction to Art’ (2009) we find Bell’s sayings describing his term ‘Significant form’:
“Works of art are the things that provoke ‘the personal experience of a peculiar emotion… called the aesthetic emotion’, having ‘the quality that distinguishes works of art from all other classes of objects’ as their common characteristic. ‘In each, lines and colors combined in a particular way, certain forms and relations of forms, stir our aesthetic emotions.’ To these aesthetically moving combinations he gave the name ‘Significant form’”.
Mieke Bal (1996), on the other hand, discussing on how we read art mentions that we are ‘reframing’ the image or the work of art by assigning new meanings to it. The initial ‘frames’ have been created by history, indicating the ‘theory’ that exists on an artwork. But, as viewers, where nothing is profound, but only the usage of our perception, we are free to interpret something and create a completely different meaning, even assign a new iconicity to it.
We can easily understand how all the above can be easily manipulated through advertisements for commercial reasons in order to convince consumers to spend more money on products. This is an argument that fits lots of discussion so that is why this essay is focused only on art pieces that people see in galleries and museums.”
http://manoeuvresto.blogspot.com/2012/03/in-what-ways-visual-metaphor-is.html
Visual metaphor in film
Statues and what they represent in The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed and written by Graham Greene.
“In the opening shots of The Third Man we are shown an image of Vienna that is followed in quick succession by three wintery images of statues in the city.[15] The intricate details and striking postures of the statues invite the eye and one’s attention to linger, yet the montage is cut so quickly that we only have time to register each image before we are pulled along to the next, not only through the speed of the cutting but also by the quick, nonchalant voice of the narrator (that of Reed himself in the British release), commenting on how he never knew the “old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm.”[16] The rhythm of the editing does not allow one to pause or to become absorbed in the delicacy of Strauss’s stone bow resting lightly on the strings of his violin;or to pay attention to the three human figures that seem to push out in relief from part of an archway beneath the instrument’s delicate scroll; or to fully note the folds of the chiseled robes of the statues standing on the rooftop overlooking the city—one of them, in profile, winged and commanding a chariot pulled by horses—all wearing mantles and head-coverings of snow; or to dwell on the severe, imposing figure of Beethoven sitting atop a column with small putti and a classical figure grouped at its base, also draped in snow, and set against a backdrop of buildings as well as a network of branches as fine as the spreading cracks in a sheet of ice. These three views of statuary figures, public and commemorative, standing in for the “old Vienna,” which has become a city of monuments, are followed by visual evidence of, and speedy commentary on,the thriving black market in the new postwar order, quickly leading to a shot of a corpse (an amateur unable to “stay the course”) floating in the river near a sinking boat, amid ice not cracked, but instead broken into menacing shards”.
Jacqueline Shin -Jan 15, 2017
Click here to view opening shots (It takes a little time to open):
https://modernismmodernity.org/sites/default/files/media/StatuesinViennaF.mp4
Battleship Potemkin (1925) Director, Sergei Eisenstein.
The Odessa Steps excerpt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxaefqC-k90
”The Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin has been watched, discussed, and analysed countless times. It's been referenced in parodies like The Naked Gun, as well as almost lifted directly in Brian DePalma's The Untouchables (1987). The scene is iconic in and of itself, and the pram is a shorthand for the entire purpose of the scene.”
Read more about the film and this scene:
http://objectsinfilm.blogspot.com/2015/04/object-8-pram-battleship-potemkin-1925.html
The use of metaphor in the film Parasite (2019). Director Bong Joon Ho.
“Parasite‘s story centers on two mirroring families, the wealthy Parks and the impoverished Kims. The landscape rock first enters the picture when it is brought to the Kims’ dingy semi-basement apartment by Min, the privileged college-age friend of the family’s only son, Ki-woo. The arrival of this glamorous but largely useless gift — Mrs. Kim grumbles that she wishes Min had brought some food instead — initially seems to bring good luck. Shortly after, the Kim family begins a cascading series of cons to infiltrate the gilded lives of the Parks. But in the manner of all great fairy tales, the Kims’ seemingly magical object of good fortune eventually extracts a terrible toll. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)
Landscape rocks, known as suseok in Korean, have a deep history in East Asia. The practice of collecting these attractively shaped stones dates back thousands of years, but they became a fixture of Korean society during the Joseun dynasty (1392-1897), when they were commonly displayed on the writing tables of Confucian scholars — hence their other popular English name: “scholars rocks.” Some ancient scholars rocks, or those made from rarer minerals, can fetch astounding sums at Korean auctions.
As a boy, Bong went for mountain hikes with his father looking for rocks suitable as scholars stones. In recent years, however, collecting them has become much less common, especially for Korean young people. Inserting one into the early stages of Parasite was a “deliberately strange choice,” Bong says. When Min presents the rock to the Kims, Ki-woo exclaims, “It’s so metaphorical!”
The rock is presented to Ki-woo as a gift to help the Kim family out of poverty.
Read more about it below:
C. Douglas and the mind of an artist
Blind Poet & the Butterflies1 2011 Mixed media on paper mounted on canvas C. Douglas ( Born 1950)
Read more about this artist below:
https://www.sahapedia.org/c-douglas-the-mind-of-artist
Robert Gober (Born 1950)
“The Heart Is Not a Metaphor is a body art exhibition that took over 13 galleries at the MoMA and included a retrospective of Gober’s 40-year career. Of course, it was entirely forbidden to take photos in that room. It is also important to admit that certain things are impossible to narrate.”
Read more about this artist here:
http://backroomcaracas.com/escritura-expandida/robert-gober-the-heart-is-not-a-metaphor-eng/
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/robert-gober/
When a bunch of ribbons turned into a metaphor for strong powerful women.
“That’s just what San Diego based artist Sarah Stieber did. she changed the context and made a point. It all started when Sarah was inspired by the women, around the world, who marched together to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights.”
View more of Sarah’s work below: