From the mindset of a Western 21st century viewer, it can be confusing to know how to look at art that is intentionally unfinished, distorted, or "off." Depicting people and the world in a highly naturalistic and illusionistic way is what is considered good art by much of our popular culture: good art is that which utilizes immense technical skill to transfer what we see with our physical eyes onto paper, stone, clay and canvas.
While hyper-realism does require a high level of technical ability and genres tending towards realism are often easier to recognize and appreciate in a culture that values the physical, material world, art has not historically been made for the sole purpose of recording the intricacies of what we see with our own eyes. Often, making art that shows some kind of "break" from what we know the real world to look like helps us to visually understand that there is a deeper message or an underlying reality being communicated. These kinds of distortions were common in Byzantine or Medieval art, as bodies were flattened and almost caricatured to jar the viewer into understanding themes of spirituality, stories with religious significance, or representations of the world to come. As artmaking continued to shift with time, this way of communicating "deeper realities" changed in appearance, but didn't disappear, with modern artists like the Expressionists and Abstract Expressionists embracing the idea of incorporating the artist's emotional state, political message or spiritual meaning through intentional distortion and breaking from the tradition of what finished artworks should look like.
This collection of art includes a number of works in which intentional distortion signals to the viewer that we are looking at a deeper reality -- an otherwise invisible one -- rather than simply looking at a visual description of the material world around us.
Bernardo Daddi, The Crucifixion, ca. 1325–30, tempera on wood, gold ground, overall 18 1/4 x 11 3/8 in. (46.4 x 28.9 cm); painted surface 17 1/2 x 11 3/8 in. (44.5 x 28.9 cm), 1999.532
This medieval Christian artwork by Bernardo Daddi shows the crucifixion of Christ. While we can clearly see Daddi's skill at portraying fabric, rocks, and bodies in a naturalistic way, it's also clear the ways in which he breaks from naturalistic depiction in order to emphasize the spiritual significance of the event. He signals this most obviously through the golden background, as gold was often used to symbolize spiritual reality within artworks, and the angels which float around Christ's head. He also lengthens and emaciates the body of Christ Himself to convey the depth of pain that is being experienced both by the subjects and the viewer of this artwork, and to remind us that Christ is not only a human body like our own, but also fully God.
Byzantine or Crusader, Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant, 13th century, tempera on wood, 10 × 7 1/4 × 1/2 in. (25.4 × 18.4 × 1.3 cm), 2020.401
In this 13th century Byzantine artwork, the artist intentionally distorts aspects of the Madonna's and Christ's features to help the viewer understand that this is not an everyday mother and child. These two figures are set apart from the rest of humanity because of their spiritual roles. The Christ child is painted with the features and anatomy of a much older person who has been shrunken down to the size of a baby, and while potentially unsettling, the viewer is meant to understand that this way of representing Christ tells us that He is not a normal human child, but sinless and perfect -- God, who has taken on flesh and become human. Likewise, Mary's eyes and face are asymmetrical and tilted towards her son, and the hand that points to him is thin and waifish; this too tells us that though Mary is human, the emphasis in on her spiritual role as the mother of Christ, pointing us to her son.
Joshua Johnson, Emma Van Name, ca. 1805, oil on canvas, 29 × 23 in. (73.7 × 58.4 cm), 2016.116
This work by 19th century folk artist Joshua Johnson uses surrealist distortions to present a dream-like portrait of a young girl who stands by a glass goblet (full of strawberries) which is so tall that it reaches to her waist. The room that she stands in is sparse, without furniture, and dimly lit. It has been suggested by some that the huge goblet and excessive amount of strawberries represent the wealth of this little girl's family, or that the fruit symbolizes a broader longing for peace, prosperity, and freedom (related to Johnson's identity as a man of color). Regardless of the specific intended meaning of this artwork, Johnson continues in the path of distorting or changing recognizable symbols (like the goblet) to hint at the non-physical.
Vincent van Gogh, Corridor in the Asylum, 1889, brush and oils over black chalk on pink laid paper, 25 5/8 x 19 5/16in. (65.1 x 49.1cm), 48.190.2
Van Gogh's quiet, empty hallway in this artwork is not intended to be a record of how the asylum really looked, or an exact portrayal of its architecture. Through heightening the mustard yellow of the walls, the violets and reds of the shadows, and the bright greens of the receding hall, van Gogh communicates the hollow loneliness that someone may feel while standing in the asylum corridor. These colors and organic lines are not strictly descriptive, but help to create an emotional feeling, signaling to the viewer the deeper, emotional and mental relationship that this physical place has to van Gogh.
Paul Cezanne, Madame Cezanne (Hortense Fiquet, 1850-1922) in the Conservatory, 1891, oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 28 3/4 in., 61.101.2
This portrait of Paul Cezanne's wife Hortense is relatively naturalistic, and the viewer recognizes quickly the subject matter of a young woman wearing a black dress in a garden. However, as the eyes linger on the portrait, more and more areas of deliberate alteration or warping come to our attention. Cezanne uses minimal detail in the surroundings and includes areas in which the white of the canvas is allowed to shine through, building up paint most thickly in the areas around Hortense' face. Cezanne's heightened colors, emphasized shapes and abstracted features help the viewer to grasp the hint of underlying emotion and relational reality that lies beneath the depiction of the physical moment; we are meant to understand that this is not a random woman, but one that has a deeply personal and intimate relationship with the artist.
Marc Chagall, Susanna and the Elders, 1912, metallic paints, opaque watercolor, and brown ink on paper, 1984.433.57
In this artwork by Marc Chagall, he tells the story from chapter 13 of the book of Daniel, in which a young woman named Susanna is lusted after and trapped by two elders from her community. Though this artwork depicts recognizable objects such as trees, houses, figures and the outdoors, all these objects are uncomfortably distorted; the tree trunk is green, house is bright red and blue (and roofless), the figures are seemingly weightless, and the landscape flattened. These intentional abstractions are meant to signal to the viewer an emotionally charged scene, as well as communicate the spiritual weight that this Biblical story holds.
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