Hemingway and Art Essays

Hemingway and Art Essays Hemingway and Art Essay Hemingway and Art Essay Essay Topic: Pulp Fiction The Sun also Rises Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Hemingway and Art Ernest Hemingway was an influential artist of the 20th century. He was an author and a journalist and most of his individual works inspired the rise of fictional writing throughout the 1900s. As an author, Hemingway’s writings were influenced by the various events that occurred in the 20th century, particularly the First World War. His experience of the war and the influence of modernism were the fundamental aspects that led to Hemingway’s use of pulp fiction to establish meaning through dialogue and action. Regarding art, it is essential to assess Hemingway’s stories as illustration of forms of art through comparison with another formidable painter of the 20th century, Thomas Hart Benton. The main art form that Hemingway used in his writing was the iceberg theory (Theory of Omission). Through this type of writing, Hemingway believed that he could describe an action and at the same time express a dissimilar message regarding the action. For instance, in his book, Big Two-Hearted River, Hemingway uses the iceberg theory by concentrating on Nick Adams’ action of fishing and at the same time asserting Adams’ concentration on fishing to the degree of ignoring the repulsiveness of his experience of war (Hemmingway, 101). Moreover, most of his content was based on his experience of the First World War, which led him to the incorporation of realism in his works while using fictional events to assert the themes he portrayed. Apparently, his writing style used the concept of imagery and symbolism by creating patchworks of images to convey meaning. Thomas Hart Benton was another prominent artist of the 20th century. His works were mostly paintings that defined the Regionalist Art movement. Regionalism, as the name suggested, sought to capture the American rural life (Wolff, 67). Despite both artists being born in the same period, their forms of art were different. While Hemingway embraced modernism, Benton adapted regionalism. There were several similarities between the two artists. Both artists captured the pioneer aspect of the American society. For instance, Ernest Hemingway, in his book, The Sun Also Rises includes the American West, which remains to be the epitome of America in the 1930s (Hemmingway, 96). Similarly, Benton captured the life of rural America by painting the daily life of inhabitants of the American West. For instance, the completed Independence Murals of 1962 by Benton addressed different aspects of the American West (Wolff, 200). The art form Hemingway utilized sought to attach a different and compounded meaning to something that seemed meaningless. The use of the iceberg theory allowed Hemmingway to exemplify the social purpose of his art form by addressing various social issues such as the effect of World War I, emancipation of women, existentialism and death. Benton’s art form of Regionalism addressed controversial issues such as racism through his depiction of the Ku Klux Klan in the Indiana Life murals (Wolff, 307), slavery and the oppressed rural inhabitants of America. Both artists used art as a means of expressing meaning on the views they sought to exemplify. To both, art was art if it possessed meaning. However, with the advent of abstract expressionism, which led to the extinction of regionalism, art no longer required meaning. Hemingway, through his art, sought to include content as well as form in order to couple the use of his omission theory to complement the subjects he addressed. The s ame goes for Benton who, through regionalism, blended the issues addressed by incorporating his form in his paintings. Civic responsibility involves social responsibility as well. Comparing with Hemingway and Benton, artists have a civic responsibility to the society by engaging in social participation through their compositions. Since civic responsibility is democratic, artists can project their own opinions through their works. Ernest Hemingway, through his experience as a journalistic correspondent, harnessed his writing skill. As an artist, Hemingway achieved both positive and negative criticism through his works. The same goes for Benton, who achieved positive criticism and negative criticism due to some of his paintings. However, every artist is entitled to their opinions since it forms the basis of their artistic impressions regarding their views. The freedom of art permits artists to capture anything and twist it to relay inner and authentic expression. a) The Independence Murals b) â€Å"Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press† in the Indiana Life Murals Hemingway, Ernest. Big Two Hearted River; Homage to Ezra Pound. Paris: This Quarter, 1925. Print. Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print. Wolff, Justin. Thomas Hart Benton: A Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. Print.