Scribd
Upload
34 views2 pages

Module 12 - Decalcomania

Decalcomania is a decorative technique developed in the 18th century for transferring images onto various surfaces, which gained popularity in the 19th century and was linked to artists exploring chance and subconscious expression. Surrealist artists adopted decalcomania to create abstract imagery, reflecting the unpredictability of the unconscious mind and challenging traditional representation. Notable figures like Óscar Domínguez and Max Ernst utilized this technique to produce imaginative and otherworldly forms in their artwork.

Uploaded by

manuelzenarosa5
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
34 views2 pages

Module 12 - Decalcomania

Decalcomania is a decorative technique developed in the 18th century for transferring images onto various surfaces, which gained popularity in the 19th century and was linked to artists exploring chance and subconscious expression. Surrealist artists adopted decalcomania to create abstract imagery, reflecting the unpredictability of the unconscious mind and challenging traditional representation. Notable figures like Óscar Domínguez and Max Ernst utilized this technique to produce imaginative and otherworldly forms in their artwork.

Uploaded by

manuelzenarosa5
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

CONTEMPORARY ARTS IN VARIOUS CONTEXTS

Module 12 – Decalcomania

Lesson 1. Description

a. From the French décalcomanie, decalcomaina is a decorative technique by which engravings


and prints may be transferred to pottery or other materials; as a transfer technique, it was
developed in the 18th century, in which ink, paint, or another medium is spread onto a surface
and, while still wet, covered with material such as paper, glass, or aluminum foil, which, when
removed, transfers a pattern that may be further embellished upon; it is technique for
generating images by applying paint to one surface, which is then pressed against another
surface to transfer the design
b. Various forms of image transfer have existed in art for centuries, however, the origin of the
term ‘decalcomania’ is often linked back to eighteenth-century French-English engraver Simon
François Ravenet, who named his image transfer printing techniques décalquer (taken from the
French papier de calque, or ‘tracing paper’); a number of painters in the same century also
began experimenting with ink blot processes which they discovered could introduce accidental
forms of expression into artworks, such as English landscape painter Alexander Cozens, who
explored ways ink stains on paper could be transferred onto a canvas, writing, “the stains,
though extremely faint, appeared upon revisal to have influenced me, insensibly, in expressing
the general appearance of landscape” c. The term decalcomanie began to appear more
commonly in England in the nineteenth century, referring to a form of transfer printing onto
porcelain, although techniques of ink transfer continued to develop in various media; many
saw in decalcomania techniques the possibilities for suggesting the macabre and occult, which
were popular subjects in Victorian society
d. Doctor and poet Justinus Kerner transformed folded inkblot experiments into curious
symmetrical forms, which he called “creatures of chance”, published in the book
Klecksographien in 1857, while Victor Hugo’s “stain” transfer paintings reveal a fascination with
ghosts, spirits, and the afterlife
e. Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach developed his famous symmetrical inkblot tests
in 1921, believing ambiguous ‘butterfly printed’ forms could reveal the inner workings of the
human mind
f. A variation is popular with young school children in a process often referred to as a
butterfly print”, where paint applied to paper is then folded and opened again; the shortened
version of the term commonly used today is “decal”

Lesson 2. Decalcomania and surrealism

a. Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s primarily focused on
providing a visual representation of unconscious desires; often called it psycho-analytical, the
artists explored and reflected the chaos, fears, and perspectives of the human mind; it is a
means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely

1
that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in an
absolute reality, a surreality
b. Surrealism aims to revolutionise human experience; it balances a rational vision of life with
one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams; the movement's artists find magic
and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the
unconventional; it is a style in art and literature in which ideas, images, and objects are
combined in a strange way, like in a dream
c. Decalcomania was adopted by surrealist artists to create imagery by chance rather than
through conscious control, allowing chance and subconscious thought to dictate the final form
of their art; it became a popular technique among surrealist artists, who embraced the
unpredictable and random nature of the method; the technique allowed artists to create
abstract, otherworldly landscapes and creatures that challenged traditional notions of
representation and reality
d. It is thought Spanish surrealist Óscar Domínguez coined the art term “decalcomania”,
describing his prints as, “decalcomania with no preconceived object”; he generally worked in
black and white, painting a thin layer of gouache (a type of paint made from pigments bound in
water-soluble gum, like watercolour, but with the addition of a white pigment in order to make it
opaque) onto paper or glass and pressing this sheet onto another surface, such as paper or
canvas, to create strange forms suggestive of beasts, figures or rocky landscapes
e. Max Ernst saw in decalcomania a random act that could ignite his imagination, applying
transfer print techniques in oil paint as a starting point onto canvases which he would then
build into with elements of realism, suggesting mythical creatures in strange, unknown
places

You might also like