Art criticism on Tears by Man Ray

The art work look as if it was a photograph of a woman face and cropping only for only her eyes. The picture is in black and white (reminds me of the film in black and white in the pass) and it looks realistic in term of facial proportion and shape as if it was a photograph yet it becomes unrealistic when I look at her teardrops because it does not look like water. More like marble (looks geometrical in shape) to me, which makes it the emphasis of the art piece. The artist also use contrast of color even though it is black and white piece, her eyes and the tear drops which are white stands out of the grey negative shape of her skin. Her black long eyelashes and the white part of the eye also gives a great contrast as it the complementary to each other, maybe this also an emphasis to the eyes. The artist focuses very on the eyes and tears so the size is abnormally large and the position of her face is place in the middle. There is a balance in the piece but it is asymmetrical, her eyes lie diagonally 45 degree across the canvas and the empty space on the forehead is balanced by the direction of the woman that gaze up so it balance up the work.

From this art work. I think the want to give us the idea of the saying “eyes are the window of the soul” by emphasizing on a pair beautiful eyes. Her abnormally long eyelashes give the idea of being artificial because they looks fake and the tear drop that is impossibly have a circular shape teardrops also give an idea of being fake. From my point of view, I think that the artist is trying to communicate to us that the people are put up a fake front in society. “All about packaging” might also be the idea his artwork, which is similar to Andy Warhol’s, whom talks about the Hollywood stars are artificial and people only look at the superficial part of them only. That is why his artwork looks as if it is the black and white film. The amount of tear sprouting out is dramatic however I noticed that her eyes are not red; it shows that the weep is also fake.

Man Ray (1890-1976) was an American surrealist artist, painter and photographer. He abandoned his surrealist career to be a self-taught photographer, which then later he invented his own technique of photography called “Rayographs”. “Tears” appeared to public in the year 1934 in black and white photograph of a cropped version. This picture, from J. Paul Getty Museum website, explained the picture is a metaphor for the artificiality of art making a scene that is staged for its truthfulness. The large glistening teardrops are melodramatic, an exaggerated sign of sadness that makes a mockery of the sentiment, suggest the connection with his abandonment lover lee Miller. In comparison, 30 years later in 1964 (postwar period) another American artist “ Roy Llchtennstein” created a similar artwork called “Happy tears”. The media used are oil and Magna on canvas. Llchtennstein’s style is a pop art style in which was then newly discovered (started from 1956 exhibition of Richard Hamilton). The artwork was very brightly colored, unrealistic and cartoon-like. The style is quite similar in term of the position that was placed in the center. Due to the time period, this painting might have a meaning of the relieved feeling after the war period. It has quite an opposite meaning of “Tear” because the “happy tear” relate to the meaning of the outburst of sinceer happiness after war. However, “Tear” brings out a fake dramatic sadness of a person.