Honors Tutorial College Spanish Major, freshman Kaitlyn Booher (left), poses with Professor of Spanish, Dr. Mary Jane Kelley (right), prior to giving her presentation, “The Reaction of Surrealist Artists to the Spanish Civil War.”
Kaitlyn Booher, a freshman Honors Tutorial College Spanish major, presented her spring semester project, “The Reaction of Surrealist Artists to the Spanish Civil War.” She completed the project in a tutorial with Dr. Mary Jane Kelley, Professor of Spanish.
For the project, Booher examined the artwork of five artists: Joan Miró, José Caballero, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso and Antoni Tápies. She then analyzed the political and cultural significance of each piece of artwork.
“The project dives into the elements of surrealism and works to prove why this artistic style was best suited to portray the horrors of the war,” Booher says. “Each piece presented differing reactions to the tensions and events within the civil war.”
Booher presented her research in Spanish to faculty and students and fielded questions about the surrealist movement and the specific symbolism within the paintings. “Kaitlyn has really challenged herself with this project by taking on a whole new discipline of art history,” Kelley says.
“My favorite piece, ‘The Last Transit Car,’ by José Caballero included symbols of three ideologies he felt were to blame for the chaos and tensions of the war,” Booher says. “This drawing opened my eyes the most to the double meanings and representation that each stroke of the pen can have within artwork.”
José Caballero’s drawing “The Last Transit Car,” which opened Booher’s eyes to double meanings and representation in art.
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