Mark Ryden is a shocking and significantly disturbing artist with work that possesses certain Surrealist qualities as well as incorporates modern day cultural and religious elements. He uses familiar and everyday objects but places them in the environments that challenge cultural experience of the observer. Elements like woman with distant looks in their eyes, cuddly toys, slabs of meet, and various symbols which range from religion to alchemy. In his work culture, religion and time periods are often intertwined.
His paintings have high aesthetic values, and that is what initially draws in the viewer, but seconds later the viewer becomes aware of the modern day issues of intercommunication, religion, cultural flaws and our views on each other.
It is hard to establish what his exact aim is: presumably to shock. Occasionally Ryden combines the look of innocence with the images of animals savagely cut in half as well as naked young girls covered in blood. I can’t recall a single time, when a genuine smile would be depicted in the painting, as every single one represents a psychotic state of mind.
I believe that he is an important painter of his time, as Ryden distinctly represents in his work the questions that we all asked ourselves or situations that by now are common but nevertheless disturbing. Painters like him are extremely significant, as he makes strong, disturbing visual images that would hopefully make people aware of things that need to change.
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