Untitled, plate from Je regardais et je vis... 1896

This untitled print by Jean Caldain is one of a series of surrealist images. The artist has used a monochromatic palette to depict a grotesque floating head. Given the dark humor of its imagery, this work and others from the same series might be considered a form of dark satire. We might think about the ways in which institutions such as art galleries and museums reinforce certain ideas about beauty. Are the images here a reaction against such ideas, and therefore a form of institutional critique? If so, this would connect the artist to a history of counter-cultural movements and the idea of art as a form of social commentary. To understand the image better, we would need to conduct further research into the social and intellectual concerns that occupied the artist. The meaning of art is always contingent on the context in which it is made.