Surreal Humor in Art and Design: Marx Ernst and Jan Lenica

Visual humor is one of the important tools used by designers and artists. Art historians and thinkers have mostly analyzed, commented on, and researched humor in literary fields, such as stories and novels. However, in the context of the relationships of absurd and absurd humor in art and design, the analyses and research on their differences and similarities have been limited. The aim of this research is to analyze how and why absurd humor, which has absurd and absurd characteristics in art and design, is used in the fields of art and design, and to derive findings and results. In the research, it was seen that the absurd, absurd and strange aspects of visual absurd humor are a common approach in the works of dada and surrealist artists. In order to discuss and analyze the subject in a concrete form, the works of Max Ernst, one of the important representatives of surrealism, were examined in this context. It was determined that the unexpected surprises formed by the strange and absurd phenomena seen in Ernst's figurative works constitute the basis of absurd humor. On the other hand, it was seen that similar surreal and strange figurative elements seen in the works of Jan Lenica, an important name in poster design, were used to create communication to tell a specific concrete story. In the analyses and findings made within the framework of the works of Ernst and Lenica in the context of visual absurd humor in art and design, it was seen that the visual language used and the idea analyses have a parallel structure. On the other hand, since the purposes of art and design fields are different, the use of absurd humor in art is handled with a more vague and uncertain understanding, while similar images in design are transformed into a specific concept for communication. It is possible to say that the findings obtained in this research with the comparative methodology in academic studies on the relationship between art and design will contribute to the literature on the subject.