Surrealism Introduction

Starter 15
The Persistence of Memory
What do you notice about this artist's style, about how they paint?  What do you think the artist is trying to communicate in this painting?  This could be a theory, feeling, message, or emotion.

Surrealism Notes
Influential Theories: Freud (subconscious, dream analysis), Trotsky and Marx (Communism, changing the world), and Anarchism.


Surrealism: Basic Techniques/Theories

1. Dream logic/channeling the subconscious
2. Unusual juxtapositions and combinations of images/words
3. Automatism, the idea that you create without engaging in thinking or planning
4. Trying to free people from false rationality, restrictive customs

Surrealism Activities

1. Analyze 4 of the following images, discussing first what you notice about the artist's techniques and styles, then writing what you think the artist is trying to communicate in the image.  Choices of images are below.

Birthday

Marc Chagall

1915

Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Salvador Dali

1937

The Hat Makes the Man

Max Ernst

1920

Writing on painting (translated):

seed-covered stacked-up man seedless waterformer well fitting nervous system also tightly fitting nerves! (the hat makes the man) (style is the tailor).

 The Treachery of Images
Rene Magritte
1928-1928

(This is not a pipe)

Destroyed Place

Paul Klee

1920

 Swans Reflecting Elephants
Salvador Dali
1937

Kissing
Joan Miro

The Tilled Field
Joan Miro
1923-1924

Son of Man
Rene Magritte
1964

Two Philosophers
Joan Miro
1936









Activity 2: You are a surrealist
Draw a surrealist drawing.  Play with the different elements (look back at your note!) don't plan too much, perhaps try to imitate the style of one of the artists you looked at.

Activity 3: Surrealist Quotes
Choose one of the quotes below.  For that quote, write a short paragraph about how that quote gives you insight into surrealist art.  You might start by describing what the quote means, the talk about how it connects to the paintings you have seen and the notes you took.  Second, create a quick 5 minute surrealist sketch that connects to the quote.

1. "There is only one difference between a madman and me.  I am not mad."  -Salvador Dali
2. "The simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd."  -Andre Breton
3. "Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation...A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order.  Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings."  -Octavio Paz
4. "The mind which plunges into Surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood."  -Andre Breton
5. "(surrealism is) a juxtaposition of two more or less distant realities.  The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be--the greater its emotional power and poetic reality."  -Pierre Reverdy

HWK: None