Surrealism. (Classroom Use).

Surrealism. (Classroom Use). THINGS TO LEARN * Surrealism is about the liberation of the imagination from whatmost people believe is normal and reasonable. Instead of trying to showthe real world, Surrealist artists create fantasies. It is not likeother art movements ''See Art periods for a chronological list.This is a list of art movements. These terms, helpful for curricula or anthologies, evolved over time to group artists who are often loosely related. , such as Impressionism impressionism, in paintingimpressionism,in painting, late-19th-century French school that was generally characterized by the attempt to depict transitory visual impressions, often painted directly from nature, and by the use of pure, broken color to and Cubism cubism,art movement, primarily in painting, originating in Paris c.1907.Cubist TheoryCubism began as an intellectual revolt against the artistic expression of previous eras. , where the stylesare recognizable. Surrealistic sur��re��al��is��tic?adj.1. Of or relating to surrealism.2. Having an oddly dreamlike or unreal quality.sur��re artworks are based on dreamlike ideasthat began in the artist's unconscious thoughts. For this reason,the personal styles of Surrealist artists are not at all alike. Butbecause of the choice of dreamlike subjects it is usually easy toidentify. * After the horrors of World War I, many young European artistsrejected all earlier kinds of art, especially the kinds that glorified glo��ri��fy?tr.v. glo��ri��fied, glo��ri��fy��ing, glo��ri��fies1. To give glory, honor, or high praise to; exalt.2. the importance of individual nations. They believed that nationalism wasone of the main causes of "The Great War" that killed millionsof people. To show their contempt for traditional art, some of these artistsinvented "Dadaism." They deliberately made things that made nosense. After a few years, Dada was replaced by the dreamlike ideas ofSurrealism, which continues to the present day. Surrealism began in 1924and became important in theater, music, literature, philosophy andpolitics, as well as the visual arts. * The mystical ideas of Surrealist painters were inspired by such19th-century French artists as Paul Gauguin Noun 1. Paul Gauguin - French Post-impressionist painter who worked in the South Pacific (1848-1903)Gauguin , Odilon Redon Odilon Redon (April 22, 1840 – July 6, 1916) was a Symbolist painter and printmaker, born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France.Redon started drawing as a young child, and at the age of 10 he was awarded a drawing prize at school. and PierrePuvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898), was a French painter, who became the president and co-founder of the Soci��t�� Nationale des Beaux-Arts and whose work influenced many other artists. . Music by the German composer, Richard Wagner, andthe writings of the American, Edgar Allen Poe, were also influential. Inaddition, Joseph Cornell was inspired by the ideas of several Frenchwriters. * Some of the more important European Surrealists were French (YvesTanguy and Marcel Duchamp), German (Max Ernst), Spanish (Salvador Daliand Joan Miro), Italian (Giorgio de Chirico Noun 1. Giorgio de Chirico - Italian painter (born in Greece) whose deep shadows and barren landscapes strongly influenced the surrealists (1888-1978)Chirico ) and Belgian (ReneMagritte). The work of Tanguy and Duchamp was cold and impersonal, whileErnst's was very passionate. Dali distorted realistic figures instrange ways. Miro preferred entirely abstract shapes. Magritte'swork was just as different: He showed realistic objects in verycontradictory arrangements. The more important American Surrealist artists were Man Ray (bornEmmanuel Radinsky), Joseph Cornell, Kay Sage, Peter Blume, John Wildeand William Baziotes. Mostly, Man Ray made unusual photographs, whileKay Sage's paintings were clean, totally abstract dreams. JohnWilde fitted objects and people into spaces that normally would beimpossible. Peter Blume showed highly realistic images in fantasticlandscapes, and William Baziotes painted ghostly creatures suspended inspace. An example of Joseph Cornell's work is reproduced here. THINGS TO DO * In order for students to develop a clear understanding ofSurrealism, they need to become familiar with as many examples aspossible. Fortunately, the popularity of Surrealism continues to thisday and every library in the country is likely to have at least one bookon these artists in its collection. The first goal is to become familiar with what Surrealist art lookslike. They all share similar subject matter but the artist's stylesare all different. A second goal is for students to see enoughSurrealist art that they can identify the individual styles and thechoices of subject matter. The lists of names in Things to Learn isincluded to help students find work by Surrealist artists. * Students may like the idea of following Cornell's ideas andcreating their own box constructions. They would need to collect itemsof special interest to them such as drag racing, space travel, balletdancing or stamp collecting. The arrangement (assemblage) of pieceschosen from their collections should show personal feelings about thesubject in the most interesting ways possible. * Students who believe they cannot draw may find the idea of makinga box, like those created by Cornell, less threatening than artassignments where pencil and paints are used. (Cornell, himself, neverlearned to draw or paint.) They may also welcome learning that numbersof other artists and designers do not need to be able to drawrealistically. These include textile design, type design, page layout,interior design, fashion design and architecture. * Many Surrealist artists had such colorful personalities thatstudents may enjoy studying them. Salvador Dali, for example, wasforever making headlines with sensational statements to advertise hisown importance. Man Ray also attracted the attention of tabloidjournalists with his art work and his personal behavior. Max Ernstbelieved he was a superior being. In contrast to all of these artists,Joseph Cornell was reclusive re��clu��sive?adj.1. Seeking or preferring seclusion or isolation.2. Providing seclusion: a reclusive hut. and avoided publicity. * Some students may be more attracted by Cornell'sre-creations of motion pictures than with his paintings and prefer toexperiment with that kind of artistry. There are several ways in whichthey may do this. One is to find discarded film footage and a projectorthat will play it--perhaps from a photo dealer or a local film club.Students then need to decide on how best to select and splice lengths offilm into a single piece and edit it until it becomes a unified movie.They might also prepare their own titles and add them to the film. Asimilar solution might be to do the same thing using old videotape and asplicer. A more advanced method might be to perform the above taskelectronically on a computer by entering clips of videotape into acomputer memory and then splicing them together to create an originalsequence. Captions would be easy to incorporate, and a soundtrack couldbe added electronically. BUILDING A PICTURE FILE WITH THIS CLIP & SAVE ART REPRODUCTIONThis box by Joseph Cornell may be used both as an example of Surrealismand various other art-teaching needs. Potentially useful picture filecategories include: "Surrealism"; "American Surrealists:Joseph Cornell"; "Assemblage"; and "ShadowBoxes." For ideas about collecting and retrieving pictures to help inteaching art and other subjects, readers are invited to write to: GuyHubbard c/o Arts & Activities, 591 Camino de la Reina, Suite 200,San Diego, CA 92108.