Surrealism: Sixth and Seventh Visit

Dreams

Standards

Standard 2, Objective 1A

Determine how artists create a dominance in their work; e.g., size, repetition, and contrast.

Standard 3, Objective 1b

Invent possible stories that may explain what is going on in these same works of art.

Objective

-Students will interpret possible stories from famous surrealist art. 

-Students will create a surrealist piece that is interesting to them, based on their dreams using the idea

 of repetition in their work. 

Artists

1.       Salvador Dali

2.       Vladimir Kush

3.       Max Ernst

4.       Giorgio de Chirco

Vocabulary

1.       Surrealism

2.       Subconscious/Unconscious

3.       Repetition

Leading Questions

1.       What are dreams? Do they only happen while we sleep? Can they also be things we wish would happen?

2.       Why do we dream?

3.       What sorts of things do we dream about?

4.       Do you ever have nightmares? Are these different from dreams?

5.       Do our dreams always make sense?

6.       Do we always remember our dreams?

Outline

           As a class, we will first discuss dreams and the many possibilities of dreams, whether experienced while sleeping or as waking hopes the students may have. Then the other leading questions will be addressed allowing students to talk about their personal experiences and thoughts on dreams. We will then talk about Surrealist artists (see list of artists) and how it relates to dreams. Students will be encouraged to notice repetition within these artists’ works as well as interpret a possible story about the paintings. This will be done in a full class conversation. To help get the students thinking more about dreams and repetition, we will watch a video about a dream that Pooh has about Heffalumps and Woozles.

Next in groups of five, each student will be given a piece of paper that they will put their name on. Then they will have five minutes to draw one thing, as big or small as they wish, they have dreamt about (either something they hope for or remember from a dream or nightmare). This will be done using graphite.

After the five minutes, they will pass their paper to the right (the student at the end will of course pass their paper to the student at the beginning of the row) and they will have five minutes to repeat the same kind of process. Only this time, and the three times after, the student must also incorporate their thing with/into the ones that are already on the paper. For example, if the first student drew an elephant with a tuba for a head and the next student draws a boat with wheels, then the tuba elephant could be drawn eating the boat. This will help incorporate the idea of having a story or a meaning behind an artwork. To accomplish this, the students will be allowed to add to the previous drawings, but cannot erase any part that was already on the paper. Each time a student adds to a new paper, the thing they choose to draw must be different than the one they drew on the previous paper.
When everyone has drawn on all five pieces of paper, they will pass the paper back to the original student, who will complete the drawing. At this point I will give more instruction as to what is required in the finished piece. Repetition should be incorporated in this stage.

The original student can add whatever they like (continuing to use dreams as inspiration and incorporating the additions to previously drawn things) to make the piece their own. They may interpret the images previously drawn in any way they choose, even adding to them if they wish, but again they are not allowed to erase anything that is already drawn on the page. They are then free to add shading using crayons. They will be encouraged to practice layering different colors to achieve the lights and darks they desire when referencing a light source of their choosing. This light source can be a sun that was in their drawing perspective or an imaginary source outside of their paper.

Assessment

Have the students show, by number of fingers, how many of the required things they incorporated into their art piece. Repetition, story, and lights and darks using a light source.