Sunday, October 3, 2010

Instructional Resource

Salvador Dali and Surrealism

By Rebecca D’Angeli


The Three Sphinxes of Bikini, Salvador Dali (1947)

Grade Level: 7th to 9th grade

Objectives
Students will:
o Learn and discuss surrealism and its characteristics.
o Observe and research Salvador Dali and his paintings.
o Write a paragraph on a dream or idea that will inspire a studio activity.
o Create a collage inspired by Salvador Dali and the subject of the written exercise.

Surrealistic artwork consists of realistic and irrational elements that describe dreamlike fantasies. This style uses visual imagery from the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of logical comprehensibility (White, 2005). In this instructional resource, students will be introduced to Surrealism and the artist Salvador Dali.

Surrealism as a movement:
Surrealism was a literary movement that began in the early 1920’s and experimented with a new way of expression called automatism (Voorhies, 2000). Automatism was used to seek the imagination of the subconscious mind (Voorhies, 2000). The movement officially began with the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by poet and critic Andre Breton (1896-1966) (Voorhies, 2000). Breton and other men where influenced by the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and the political views of Karl Marx (Voorhies, 2000).

Using Freudian methods of free association, their poetry and ideas touched upon the private world of the mind, which was restricted by reason and social limitations, to produce surprising imagery (Voorhies, 2000). Surrealism followed Dadaism that also disregarded tradition.


The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali (1931)



Surrealist artist:
Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Salvador Dali was a Spanish painter who used strange dream imagery to create unusual landscapes of his inner mind. He passed through phases of Cubism, Futurism, and Metaphysical painting before joining the Surrealist artists in 1929 (Thomas, 1998).
He was seen as strange and eccentric and claimed it was the source of his creative energy. For example, he arrived at the opening of the London Surrealist exhibition in a diving suit (Thomas, 1998).

Dali described his images as a painting of a photograph of a dream. He also used certain recurring images such as the human figure with drawers, burning giraffes, and bent watches that flowed as if dripping like water.

In 1937, Dali traveled to Italy and took on a more traditional style of painting. His new style and his political views led Breton to expel him from the Surrealist group (Thomas, 1998). He moved to the United States in 1940 and remained there until 1948 (White, 2005). While in the United States, he spent most of his time publicly promoting himself and his work (White, 2005).

Dali did not limit himself to a certain media (White, 2005). Along with painting he sculpted, illustrated books, designed jewelry, and worked for theatres. He also made the first surrealist films with director Luis Bunuel called Un chien Andalou (1929) and L’Age d’or (1930), as well as a dream sequence to Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945) (Thomas, 1998).


La Tentation de Saint Antoine, Salvador Dali



Questions for discussion:
o How do you feel about Salvador Dali’s paintings?
(confused, angry, happy, etc.)
o Do you consider his work to be creative? Why?
o What do you think Salvador Dali’s reasons were for painting these images?

Lesson Idea:
1. Class research and discussion.
As a class research and discuss Surrealism and Salvador Dali’s paintings. What are some of the characteristics of surrealism? What are some of the images Dali used to create a surrealistic painting?
2. Writing exercise.
Have the students write a paragraph about a recent dream they had. What images would they use to describe that dream in a painting?
3. Studio activity.
As a class, search through magazines to find images for a collage that will represent their writing exercise. Remind the students that the images that are cut out can be combined with other images to create a new form. After they’ve chosen their images, have them draw a landscape to place them in. When the landscape is drawn, then glue the images down.

Concluding Activity:
Discuss the activity as a class. Have the class discuss what they learned about Salvador Dali and Surrealism. Have the class share their written exercise and discuss how they related the paragraph to their collage. How does there collage represent their dream? Does the collage depict characteristics of Surrealism? How?

References:
White , Kathy (2005). Biography. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from Dalí Museum Web site: http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/history/biography.html
Thomas, Jean-Jacques (1998). Salvador dalí biography. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from Surrealism Website: http://www.duke.edu/web/lit132/dalibio.html
Voorhies, James (2000). Surrealism. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from The Metropolitan Museum Website: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm




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