Blog Archives

Surrealism: 1924- 1930

2/15/2024

Surrealism began as a philosophical movement that said the way to find truth in the world was through the subconscious mind and dreams, rather than through logical thought. The movement included many artists, poets, and writers who expressed their theories in their work. The movement began in the mid-1920s in France and was born out of an earlier movement called Dadaism from Switzerland. It reached its peak in the 1930s.

KEY VOCABULARY
-Surrealism -Dream
-Realistic -Imagery
-Tessellation
  -Space -Positive Space
-Negative Space   -Painting

FEATURED ARTISTS

Learn more

RENE MAGRITTE

René François Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian Surrealist artist. He became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality.

M.C. ESCHER
M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically-inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for long somewhat neglected in the art world, even in his native Netherlands. He was 70 before a retrospective exhibition was held. In the twenty-first century, he became more widely appreciated, with exhibitions across the world

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo was known for her surreal and very personal works. She was married to Diego Rivera, who was also a well-known painter. Frida was born in Coyoacán, Mexico. She had polio that left her disabled when she was 6 years old. She studied medicine and planned to become a doctor. When Frida was 18, she was in a traffic accident that badly injured her. She had periods of severe pain for the rest of her life. After this accident, Kahlo stopped her medical studies and took up painting. She used ideas about things that had happened to her. Frida had strong feelings about not being able to have children, and her feelings were reflected in her paintings.

VISUAL ARTS STANDARDS,
PROJECTS, & PROCEDURES

Enduring Understanding: Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with traditions in pursuit of creative artmaking goals.

Essential Question: Why do artists follow or break from established traditions?

SURREALISM ART PROJECTS

Tessellations 5th Grade
Imaginative Tessellations inspired by the work of M. C. Escher

I can: demonstrate openness to trying new ideas, methods, and materials.
Va:Cr1.2.5
Va:C2.1.5
Va:Re.9..5
VA:Pr5.1.5

5th grade students at Clara Barton will build a deeper understanding of the roll math plays in the work of M. C. Escher and will create their own tessellation work of art! Students will have the opportunity to build their own tessellation or use an assistive tessellation building kit to help them sketch their tessellation pattern on an extra large piece of paper. After the building and designing process students will then have the opportunity to explore and experiment with permanent markers and watercolor colored pencils and markers.

False Mirrors 3rd - 4th Grade
Surrealist Eye's Inspired by Rene Magritte's "The False Mirror"

3rd and 4th grade students of Clara Barton will delve deep into the meaning and thought behind Rene Magritte's painting False Mirrors! After sharing our individual connections, thoughts, and opinions about the work students will begin creating an image of a realistic eye using step by step guided procedures. After creating their eye students will move on to creating their own individual reflection within the iris and pupil of the eye that reflects a part of their personality or identity. Students may draw, paint, sketch or collage this portion of the project.

I can: Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for beginning a work of art.

VA:Cr1.2.4a
VA:Cr1.2.3a

Surreal Selfies Kinder - 2nd Grade
Self-portraits inspired by the imaginative work of Frida Kahlo

I CAN create art that represents natural and constructed environments.

I CAN categorize artwork based on theme or concept for an exhibit
Va:C2.1. (K-2) Va:Cr2.3.(3-5) VA:Pr4.1. (K-2) Va:Re.9.1 (K-2) VA:Cn11.1(K-2)

Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students are learning about the famous surrealist painter, Frida Kahlo. First, we learned about the struggles and health issues that Frida had in her life and why she started painting pictures of herself in imaginative places. Next, we created our own jungle habitats using pencil, permanent marker, and tempera cake paints. Then, we learned how to make a self-portrait using shapes and mix tempera paints to create our skin tone. We added our unique facial features to make our self-portraits look just like us. Last, we created rainforest animals to complete our surreal jungle selfies!

Finish Early Activities

Want to explore Surrealism deeper? Check out these games and activities!

Create a Surreal Story!

Which Surrealist Artist are You?

5 Surrealism Art Games

Draw a Surreal Creature

Sensational Surrealism Quiz

SURREAL
STUDENT GALLERY
coming soon!

0 Comments

Abstract Expressionism: 1940's - 1960's

2/12/2024

0 Comments

What is abstract art?

Art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.

Why is it important?

Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.

Featured ARtists

Janet Sobel
(1893–1968)
Ukraine & New Jersey/ America
was a Ukrainian-American Abstract Expressionist whose career started mid-life, at age 45. Even with an artistic career as brief as hers, Sobel is the first artist to use the drip painting technique which directly influenced Jackson Pollock.

Jackson Pollock
(1912 – 1956)
Cody, Wyoming & New York City

Jackson Pollock is considered an Abstract Expressionist painter. He was the first "action painter", meaning that he would drip, pour, throw and splash his paint onto very large canvases which were often laid flat on the floor of his New York studio. Many say he would literally dance, as though in a trance, as he created his masterpieces. Pollock is widely considered the most challenging and influential American artist of the 20th century.

Featured Book: "Action Jackson"

Wassily Kandinsky
(1866-1944)
Moscow, Russia

He is credited with painting one of the first recognized purely abstract works.In 1909 Kandinsky began to think that painting didn't need a particular subject, but that shapes and colors alone could be art. Over the next several years he would start to paint what would become known as Abstract Art. Kandinsky was one of the founding fathers of Abstract Art. Kandinsky felt that he could express feelings and music through colors and shapes in his paintings. For example, he thought that yellow had the crisp sound of a brass trumpet and that certain colors placed together could harmonize like chords on a piano. The shapes he was most interested in were the circle, triangle, and the square.

Alma Thomas
(1891 – 1978)
Georgia & Washington D.C.
was an Expressionist painter and art educator best known for her colorful abstract paintings. She lived and worked primarily in Washington, D.C. and The Washington Post described her as a force in the Washington Color School.

Visual Art Standards

Essential Question
What can we learn from our responses to art?

I Can Statements
( K - 1st) I can describe what an image represents

(2nd- 3rd) I can speculate about processes an artist uses to create a work of art

(4th - 5th) I can compare responses to a work of art before and after working in similar media.