Unit 3: Surreal Painting

Joan Miro, Painting  1927

Max Ernst

Little Machine Constructed by Minimax Dadamax in Person Hand printing, pencil and ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper, 49.4 x 31.5 cm.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Max Ernst

The Antipope, December 1941–March 1942. Oil on canvas, 160.8 x 127.1 cm.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Giorgio de Chirico

The Red Tower (La Tour rouge), 1913.

Oil on canvas, 73.5 x 100.5 cm. Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Giorgio de Chirico.

The Enigma of a Day.

Paris, early 1914. Oil on canvas, 6' 1 1/4" x 55" (185.5 x 139.7 cm).

“Surrealism is a style in which fantastical visual imagery from the subconscious mind is used with no intention of making the work logically comprehensible.”www.artcyclopedia.com

Giorgio de Chirico

The Uncertainty of the Poet  1913

The goal was to combine dream & reality.

Surreal artists created illogical and unnerving scenes using everyday objects.

Surrealism began in the 1920s, and developed out of the Dada movement.

Joan Miró Landscape (The Hare), autumn 1927. Oil on canvas, 51 x 76 5/8 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

René Magritte

Voice of Space, 1931.

Oil on canvas, 72.7 x 54.2 cm. Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

“Dada was a protest by a group of European artists against World War I, [high class] society, and [conservative, traditional thought].” These artists created things without meaning as an act of defiance of the rational thought that resulted in war.

Dada began around 1915.

www.artcyclopedia.com

Salvador Dalí

Birth of Liquid Desires 1931–32.

Oil and collage on canvas,

96.1 x 112.3cm. Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931. Oil on canvas, (24.1 x 33 cm).

Rene Magritte, Castle in the Pyrenees

Surreal Landscape You will create a surreal landscape.

This will be done using acrylic paint on a found surface (cardboard, an empty pizza box, a scrap of wood, an old shoe, etc.).

Find your surface first. Then generate 3 ideas in your sketchbook for how you will paint your surreal landscape on it.

You will have the opportunity to experiment with paint to learn some techniques before starting your project.

Sketching Ideas:Consider Your Viewpoint Bird’s Eye View – viewing from above; makes the

subject look weak

Worm’s Eye View – viewing from below; makes the subject look intimidating

Eye Level View – puts the viewer at an equal level with the subject

Experimenting with Paint1) You will create a Colour Wheel using only primary colours.

1) You will practise shading basic forms with paint.

1) You will practise parts of your 3 designs on paper, while trying different techniques.

Painting Techniques (demo)

1) Tinting – adding white to lighten your colour

2) Shading – adding the complementary colour to create a natural black tone

3) Impasto – applying paint thickly

4) Knife Painting – using a palette knife to apply paint

5) Sgraffito – scratching through a wet layer of paint to reveal what's underneath

6) Scumbling – adding a broken layer of dry colour over a dry layer of paint (light over dark works best)

7) Masking – using tape or paper to block off areas

8) Stencilling – using store-bought or hand-made stencils to add designs

Surreal Landscape: Artist's Statement1) Explain how you came up with your design. Where did you find your surface? How did you decide what design would work best?

1) What painting techniques did you incorporate? Explain whether or not you were successful in using these techniques.

1) Evaluate your artwork. Describe what you think you did well. Describe the areas you think need improvement.

Rene Magritte, The Lovers, painting, 1928