Surrealism Unit

I love Salvador Dali, he has been one of my all time favorite artists since the day my elementary art teacher introduced me to him back in fifth grade. I remember being in absolute awe of the paintings she showed us and my brain literally exploded with a thousand questions as to why an artist would paint the things he did. Now being an art teacher myself, I am so excited to share this interdisciplinary Surrealism unit that my MYP students finished up before the winter holiday. 

Statement of Inquiry: Dreams and nightmares inspire imaginative thoughts, creative activities, and provocative representations. 

Inquiry Questions: How can dreams and nightmares describe past and present experiences and help us imagine future aspirations? Can literature be considered art? How did the narrative of Alice in Wonderland inspire Dali?

To start off the unit my students did a short research activity of Surrealism and Dali's background, discussing their findings as a class. After research and discussion, the students did an individual art analysis on Dali's Burning Giraffe. They focused on the above inquiry question about past and present experiences and how that can influence an art work. Each student's response to the painting was unique and they all had something original to contribute while exchanging their ideas. 

During our next class period together the students were introduced to Dali's Alice in Wonderland inspired watercolor paintings. They had just started reading Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in their English class, and were excited to interpret different parts of the story from the paintings.

 (Here is a link with some of the examples I showed in class: https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/11/15/salvador-dali-alice-in-wonderland-1969/ ) 

After discussion, the students chose a personal dream or nightmare to write about in their process journals. When their stories were complete, they circled action verbs and other descriptive words that had been included in their writing. The words were then used as inspiration for practicing a variety of watercolor techniques with different materials as seen below. 

The students then began drawing ideas for their final painting based on their personal dream or nightmare. While they started sketching their ideas, I showed them the video Destino, which was a Walt Disney/Dali creation that began in 1945 and was completed in 2003. They loved it just as much as I do and it was great for further inspiration for their designs! 

While their initial designs were being created in their process journals, we were lucky enough to have a Dali exhibition come to Shanghai! The English teacher and myself brought the students to the exhibit. It was an absolute blast and perfect for our interdisciplinary unit with Visual Arts and English! During their visit, the students used their process journals to sketch down ideas that could influence their final designs. 

This was such a great opportunity for the students to experience Dali's work firsthand and gather new inspiration outside of the classroom! 

  After our wonderful field trip, the students chose one of their designs to begin developing for their final watercolor dream or nightmare surrealist painting. 

When their paintings were complete, the students made photocopies of their original work. They began discussing typography and literature as an art form in English, while choosing specific words from their dream/nightmare story to incorporate into their final painting. They practiced creating decorative letters in art class on the photocopies until they came up with a design they felt comfortable with, and applied it to the final piece. 

This unit was so much fun to teach and the students were able to make clear connections through interdisciplinary learning in both Visual Arts and English classes.