Example of a unit of study: Surrealist landscapes

Year Group: 10

Rationale:

Students will learn about surrealism as an art movement that was concerned with the imagination and subconscious. Students will be exposed to surrealist landscapes by Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst.

Students will learn how to create fantasy realms using their imagination and develop an imaginative way of working. Deep thinking processes such as reflection and introspection will be combined with research on the art movement.

Prerequisite:

Before undertaking this unit of work, year 10 students would already have a solid foundation of the elements of a landscape for e.g constructing the foreground, mid-ground and background.

Students have previously been exposed to other art movements such as impressionism and styles of painting such as portraiture. However, this will be an in depth unit of working that will drive a deep understanding of an art movement rather than a general overview.

Materials:

Students will be using oil painting to depict their landscapes and will be taught techniques on brush strokes and their effect. There will also be an emphasis on the procedures to clean the brushes and handle oil paints.

The collage component of the work can come from a variety of image resources such as newspaper images or text, magazines, books as well as found images on the Internet. Teachers should be aware of the appropriateness of the images as well as issues of copyright if students choose to use an image from the Internet.

Students will use a visual arts diary to record their research, create subsequent sketches and experiment with the mediums they will be using. The visual arts diary also serves as an important tool for the processes of reflection and introspection.

Assessment:

The final product should depict a surrealist landscape using the technique of painting and collage.  (60%)

Students will also need to hand in a 500 word reflection piece on how their work engages with the imagination and subconscious. In this response they will need to make reference to 1-2 surrealist artists. (30%)

The student’s visual arts diary will also be taken into account as evidence of research and experimentation. (10%)

Example of Surrealist landscape:

Figure 1.1

Joan Miro, Harlequin Carnival

1925

Oil on canvas