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ARTS
Quarter 1 – Module 3
SURREALISM : Reality or Dream?

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ARTS
Quarter 1 – Module 3: SURREALISM : Reality or Dream?

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Regional Director: Gilbert T. Sadsad

Assistant Regional Director: Jessie L. Amin

Development Team of the Module

Writer: Francisco A. Alamares Jr.
Editors: Eva Edna Carinan and Joan S. Barallas
Reviewer: Maria Teresa P. Borbor
Illustrator: Henny Ray Daet
Layout Artist: Melody P. Borbor

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 SURREALISM : Reality or Dream?

I.Introduction:

“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting

our vision. The imaginary is what tends to become real.” This module will let your
emotion battle with your imagination. This will give you the chance to differentiate
reality from dream through visual arts.

II.Objectives:

A. to reflect on and derive the mood, idea, or message from selected artworks
(A10PL-Ih-1)

B. to create artwork/s guided by the technique and styles of various art movements.
(A10PR-Ic-e-1)

III.Vocabulary List:

• Surrealism Art – A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which

sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the
irrational juxtaposition of images.

• Reality— the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an
idealistic or notional idea of them.

• Imagination — the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of

external objects not present to the senses.

• Subconscious — In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not
currently in focal awareness.

• Fantasy — a fanciful mental image, typically one on which a person often dwells and
which reflects their conscious or unconscious wishes

• Realism — the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the
arts.

• Salvador Dali — A spanish painter. A surrealist, he portrayed dream images with

almost photographic realism against backgrounds of arid Catalan landscapes. Dalí
also collaborated with Buñuel in the production of the film Un Chien andalou (1928).
Notable works: The Persistence of Memory (1931).

• Paul Klee — Swiss painter, resident in Germany 1906–33. He joined Kandinsky's

Blaue Reiter group in 1912 and later taught at the Bauhaus (1920–31). His work is
characterized by his sense of colour and moves freely between abstraction and
figuration.

• Joan Miro — Spanish painter. One of the most prominent figures of surrealism, he
painted a brightly coloured fantasy world of variously spiky and amoebic calligraphic
forms against plain backgrounds.

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IV.Pre-Test: "Escape from Reality”

Hello great artists! We have here five (5) artworks that will definitely blow your mind.
Help me to identify what is wrong in each artwork.

V.Learning Activities:

A. Prepare the following materials/references needed for this part:

• Learner’s Module Material (Horizons: Music & Arts)

• Videos (see highlighted links from www.youtube.com)

• Music/soundtrack (see highlighted links from www.youtube.com)

B. Procedure:

• Let us start this module by looking at the featured artist below and please
read the short description about him. Let’s go!

A surrealist, he portrayed dream images

with almost photographic realism against
backgrounds of arid Catalan landscapes.
Dalí also collaborated with Buñuel in the
production of the film Un Chien andalou
(1928). Notable works: The Persistence of
Memory (1931).

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• Salvador Dali gave us impact both mental and emotional with his works. From an early
age, Salvador Dalí was encouraged to practice his art, and he would eventually go on
to study at an academy in Madrid. In the 1920s, he went to Paris and began interacting
with artists such as Pablo Picasso, René Magritte and Miró, which led to Dalí's first
Surrealist phase.

• All of this experimentation led to Dalí's first Surrealistic period in 1929. These oil
paintings were small collages of his dream images. His work employed a meticulous
classical technique, influenced by Renaissance artists, that contradicted the "unreal
dream" space that he created with strange hallucinatory characters.

• Dali is perhaps best known for his 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory, showing
melting clocks in a landscape setting. The rise of fascist leader Francisco Franco in
Spain led to the artist's expulsion from the Surrealist movement, but that didn't stop
him from painting.

One of Dalí's most famous paintings

produced at this time—and perhaps the
best-known Surrealist work—was The
Persistence of Memory (1931). The
painting, sometimes called Soft
Watches, shows melting pocket watches
in a landscape setting. It is said that the
painting conveys several ideas within
the image, chiefly that time is not rigid
and everything is destructible.

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 • At the beginning of this module, it was stated that “Surrealism is destructive, but it
destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision. The imaginary is
what tends to become real.” Look at these examples below and try to figure out the
message of the artist.

GERMAN AUTOMOTIVE GIANTS VOLKSWAGEN

LA GUERRE

FLOWER

ROLHAS (CORKS)

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 Surrealism is a form is an art movement that started in
1924 by a group of artists and writers in Paris. It can be
applied in various forms of art such as literature, poetry
and visual arts. The idea behind this movement is that a
person can gain inspiration and develop their imagination
through exploring their subconcious mind. The movement
also believes that in order to produce suprising and unique
pieces of art, one must be free from the social and artistic
conventions set by people.

Watch this video to understand more about the art style Surrealism: (see highlighted link
below)

Title: Anamnese (Surrealism Short Film)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e06kGHSLC7U

VI. “Making the Reality”

Get ready for these art activities that you will perform for this specific module. Read
and follow the instructions carefully.

Automatic Reality

One strategy surrealists used was automatic

drawing. On a blank piece of paper, have
students draw continuously for several minutes
without thinking about what they are going to
draw. Let their hands flow freely over the paper
without self-censorship.

Surrealist artists did this to let the subconscious

take over. Hopefully by freeing yourself from
planning and censorship, you true psyche can
be revealed.

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 #SurrealistPoem

Take a newspaper.
Take a pair of scissors.
Choose an article as long as you are
planning to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Then cut out each of the words that make
up this article and put them in a bag.
Shake it gently.
Then take out the scraps one after the other
in the order in which they left the bag.
Copy conscientiously.
The poem will be like you.

And here you are a writer, infinitely original

and endowed with a sensibility that is
charming though beyond the understanding
of the vulgar.

VII.Post Test: “Surrealist Collage”

Artist Max Ernst invented this technique of cutting out imagery from multiple sources
and reassembling it to create something surprising and new. He chose images of
similar styles (for example, all black and white etchings) so that they all worked
together in the final image. With so many images available to us in the form of
magazines and junk mail, we all have the chance to become surreal artist.

This time you will create a Surrealist Collage (see example below). You will need
magazine, newspaper, scissors, oslo paper and glue/paste. It would be a great help if
you will listen and feel the music while performing this activity.

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