An Art question...for those serious in the Arts......?

I volunteer at my daughter's school for an Art Program. Since there is no Art teacher on staff, parents can come in to teach a class about a certain artist and print and then the kids do a sample of the style or the artwork. I did this last year and had no problems, now for my next assignmetn, I'm stumped. I have to explain surrealism style of painting and my example is "snap the whip" by Winslow Homer. Any tips on how to explain what the surrealism style is.....when I'm not sure how to explain it? I'm teaching 5th graders....anyone able to help?

An Art question...for those serious in the Arts......?
There are also lots of resources on the web that could give you some material and ideas. Most of the art museums and colleges have education sites. If an art museum is having a major exhibition there is often a section with study activities for kids, so if there is/was a surrealist one that could help.


There’s some resources here, I found that not all the links work, but good luck!


http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/le...


Also an outline definition here:


http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/surr...


This looks as though it might be helpful too:


http://library.thinkquest.org/J001159/ar...





There’s some interesting notes about ‘Snap the Whip’ here:


http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/w...





I suspect though that if you want to use this painting as your example ‘surrealism’ isn’t the right category, as indicated by your other answers it doesn’t fit in with what is usually understood by surrealism.


Winslow Homer's work is usually defined as 'symbolic realism', so wondering if some confusion might have crept in here. But if this is what you have to do it seems a lot more straightforward, you could get the pupils to depict their school, any traditional games they still play etc., and then look at the symbolism.
Reply:For fifth graders... you might try something like this:





http://www.amazon.com/Book-Surrealist-Ga...





Ditch Winslow Homer and go with Ernst or Dali ...maybe Magritte or Man-Ray... Tanguy, Duchamp, etc...





You might read "Surrealism and Painting" { http://www.amazon.com/Andr%C3%A9-Breton-... } and, at least, a few of the manifestos before you start trying to teach people about the movement.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism {Breton... bottom of page}
Reply:Surrealism is the style which incorporates a real theme and turns it into a completely fantasized rendering. Frank frazetta is a good example of this style.


surrealizm takes a subject and twists the basic premise until it is no longer just one simple Idea or even to the point that it takes the subject and distorts it and yet the items in the artwork are still recognizable. try looking inot surrealistic paintedrs like "Dali, Frazetta, Renoir, Matise and a few others. the term "surreral" still has to fall outside of the description parameters of other forms of artwork such as "impressionism" and therin lies the rub. I dont think you can define"surreal" and be exact.
Reply:I think the link AnnOnnyM gave you is good for Homer, however I think if you are using Homer the term you are looking for is "Social Realism" not Surrealism. Social Realism deals with real life working class people and Homer's subjects might easily be compared to characters in Mark Twain's books (i.e. Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn...).
Reply:I think it will be easier to explain Surrealism with a Salvadore Dali print where one cansee the manipulation of time and it is great imaginary artwork...Even though during the period He painted as a surrealist Mr Dali was not liked by the French and other Surrealists...He made so much money by coming to the US for his shows. and Mr Dali was political during the Spanish civil war (1930's) He died in the 1980's after living for decades in spain in a castle...look up his art because he is considered the darling of American surrealism...You can really get more than just art but how art and politics have influenced each other in a way that ten year olds can relate with creativity too...I taught k-8 art for awhile and you have a good idea...