Chagall and Surrealism

(sample artwork  of Chagall)



Marc Chagall and Surrealism 

Medium: Oil Pastels

Reason for Lesson: To understand  the use of color and shape and explore the artist Marc Chagall and Surrealism. 

• Marc Chagall was born in Russia in 1887.  He was the oldest son in a family of nine children. 
• He loved thinking about his childhood and let his memories guide his artwork.  He enjoyed painting pictures of the countryside near his childhood home as well as pictures of his dear family and friends.
• He painted with bright, beautiful colors.  He liked to make his pictures have a dreamlike quality.  Many times, Chagall included upside-down and floating people.
• Chagall loved the circus and painted many pieces showcasing the circus.
• Chagall preferred not to explain his works in depth so many of them are quite mysterious.
• A few things many do not know about Chagall:
• He has designed beautiful stained glass windows that I’ve had the opportunity to see in Israel.  He designed the ceiling of the Paris Opera House.  He designed costumes and stage sets for the New York Opera’s production of Mozart’s Magic Flute.  
• Chagall is know for his imaginative style in which recognizable objects are found in unusual positions, often floating through space. 

Note: During his earlier years his range was limited by his emphasis on form and his pictures never gave the impression of painted drawings. He adds, "The colors are a living, integral part of the picture and are never passively flat, or banal like an afterthought. They sculpt and animate the volume of the shapes... they indulge in flights of fancy and invention which add new perspectives and graduated, blended tones... His colors do not even attempt to imitate nature but rather to suggest movements, planes and rhythms."
Chagall is unrivaled in this ability to give a vivid impression of explosive movement with the simplest use of colors..." Throughout his life his colors created a "vibrant atmosphere" which was based on "his own personal vision."His paintings would later sell for very great prices. In October 2010, for example, his painting "Bestiaire et Musique," depicting a bride and a fiddler floating in a night sky amid circus performers and animals, "was the star lot" at an auction in Hong Kong. When it sold for $4.1 million, it became the most expensive contemporary Western painting ever sold in Asia.

Source: Wikipedia

Prep Time:  About 30-minutes to 1-hour to review content of lesson, and Artist Profile information.

Classroom Time:  2 hours class time

Materials:  8X10 black paper, Oil Pastels, Glue Sticks and paper towels.

Preparation:  Review/edit lesson plan, Collect materials, Create samples and display material

Instructions for Leading Lesson

Review with class aspects about Marc Chagall, and the characteristic of Surrealism (see  information below).  Like Chagall, you will be creating a brightly colored piece of art using the style of surrealism.  We will be focusing our art on winter.

Step 1: Brainstorm:  Let’s think of all the things that remind us of winter (list on white board).

Step 2: Visualization/Imagination:  Now, pick one, two or three things off of our list or something else that reminds you of winter.  Close your eyes for a minute.  See what you’ve chosen in your mind.  See it floating or upside down.  Have fun with it.  Use your imagination.

Step 3: Drawing:

• Using a pencil, sketch your drawing onto the black paper.
• You can turn your paper to the right or left to draw some of your objects.
• You will want to draw big objects so that you can color them in with oil pastels.  
• Tip:  Oil pastels will get on your hands and easily smear.  You can create a rubbed look by using a paper towel and smearing your color(s).
• After you have completed your sketch, use the oil pastels to color it in trying to color as much of your paper as possible.  
• You can use some glue stick first, in a few areas.  Then color over the glue with the oil pastel to create a shiny look.
• Once you are done, color in the background.
• As always, sign your art with your special signature.

Step 4, Title Your Art!!:  Be creative and come up with a title for your art.  On a piece of paper, write your name and the name of your art.

Surrealism

• If something is surreal, it is sort of dreamlike.  It’s not exactly how it is in real life.
• Use your imagination.
• The art is not what you expect to see.
• If you distort something in your art, you add emphasis to your art.  To distort something means to change the shape to something almost silly… something that is not how it normally is.
• Many people can define art differently. Art is subjective and is influenced by a person’s   perspective, feelings, beliefs, desires or personal experience.
• With surrealist art, the artist is telling you something about them or something about what has happened to them. They arenʼt just giving you something to look at they are also telling you a story, a visual story.
• The artist may have his/her own interpretation on what you think he wants you to see. Even though the piece has a title it may not make sense to the viewer, but the artists  wouldn’t have it any other way.
• If you change one small piece of your art you can create a whole new piece of art.
• The best part about surrealism art is that artists use many bright colors to make you feel differently when you view each object in the piece. They may make one object darker and the other light to draw your eye to the darker object. Maybe because that object is more important to the artist.
• When surrealist became famous, many critics were skeptical of this oddly bright and crazy art work. Another very famous and favorite surrealist artist is Salvador Dali, he was thought to be a little mad at the time, but his response was “There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad”
• Using a dream analysis, they emphasized that "one could combine inside the same frame, elements not normally found together to produce startling effects. The more the relationship between the two objects are placed side by side the art has stronger images which give the piece great emotional power and a poetic reality. Much of surrealism is using your imagination and your unconscious mind, think out side the box.