Surrealism! An Introduction (senior secondary- years 7, 8, 9 in Australia)

Surrealism: Welcome to the World of Imagination

What can happen in your imagination that is impossible in real life? Maybe you ride on a magic carpet or walk a dog on the moon. It’s fun to daydream. Look up at the clouds. Can you see all kinds of animals in the sky?

Do you dream at night when you sleep? What unusual things happen in your dreams? Perhaps you fly across the sky or sit on a rainbow. Have you ever had a nightmare? What was it like? Maybe you imagined that a monster was chasing you, and you woke up in a fright.

You’re about to enter a world of imagination and dreams created by Surrealist artists. In their artworks, you might visit a place where everything melts or one where strange creatures fly.

The Surrealists invented all kinds of new ways of making art to spark creativity. Some Surrealists made automatic pictures. They painted or drew without thinking about what they were making or stopping to think about how it would turn out. Some wrote nonsense stories by letting any words that popped into their heads flow out, no matter how silly they seemed.

Some Surrealists painted their weird dreams and nightmares. Even though the world they painted was completely make-believe, they painted their dreams with such detail that they looked real. They shook up the way we see ordinary things by mixing everything up! Imagine a cup that is larger than your bed, or a gigantic comb that you can climb onto. Or how about a cat’s head on a human body – with wings! The Surrealists wanted their artworks to open our imagination and help us to see the world in a new way.

Create your own way-out art inspired by the Surrealists. Scribble a doodle, splash some paint, cut up a magazine, and surprise yourself. Create art that is so silly it makes you laugh out loud. Or paint a scary picture that sends chills down your spine. Your art can be as strange or different as you want it to be. Anything can happen in your art – so let your imagination run free!





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