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Lesson Plan 1a: Imagination Station
In this lesson, students first watch the Get Surreal with Salvador Dali video which familiarizes them with Dali and Surrealism and why the two might be significant (more of this will be developed in Lessons 2 & 3). More importantly for this lesson, however, students begin interacting with the paintings themselves and begin exploring how one might respond to a piece of art. In what should be a lively classroom discussion, they have a chance to express their own reactions to the work, ask questions of the paintings, compare their responses to other students in class, etc. For homework—or for further activity if there is time in class—they have the chance to create a piece of writing or artwork that dialogues with, or responds to, one of the paintings they’ve been looking at and talking about.
MATERIALS & RESOURCES
Get Surreal With Salvador Dali. (On loan for free from the Salvador Dali Museum) Reproductions/posters of six paintings: Port of Cadaques (Night); Still Life: Sandia; The Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition; Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The Three Ages); The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory; The Hallucinogenic Toreador
ACTIVITY
1. Post-Movie Discussion (In class)
Whereas Lesson Plan One (a) begins a study of Dali that is rooted in reading and writing for a particular social studies-based content, Lesson Plan One (b) offers a more subjective and, for lack of a better word, “creative” way of encountering Dali and his work. This lesson stresses the asking of questions and the formation of personal responses.
After the movie, re-cap with your students some of the more memorable aspects of Dali’s character and art: the flying moustache, outrageous accents, pictures of Dali with bread on his head, etc. Dali’s own craziness bridges nicely to the apparent craziness of Surrealism, so ask your students to remember a bit of what Surrealism is like and what it stems from: dreams, the imagination, the unconscious, etc.
Responding to Dali means exercising the imagination. Using any of the six paintings you have with you, ask your students to begin responding to them. (It may be easier to focus on one or two paintings in particular, letting your students investigate them thoroughly
and in depth.) As they talk, make sure to ask your students to explain their answers. You might wish to use some of the following questions as discussion prompts:
Port of Cadaques (Night)
What time of day is it? What is the weather like? If there were people in the painting, what would they be doing? What would you do if you were in the painting? Where would you hang this picture in your house? Have you seen any paintings like this before? How does this painting make you feel?
Still Life: Sandia
What is this a picture of? What objects can you identify? How does this painting make you feel? What time of year is it in here? Where would you hang this picture in your house? If you had one word to describe this painting, what would it be? If you could add something this this painting, what would you add?
The Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition
Name some unusual things about this painting? How does it compare to Port of Cadaques (Night)? What is the person doing? Is the person a man or a woman? What does the shape in this person’s back look like? What do you feel like when you look at this person? What time of day/year is it? What type of furniture is this? If you could walk into the painting, what would you do? Why do you think Dali painted a crutch holding this person up? Why is there a smaller piece of furniture cut out of the larger one? Did Dali like or dislike the person in this painting? Why aren’t there any other people in this painting? Where are they? Where would you hang this picture in your house? If you got to take something away from this painting, what would you take?
Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The Three Ages)
Note: You may wish to inform your students that Dali may have been responding to the Sphinx’s famous riddle: What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?
We spent a lot of time talking about Dali’s paintings in class today. Thinking back on what you thought and said, and considering what your classmates said, and remembering Get Surreal with Salvador Dali, create your own personal response to one of the paintings. You may choose to write (a poem, a story, a description), or you may choose to do visual art (a drawing, painting, a collage), or you may choose to do a short performance (a song, a dance, etc.). Take some time to think about why you want to respond in this way. Are you responding to an entire painting, to part of a painting, to several of the paintings at the same time? Are you responding to an image or an idea? Be prepared to share your written or artistic response in class.
