Salvador Dali and the Surrealists: Their Lives and Ideas with 21 Activities

Rating:
Summary: The art history is pretty good but the activities are great
Review: I have read several of these Chicago Review Press volumes that combine art or history with 21 activities geared for kids ages 10 and up, and Michael Elsohn Ross' "Salvador Dali and the Surrealists: Their Lives and Ideas with 21 Activities" is the best of the bunch I have seen to date. The art history section is excellent but this time around the activities are even better. Art teachers looking for ways of introducing their young students to art in general and the surrealists in particular will find these activities to be extremely useful. Of course, in this age of schools dealing with deep budget cuts this book might be even more useful for teachers who do not have training in art or who are simply doing an art unit in their class.

Ross does a wonderful job of putting the Surrealists in historical context. Although he starts by looking at Dali's early life and first impressionist works, Ross tells young readers how World War I and the birth of the Dada movement, started to move art in a new direction. Throughout the book Ross provides looks at not only important artists like Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte, and Frida Kaholo, but also Sigmund Freud, Francisco Franco, and Harpo Marx. When you get to the Marx Brothers and the idea of absurd comedy that they represented in their films such as "A Night at the Opera," then you can rest assured that Ross is providing not only breadth but also depth to his treatment of Surrealism. Dali is clearly the paradigmatic surrealist artist, which may well just be another way of saying the most popular, but that distinction will not matter to young students who will be fascinated by the famous melted watches in "The Persistence of Memory" (1931) and the gaping square hole in the back of the figure in "The Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition" (1934). I was surprised that they did not show the infamous harp, covered with silverware, that Dali made for Harpo Marx.

Consequently, the text of the book, where Ross looks at how surrealism drew on the revolutionary theories of Sigmund Freud to bring the creativity of the subconscious to art and details the fanciful creations of Magritte, Miro, Dali and other artists, stands on its own as providing a superb introduction to Dali and the surrealists. However, the activities Ross came up with are even better. Starting with such simple ideas a finding Pictures Everywhere, Ross moves on to tricks for altering the way you see the world (Crystal Eyes), and the inventiveness of Free Association and Inkblots. A series of activities are based on the work of specific artists, such as the Splotch Art of Joan Miro, the Solar Prints of Man Ray, the Surreal Objects of Marcel Duchamp, the Art in a Box of Max Ernst, and Dali's technique of Frottage. Of course, when they get to the concept of Hair Art, students might always recognize that from what some of their classmates have already been doing. Ross provides some actual examples of student projects based on these exercise as well as works by great artists that inspired the ideas. Even younger children will enjoy the "Exquisite Corpse" Drawing activity.

Although I supposed I could always glue a lobster to a rotary telephone on my own, perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay to this book is that I wish I had young students that I could get to try some of these out. My youngest daughter should be careful the next time she comes over because I do not think it is likely that I will come up with a way of getting my online Pop Culture class to do this, much as I would like to. This book is so inspiring that I can see teachers who only deal with art tangentially in their class to find a way to work some of this information and several of these exercises into their classes. There are also plenty of other great Surrealist artists for these students to learn more about as well as well as imaginatively inspirational paintings like Magritte's "Time Transfixed" (1938).

Rating:
Summary: The art history is pretty good but the activities are great
Review: I have read several of these Chicago Review Press volumes that combine art or history with 21 activities geared for kids ages 10 and up, and Michael Elsohn Ross' "Salvador Dali and the Surrealists: Their Lives and Ideas with 21 Activities" is the best of the bunch I have seen to date. The art history section is excellent but this time around the activities are even better. Art teachers looking for ways of introducing their young students to art in general and the surrealists in particular will find these activities to be extremely useful. Of course, in this age of schools dealing with deep budget cuts this book might be even more useful for teachers who do not have training in art or who are simply doing an art unit in their class.

Ross does a wonderful job of putting the Surrealists in historical context. Although he starts by looking at Dali's early life and first impressionist works, Ross tells young readers how World War I and the birth of the Dada movement, started to move art in a new direction. Throughout the book Ross provides looks at not only important artists like Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte, and Frida Kaholo, but also Sigmund Freud, Francisco Franco, and Harpo Marx. When you get to the Marx Brothers and the idea of absurd comedy that they represented in their films such as "A Night at the Opera," then you can rest assured that Ross is providing not only breadth but also depth to his treatment of Surrealism. Dali is clearly the paradigmatic surrealist artist, which may well just be another way of saying the most popular, but that distinction will not matter to young students who will be fascinated by the famous melted watches in "The Persistence of Memory" (1931) and the gaping square hole in the back of the figure in "The Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition" (1934). I was surprised that they did not show the infamous harp, covered with silverware, that Dali made for Harpo Marx.

Consequently, the text of the book, where Ross looks at how surrealism drew on the revolutionary theories of Sigmund Freud to bring the creativity of the subconscious to art and details the fanciful creations of Magritte, Miro, Dali and other artists, stands on its own as providing a superb introduction to Dali and the surrealists. However, the activities Ross came up with are even better. Starting with such simple ideas a finding Pictures Everywhere, Ross moves on to tricks for altering the way you see the world (Crystal Eyes), and the inventiveness of Free Association and Inkblots. A series of activities are based on the work of specific artists, such as the Splotch Art of Joan Miro, the Solar Prints of Man Ray, the Surreal Objects of Marcel Duchamp, the Art in a Box of Max Ernst, and Dali's technique of Frottage. Of course, when they get to the concept of Hair Art, students might always recognize that from what some of their classmates have already been doing. Ross provides some actual examples of student projects based on these exercise as well as works by great artists that inspired the ideas. Even younger children will enjoy the "Exquisite Corpse" Drawing activity.

Although I supposed I could always glue a lobster to a rotary telephone on my own, perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay to this book is that I wish I had young students that I could get to try some of these out. My youngest daughter should be careful the next time she comes over because I do not think it is likely that I will come up with a way of getting my online Pop Culture class to do this, much as I would like to. This book is so inspiring that I can see teachers who only deal with art tangentially in their class to find a way to work some of this information and several of these exercises into their classes. There are also plenty of other great Surrealist artists for these students to learn more about as well as well as imaginatively inspirational paintings like Magritte's "Time Transfixed" (1938).