Rene Magritte (1898-1967)

Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist. The surrealist art movement was a reaction to the first World War. Psychologically, Europe was in turmoil. The first world war was so massive and so devastating that the art world responded by creating artwork grounded in escapism.

Why create artwork that makes any rational sense when the entire world doesn't make any sense?

Magritte became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images at this time. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. He does this most directly in his work, "The Treachery of Images". He paints a realistic looking pipe and writes underneath "This is not a pipe". A painting can never be the actual object it is depicting no matter how convincing and skilled the artist is.

Magritte's work frequently displays a collection of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. They often have an uncanny feel, which means familiar but strange in an unsettling way. 

In order to achieve this feeling and look in his work, Magritte plays the artistic elements of scale, juxtaposition and humor. 
Assignment # 1:
  1. Who was Rene Magritte?
  2. What was the surreal art movement a reaction to?
  3. Why did surreal artists make artwork that looked crazy? 
  4. What 3 main artistic elements does Magritte play with in his artwork?
  5. What does it mean when something is "uncanny"?
  6. Magritte takes ordinary objects and people and puts them into unusual circumstances. How does that create meaning in his artwork?
  7. How could the visuals and meanings in Magritte's artwork represent the time in which we are currently living under Covid-19 quarantine? (Think about how we are currently living and look at the environments of Magrittes paintings...)
Assignment # 2:

You are to create an uncanny collage influenced by Magritte. It must have the following:
  1. A clear setting. Be it an interior of a room, a landscape, etc, it must be recognizable. 
  2. An uncanny feeling. Each component must be recognizable as what it is, but feel strange and wrong in the context you have placed it in. 
  3. You must use at least 5 images in your collage.
  4. It must have a focal point of some kind to draw the viewer in. (example, the train in the above image, etc)
  5. It must play with scale. The elements in your collage must be varying sizes to help your narrative. 
  6. It must show good work ethic and EFFORT. 
PIXLR E VIDEO TUTORIAL 
Tutorial Below IF YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP AT HOME:
​Refresher on creating collages in Photoshop
uncannycollage.pdf
File Size: 8489 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Assignment # 3: Reflection Questions
  1. What do you think you did well in this project?
  2. What do you think you could improve on in this project?
  3. What did you learn how to do, or get better at doing in this project?
  4. What is the scene you created? How is it surreal and uncanny?
Proudly powered by Weebly