art materpiece: magritte and leger

Every other Wednesday I head into 2 kindergarten classes to volunteer my time and give a short art history lesson with assigned prints. Here are the prints I presented in February:

The Surprise Answer by Rene Magritte

1. About the Artist
   Rene Magritte was born in Belgium in 1898 (that’s 112 years ago). He was the son of a tailor and had 2 younger brothers. He went to art school when he was 18 years old. He likes to create art based on dreams and fantasies. He mixes the real with the unreal. That is called surrealism.
   
   
   
2. Does this fit surrealism … based on dreams and fantasies?
   Sure does.
   
   
3. The name of this painting is The Surprise Answer. Do you think that is a good name? What would you name this painting? Most agreed with the name.
   
   
4. What do you see in the painting?
   Door and Hole in the middle of the door. When discussing the hole the kids really LOVED dreaming up all the ways this hole could have appeared; laser beams, bomb blasts, falling though door, dinosaur went through it, spiders ate around the edge and then it fell and the list goes on ...
   
   
5. We talked about the “elements of design” in this painting: Line, Shape, Color, Texture, Space.
   
   
6. If this painting could make a sound, what kind of sound or music would it make? Mysterious music (like Scooby doo).
   
   
7. Would you go through this door? Do you think you would have to open the door to get through it? Most said no (scary, unknown, dark) but a few said yes (curious, hoping something good was inside, not scared)
   
   
8. The artist is communicating with you. He wants you to think! Why do you think the artist painted it? His paintings ask questions of reality and illusion. His paintings surprise us and make us question what we see. It is mysterious. The painting does not “mean” anything, because mystery means nothing, it is unknown.

The kids really enjoyed telling me all about their dreams. Some said they would go through the door out of curiosity and a others said no way cause they didn't know what was behind it. One class liked the what kind of music question the best and the other class liked thinking of how this hole happened . Overall I was amazed at how much was talked about with a seemingly simple painting.

Leisure: Homage to Louis David by Fernand Leger, 1948-49

1. About the Artist
   Fernand Leger was born in Normandy in 1881 (that’s 129 years ago!) and he lived to be 74 years old.
   
   
2. What would you name this painting?
   The name of this painting is Leisure: Homage to Louis David. Homage means tribute.
   
   
3. What do you see in the painting?
   People and bicycles
   
   
4. What else do you see?
   Birds, clouds, flowers, seaweed, sand, crabs
   
   
5. We talked about the “elements of design” in this painting: Line, Shape, Color, Texture, Space.
   
   
6. If this painting could make a sound, what kind of sound or music would it make? Birds chirping, whooshing wind, water and waves
   
   
7. What do you think is taking place in this painting? It appears as a fun family outing showing people, nature and machines (the bicycles) in harmony. Some may have gone swimming and they were taking a break from bike riding.
   
   
8. Look at the clothing, what do you notice? Men in suites (would you ride you bike and go to the beach in your suite? No...), some in bathing suits may have gone swimming.
   
   
9. The artist is communicating with you. He wants you to think! Why do you think the artist painted it? What was his message? As shown in this painting this particular artist felt that everything in a painting was equally important.
   

This one was interesting as one class thought the crabs and seaweed were in the picture because the people were zombies or mermaids, under water where the other class simply thought they were by the beach. They enjoyed thinking about all the sounds this picture would make.