Artspeaking topic
Let's talk about the birth of Surrealism and how Freud's theory of the unconscious shaped Breton's manifesto.
— André Breton, 'Surrealist Manifesto' (1924)
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The better the villain is written, the stronger the story; a flawless hero is boring. Why does a perfect character leave us cold while a contradictory, flawed one gets under our skin? Is a flaw a defect, or a seal of authenticity?
- Place a single dot on an empty canvas and the canvas is no longer empty; the dot now sits somewhere, high or low, alone or at the center. How does one small mark fill a whole void with meaning? Does meaning live in the object, or in the relationships between things?
- How did Gustave Courbet's 'The Stone Breakers' declare the social stance of Realism by turning ordinary laborers into heroes?
- The birth of Neoclassicism: why was the return to ancient Greece and Rome on the eve of the French Revolution a call to virtue?
- Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy, and in Florence in particular? Let's discuss the role of Medici patronage.