ABSTRACT
I invited Toni Russell, an art teacher, to introduce the notion of surrealism to my class. She explained that we understand what we see in relationship to what is around it, and that surrealists wanted to put the ‘play’ back into art work, and to make people think about why things are the way they are. She illustrated difficult concepts with examples and, despite the complexity of the subject, the children were soon very involved. We then went on to look carefully at Magritte’s The Fall, and some of the children drew versions of it to help them understand how Magritte worked. They pored over collections of Magritte’s paintings and sculptures, fascinated by even the a very small black-and-white reproduction that demonstrated the development of his ideas. Finally, I showed them Anthony Browne’s Through the Magic Mirror, and was rewarded by a chorus of ‘Look, it’s Magritte!’, when they saw the cover, and huge excitement about the falling choirboys. The reference to Magritte’s Golconde was instantly recognised: the painting had been a favourite of the class, and many children had made their own version of it (see Figure 6.1).
