Clay Modeling
Surreal and Grotesque
Salvador Dali
Persistence of Memory
1931
oil on canvas
Salvador Dali
Lobster Telephone
1938
Objectives
a. Create a surreal or grotesque sculpture.
b. Effectively use art elements and principles of design to create a sculpture
with clay.
c. Consider craftsmanship and attention to detail when creating your sculpture.
d. Create a sculpture using the additive process of modeling and subtractive
process of carving.
e. Use references looking at actual objects and create several sketches and/or
maquettes (small models) to work out ideas.
Relevant terms:
Define these in your journal.
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Surreal
Incongruous
Grotesque
Metamorphosis
Juxtapose
Modeling
Additive
Maquette
Armature
Relevant Art Elements and
Principles
• Form
• Texture
• Color
• Proportion/Scale
• Balance
• Unity
• Variety
Surrealism
Art and literature movement which began in the 1920s and
combined dream-like or seemingly odd elements together.
http://www.surrealism.org/
“Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious
realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and
fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in ‘an
absolute reality, a surreality’."
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/surrealism/
Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach by Salvador Dalí, 1938.
Salvador Dali
Cabinet Anthropomorphique
Bronze
David Gilhooly is a well-known sculptor,
who is recognized primarily for his ceramic
sculpture of animals, food, planets and the
FrogWorld. A graduate of the University of
California at Davis (BA, 1965 MA, 1967),
he and his friends, working in TB-9 were
what was later to be called, The Funk
Ceramic Movement of the San Francisco
Bay Area.
David Gilhooly
FrogFry with Bacon and Eggs 1985
The term, Funk, was coined in 1966 by Peter Selz for a show at the University of
California Art Museum in Berkeley, California. The implied meaning was something
common, dopey, stupid or low. Shows of Funk Art were often met with the question,
"What, you call this Art?"
They were inspired by the Pop Art movement. For example, they looked to the work
of Claes Oldenburg. -http://davidgilhooly.com/02funk.htm
Oldenburg, Clothespin
Centre Square Plaza, Fifteenth and Market
streets, Philadelphia
Cor-Ten and stainless steels
45 ft. x 12 ft. 3 in. x 4 ft. 6 in. (13.7 x 3.7 x 1.4 m)
Claes Oldenburg, Dropped Cone, 2001
David Gilhooly
Burger for Two
2008
Ceramic
8 x 4 x 4 in.
David Gilhooly
Tall Sundaes
1978
Robert Arneson was an instructor at the University of California at
Davis. Humor and non-traditional approaches were encouraged.
David Gilhooly was one of his students.
Robert Arneson, Bob at Rest, 1981,
Glazed ceramic, 39 x 26 x 12"
Robert Arneson
self portrait
Jack Earle
It's the clothes that make the man
Grotesque: Since at least the 18th century, grotesque has
come to be used as a general adjective for the strange,
fantastic, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting. It
defies the notions of art as beautiful.
http://www.theofantastique.com/2010/05/18/gary-varner-gargoyles-grotesques-and-green-men/
Gargoyles of Notre Dame
Student Work
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19
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Clay Vocabulary
Define each term in your journal.
The stages of clay:
1. Slip
2. Plastic
3. Leather-hard
4. Greenware or bone dry
5. Bisqueware
6. Glazeware
Other clay terms:
Clay
Reclaiming
Wedging
Kiln
Firing
Score
Glaze
Review of Objectives:
• Create a surreal or grotesque sculpture. Drawing inspiration from the
previous art work, create your own 3-d clay sculpture that combines
incongruous, bizarre, or grotesque elements together. Think about
objects that don’t normally belong together. Think about dreams you’ve
had or fairy tales or mythology and how you can juxtapose different
things to make one new creation.
• Effectively use art elements and principles of design to create a
sculpture with clay.
• Consider craftsmanship and attention to detail when creating your
sculpture.
• Create a sculpture using the additive process of modeling and
subtractive process of carving.
• Use references looking at actual objects and create several sketches
and/or maquettes (small models) to work out ideas.
22
Vocab:
• Surreal: a mix between real & fantasy, dream-like, bizarre
• Incongruous: not in harmony or keeping with the
surroundings or other aspects of some thing
• Grotesque: comically or repulsively ugly or distorted
• Metamorphosis: changing or transforming from one state to
another
• Juxtapose: placing two opposite elements next to each
other
• Modeling: shaping a soft material
• Additive: building up/adding material to the work
• Maquette: small scale model; rough draft
• Armature: a framework to build the sculpture on