The king of epatage, a wayward Catalan, selfish and a genius. Narcissist and monogamist. Forever in love with science and haunted by visions. This man is Salvador Dali (1904-1989). As for his works – bizarre and masterful – they reflect the artist’s way of thinking. Dali’s paintings always have a complex plot, which would be enough for several seasons of a surreal series. They overturned and continue to overturn the idea of art, because looking at these paintings, we begin to understand that art is not necessarily beautiful.
The first painting in our story will tell about Dali’s non-standard thinking.
When Dali and Gala (Olena Diakonova) lived in a fisherman’s lodge in Portlligat and «digested» their predicament and the 20 pesetas (about $1) worth of food, Dali still painted insistently. He believed in his talent, and his beloved woman also believed in him, so everything was not so bad. At this time Dali was working on the landscape you see in the painting. Then, in this landscape, there were only the cliffs of Cap de Creus, dried olive oil and a sandy beach, which could be seen from the window of a fishing lodge. Portlligat was beautiful in reality, but when Dalí painted it on canvas, he began to feel that this landscape lacked something. The artist did not see an idea there, a core image that would turn the disparate elements – dried olive, rocks, sand and water – into a coherent plot. Camembert cheese helped him find this rod. In the evening, when Dalí finally understood what was missing from the picture, he watched for some time how the camembert, which remained after a meeting with friends, melted and melted on the table. And then, standing up, he glanced at the unfinished painting and saw everything – a clock would appear on the landscape, which would melt and spread like the jelly. The artist prepared the palette – and finished the painting in one evening. When Gala returned and saw the work, she assured Dali: «Whoever sees this painting even once, will never forget it».
It is interesting that in the painting we also come across a self-portrait of the artist: the head in the center is Dali himself. And also you can see four watches. Three of them symbolize the subjective perception of the past, present and future, and one – the one lying on the table face down – symbolizes objective time, independent of our perception. Pay attention to the ants on the frame of this latest objective watch. They are frequent guests on Dali’s paintings, and their role is very philosophical – it is a reminder of decay and death. Try to find them on some other paintings presented in this article. We bet they will be there. And now let’s consider why ants are depicted on a clock with objective time?
It is impossible to close your eyes to the beautiful figure of the model. Do you agree? This model, by the way, meant a lot to Dali. It was his Gala. She is depicted among pomegranates – symbols of fertility – and with the gun barrel in her hand – this is a hint of a bee sting. But in addition to the beloved Gala, here we also find reminiscences of another hobby of the artist – psychoanalysis. All elements of the picture together become an allusion to «The Interpretation of Dreams» by Sigmund Freud – Dali’s favorite work. The artist valued the psychoanalyst so much that he even called him his father. So imagine what an honor it was for Dalí to meet Mr. Freud in 1938!
Also, take a closer look at the stone slab on which Gala is supposedly lying. The raw edges of this block reproduce the reliefs of the same Cap de Creus, where Dalí rested as a child and lived at the beginning of his career. These rocky ledges were of great importance to Dalí. This is how he expressed himself about them: «I am inseparable from this sea, this sky, these rocks. This is where my most cherished truth, my roots were formed».
Thanks to the name, the following becomes clear: the further the viewer is from the painting, the more it resembles a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. In addition, it depicts a woman we already know (yes, it’s Gala again). But what the hell is Lincoln there?!
It’s time to tell about another secret of Salvador Dali’s genius. The fact that he was an artist did not mean for him that the only field worthy of activity was the humanities. Then he always kept his hand on the pulse of scientific discoveries. In particular, when Leon Harmon published a digitized photo of Abraham Lincoln in «The Study and Application of Facial Recognition Models», Dali instantly incorporated the photo into his painting. Well, Mr. Salvador liked to challenge himself! Here, by the way, is what the original photo from the study looked like:
This painting appeared before Dali’s eyes precisely at the time when he was trying to combine Spanish religious mysticism and scientific achievements. According to the artist, he had a dream in which he saw this painting as the nucleus of an atom. And later it dawned on him, and the artist understood: the nucleus of an atom is Christ… If you feel that you do not understand anything, don’t be shy. Stop and consider what the artist meant.
In addition to this, Dali found a sketch of the Crucifixion by St. John of the Cross (we present it below):
The history of the creation of this sketch is as follows: John of the Cross in one of his visions saw Christ hanging over the world. He depicted this vision in the sketch above. Several centuries later, Dali was so impressed by the uniqueness and beauty of Christ in this sketch that he decided to depict the Crucifixion not because of the ugliness of suffering, but because of the beauty of God Christ. At the very least, we should acknowledge Dali’s innovative views and non-conformism in this regard. In addition, the color scheme in the upper part of the painting clearly fits into the minimalist trends of our XXI century.
This painting has an interesting effect: if you first come across it in a reproduction, you will think that you are dealing with a rather large canvas, but when you look closely at the numbers that indicate the true dimensions of the work (6.80 x 8.80 cm), you will understand that you were wrong…
The entire space of the miniature is literally permeated by the sun, from whose hot touches Gala seems to enjoy. As for the symbolism of the lamb ribs, let Dali himself explain everything: «…instead of eating her (that is, Gala), I decided to eat a few raw pieces of meat. Indeed, the chops became a substitute for a tempting victim, like a lamb for Abraham or an apple for Wilhelm Tell…»
There is an interesting fact that when Dali was painting this miniature, he was not inspired by the real Gala, but by a joint photo with his wife, where Gala turned out much better than in life (we, of course, did not see her, but there is such historical data), and where she looks real a beautiful temptress. It is quite possible that her true inner essence appeared in the photo and the photographer noticed it in time.
According to Salvador Dali himself, this oil-on-canvas painting can be considered his first painting, created in complete compliance with the paranoid-critical method developed by himself. To understand the picture, let’s first understand the essence of the method. First of all, the basis of this method is the cult of irrational cognition. Secondly, its purpose is to interpret the paranoid phenomena of human consciousness. Thirdly, it is characterized by the photographic accuracy of the image to every detail. And this is necessary in order to reproduce the entire essence of the paranoid vision of a person.
Perhaps the impetus for painting this picture was the poem «Metamorphoses» by Ovid with illustrations by Pablo Picasso. However, this is not the only version. After all, Dalí himself was an excellent «narcissist», moreover, he was aware of and proud of his narcissism. And the very concept of «narcissism» was introduced into psychiatry by his idol – Sigmund Freud.
The plot of the painting is dictated by the myth of Narcissus, which was retold by Ovid. The essence of metamorphosis is the transformation of Narcissus’s figure into a large stone hand, and his head into a bulb. Next, he uses the Spanish proverb «an onion has sprouted in the head», which means obsessive ideas or complexes.
Let’s plunge into the summer of 1925. The talented and handsome Salvador Dalí is only 21 years old, he has not yet been kicked out of the San Fernando Fine Art Royal Academy in Madrid, and he has every chance to become a classical artist. At this time, the artist works a lot and tirelessly paints his only female model (because Gala has not yet appeared) – his sister Anna-Maria. Before the appearance of Gala, Anna-Maria was the closest person to Dali, and this brother’s love for his sister, as well as admiration for her young beauty, were vividly manifested in the picture. During the painting of «Figure at the Window» Dali uses the usual technique of «painting in a picture», which he saw in the masters of past centuries – the same to Velázquez and Vermeer, his idols.
This small painting (35 x 27 cm) has a powerful effect on the viewer. It is not surprising if you delve into its history. The oil painting on panel was painted during the Spanish Civil War – the one that historians shake their heads at the mention of. As a result of this war, in 1939, the Second Spanish Republic would collapse under the pressure of the Franco dictatorship and allow fascism to gain a foothold in Europe. And in a few months, the Second World War will also explode. Given the scale of the misfortune and the smell of blood in the air, it becomes clear why Dali and Gala did not want to be in the whirlpool of military and political events and they emigrated to the United States. Taking into account the apolitical nature of the artist and his reluctance to become either a supporter of Franco or a supporter of Hitler, perhaps this step became his salvation.
While creating the painting «The Burning Giraffe», the very sensitive Dali foresaw future disasters. In the foreground is a female monster, who is interesting because she has sliding drawers and strange outgrowths on her body. These outgrowths are not able to support themselves – for this they need crutches. As for the drawers, they symbolize the secret recesses of the human subconscious. And the fact that they are open is an indication of the deep instincts that war releases in a person and that people do not even know about in peacetime. The sky, it seems, should evoke calmness, but not in this painting… The saturated and disturbing color of the sky seems to warn that dusk and night are coming…
Continuing the topic of the civil war, we must also mention this painting. At first glance, it is obvious that the depicted monster is suffering in a closed circle, trying to tear itself apart from all sides. Additional meaning can be traced here even in the geometric shape of the monster, as this shape reproduces the cartographic appearance of Spain. We put all the subtexts together – and it turns out that the Spaniards are tearing themselves to pieces. Probably, this painting can be called the most powerful anti-war manifesto of all created by artists.
Despite such a deep and painful plot, Dalí spoke somewhat cynically about this war. And in the end, the first part of the title – «soft construction with boiled beans» – once again proves the originality of the artist’s views on everything in this world. In his opinion, war is a terrible, but «edible» dish, in which beans become a side dish to bloody flesh.
To agree or not is a personal matter of everyone. But regardless of our position, the painting is thought-provoking.
Let’s finish our story with faith for a better future.
This painting became a kind of bright summary and the pinnacle of Dali’s entire work. Dali worked for 15 months on the giant canvas, the area of which is 12 square meters. Here, too, there is an element familiar to his paintings – the image of Gala, but the history of the creation of the painting and its meaning are unique, as always in Dali artworks.
It all started with a gift from friends – a set of pencils with a picture of the Venus de Milo on the box. And the irony is that Dali saw in the features of Venus a great similarity with the face of his acquaintance – the famous Spanish bullfighter Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez (Manolete). He shared his observations with Gala and his friends, but they did not share his opinion. This did not upset Salvador Dali – after all, he was the genius artist. For convenience, Dali divided the space of the canvas into 12 squares of 1 m2 each – and began his titanic work.
Before you talk about the picture, look at it carefully, because after the explanations you will perceive it completely differently.
What do you notice when you look at this painting for the first time? Perhaps it’s the line of the Venuses de Milo? Okay, everything is clear with Venus. But now look closely at the second Venus from the right, more precisely at her face, and you will see that it is the eyes of a toreador. Venus’ chest is his nose, and below you can also see his mouth, chin, and even lower – a shirt button and a green tie (or handkerchief), which stand out against the background of a white shirt.
Now this painting will forever remain in your perception, and you will not be able to view it as before. And above all – solemn arches, one of which does not cast a shadow and is surrounded by angels, which indicates that the soul of the deceased Rodriguez will soon move to heaven. In general, according to Dalí, the image of a toreador is a great generalization. It incorporates those whom Dalí knew in his lifetime and who died before him.
And as a Ukrainian writer Ivan Bahrianyi said: «And above everything is the sun» – that’s why, as the result of the artist’s work, we chose a bright and sunny painting.
For new positive emotions, come to our master classes or buy gift certificates for your loved ones. Relax and find one more interesting place where to go in Kyiv.
У меня синдром Стендаля сегодня. Утром ходили в Падуанский баптистерий. Смотрели фрески Менабуя. А после обеда у нас было посещение каппелы Скровеньи. Теперь я понимаю , что сделал Джотто для мира. Очень меня все это впечатлило в живую. Привет передала.
Мир прекрасен. Падуя очень понравилась:) спасибо за лекции Света!
Lily Golovchak
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