Archive for December, 2011
“I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.” – Salvador Dali
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“The systematic juxtaposition of orange and violet produced in me a kind of illusion and sentimental joy like that which I had always experienced in looking at objects through a prism, which edged them with the colors of the rainbow.” -Salvador Dali
The Tartan “El Son”
The Tartan El Son was completed in 1919
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“You are destined for higher ground
Not to linger with me
To the earth I am ever bound, eternally
We belong to the sun
We belong to the sky,
We have more than one song
To sing before we die” – Secret Garden
Swans Reflecting Elephants: This painting is from Dalí’s Paranoiac-critical period. It focuses on a double-image that causes the reflections of swans on a pond to look like elephants; the swans’ necks and wings take on the appearance of trunks and ears when reflected, while the reflection of a tree covered shore behind the swans supplies the elephants’ legs and bodies.
Source: Wikipedia
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Happy Holidays to all from the Salvador Dalí Society! We are all excited to celebrate the holidays. If you are at a lost as to what to get your beloved ones, we suggest Dalí Dimension. It is the perfect gift for Dalí lovers. Dalí Dimension is a documentary about the passions of Salvador Dalí. It investigates the surrealist’s obsession with science, psychology, and math. It explores the influence that Freud and Einstein had over the Spaniard. Click here for more info.
Dalí fancied using multimedia. For a twenty year stretch from the 1950s – 1970s Dalí extend his talents to a different medium. Greeting Cards. During those year he produced dozens of greeting cards for Hoechst, a German pharmaceutical company. Particularly Dalí created Christmas Cards. These cards were distributed to different doctors and pharmaceutical representatives in Spain. They were well known for displaying Christmas tree roots and brilliant designed, with witty messages written by Dalí himself.
In 1946 Dalí painted Noel, a celebration of Christmas through a surrealist’s expression.
Noel 1946
The work is a beautiful winter scene adorned with the traditional Christmas trees. One of the things most interesting about this work is the space in the middle. Much hasn’t been said of Dalí’s use of space, more particularly, negative space. But here we presented with this gapping column flanked by two arched structures. It almost feels as if there is a face that should be placed there. Could it be a gateway? But where does it lead to? It opens to nothing, just vast empty land. What do you think?
I wanted to share these Dalí tidbits with you. We’ll be back with more insightful Dalí post soon. Enjoy!
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We’re going to start a series of blog post about Salvador Dalí’s lithograph suite, Changes In Great Masterpieces. This series is an exploration through recent masterpieces in the history of art. Through Dalí’s eyes we are invited to a modernization of these works by such masters as Rembrandt, Vermeer, & Velasquez. Each of these works is not only a brilliant technical achievement in the art of painting but also a highly intriguing and fascinating commentary on psychology and philosophy. Great works of art make statements. These works represent statements about our inner most being. Ultimately Dalí, through his works, portrays himself as a psychologist. He sees himself as a student of Freud. That means everything that goes through his brush is first filtered through his surreal-psycho analysis. We’re going to see if we can take a peek at what Dalí felt when he looked at these paintings.
We’ll start our conversation with Dalí’s print, Velasquez: Maids of Honor (Las Meninas). In each work from the series Dalí takes the original painting and adds some small but important detail. Think of Dalí’s addition as a highlighter, he wants you to see the real and original work but focus on something particular. Simply put, he’s presenting you a classic work with modern highlights.
Las Meninas is often regarded as one of most complex and intriguing works of art ever. The work is layered with composition and juxtaposition. There are many places one can go to to read about this work from an art history standpoint. We don’t want to dissect the entire work, just simple elements that point to psychological suggestions. We want to examine it through Dalí’s lens.
Here are the two works below
This work has been described as a “snapshot”, in that the characters of the piece aren’t “posing” in the traditional sense. It is attempting to show life in the middle of activity, or life as it is. At the left of the piece we see the artist, Velasquez, working. He pokes his head out to take a look at his subject. But what is he looking at? It has been suggested that the mirror in the back of the room holds the reflection of a king and queen, and that it is this pair that Velasquez is painting. But they too are also looking “outside” of the painting and into our reality. The artist is gazing back at us.
As viewers we gaze at the work of art. At the same time we interpret it, we are in a sense its creators, and its meaning comes from our interpretation of it. What Velasquez, in the painting, is painting our gaze of the art, that is, our interpretation. You and the artist and the subject is the art. The art does not stand alone; it needs a viewer to bring it to life in order to “mean something”. We started off with this work in the series because it is exactly what Dalí presents in the series, his interpretation.
What Dalí is emphasizing through Velasquez is that; art isn’t anything unless it is viewed, the viewer is necessary for the painting to be art. Only in that moment when the viewer and the work are present and when one sees one’s self as the viewer of art does art begin it life as a work of art. More importantly, this is how we live our life. A pen is only a pen when it is used as a pen, when it is “penning”, a hammer is only a hammer when you are “hammering” with it. Our lives are moments of mini-environments we create with our interaction with things, art is solely there to interact be interacted with, it has no other use other than as a subject to be reflected on. I believe what Dalí is suggesting is that art is best medium to present truths about the world because its only purposeful function is as an arrow pointing to truth, because it is simply a mirror of our interpretation of the world.
When we create a piece of art it will automatically be infused with our world view. It is like a fossil, it will be able to tell you something about the world it comes from.
In the original work the doorway is occupied by a shadowy figure. We are unsure if this figure is gazing at us, leaving or entering the room? It is in between our realization. Dalí has replaced this figure with what appears to be a servant in the room behind the studio. The message is clear; there is definitely someone in the other room. The doorway is clear, you can enter. Dalí felt that this work represented a transition in the history of art, a transition that would eventually lead to psychology. Dalí addition simply asserts that we are no longer in transition; we are firmly entrenched in a new world, a Freudian world.
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Lucky Number 85?
The Lucky Number of Dalí is perhaps one of the most intriguing works ever by the surrealist master Salvador Dalí. Its red and yellow splashes reminiscent of headlights center the viewer’s eyes. It is a hypnotic work of art. But probably the most interesting thing about Lucky Number is that it doesn’t look like a Dalí at all, in fact it looks anti-Dalí.
Perhaps Dalí greatest artistic influences are the classics, Vermeer, Velasquez, Rembrandt, etc. Dalí revered these individuals. He thought of himself as a master painter. Technique was perhaps the most important thing for Dalí. He felt the only way to truly translate what is happening in the mind is to have the skills capable of showing it on the canvas. The Lucky Number of Dalí is the complete opposite of this. It does not require any skill other than being able to throw paint. It is a random work of art. The randomness can be seen as luck. The works itself is lucky in the sense that the paint was “lucky” to get on the canvas. But, in one way it is completely Dalí. There is a structure to the randomness.
We can read this work as saying that this work of art, the “anti-Dalí” method is killing the traditional Dalí method. Randomness trumps structure. It may also be telling of a prophecy Dalí had. The number scattered on the work is “85”. If Dalí had lived 4 more months he would have been 85 at the moment of his death in 1989. For some it might have looked like Dalí was trying to predict his death, guessing in would come in the 1980s, when he’d be in his 80s. If this is true then he was using this random style of art as a metaphor for his death. This erratic art style brings the death of the traditional art style. Death is random, and her Dalí tries to predict it. Ultimately even Dalí knows he will fail at predicting his death, he knows it is completely up to his luck. From this perspective it looks like Dalí is at the same time entertaining and accepting his death. What do you think?
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