Surrealism is the complete freedom of a human being and his right to dream. I am not a surrealist, I am surrealism, - S. Dali.
Formation artistic skill Dali took place in the era of early modernity, when his contemporaries largely represented such new artistic currents like Expressionism and Cubism.
In 1929, the young artist joined the Surrealists. This year marked an important turn in his life as Salvador Dali met Gala. She became his mistress, wife, muse, model and main inspiration.
Since he was a brilliant draftsman and colorist, Dali drew much inspiration from the old masters. But he used extravagant forms and inventive ways to compose an entirely new, modern and innovative style of art. His paintings are distinguished by the use of double images, ironic scenes, optical illusions, dream landscapes and deep symbolism.
Throughout his creative life, Dali was never limited to one direction. He worked with oil paints and watercolor, created drawings and sculptures, films and photographs. Even the variety of forms of execution was not alien to the artist, including the creation of jewelry and other works of applied art. As a screenwriter, Dali collaborated with the famous director Luis Buñuel, who made the films The Golden Age and The Andalusian Dog. They displayed unrealistic scenes, reminiscent of the revived paintings of a surrealist.
The prolific and extremely gifted master left a huge legacy for future generations of artists and art lovers. Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation launched an online project Catalog Raisonné of Salvador Dali for a complete scientific cataloging of the paintings created by Salvador Dali between 1910 and 1983. The catalog consists of five sections divided according to the timeline. It was conceived not only to provide comprehensive information about the artist's work, but also to determine the authorship of works, since Salvador Dali is one of the most forged painters.
These 17 examples of his surrealistic paintings testify to the fantastic talent, imagination and skill of the eccentric Salvador Dali.
1. "Ghost of Vermeer of Delft, which can be used as a table", 1934
This small picture with quite a long original title embodies Dali's admiration for the great 17th-century Flemish master, Jan Vermeer. Vermeer's self-portrait is executed taking into account Dali's surrealistic vision.
2. "The Great Masturbator", 1929
The painting depicts the internal struggle of feelings caused by the attitude towards sexual intercourse. This perception of the artist arose as an awakened childhood memory when he saw a book left by his father, open to a page depicting genitals affected by venereal diseases.
3. "Giraffe on fire", 1937
The artist completed this work before moving to the USA in 1940. Although the master claimed that the painting was apolitical, it, like many others, reflects the deep and unsettling feelings of unease and horror that Dali must have experienced during the turbulent period between the two world wars. A certain part reflects his internal struggle regarding the Spanish Civil War, and also refers to the method psychological analysis Freud.
4. "The Face of War", 1940
The agony of war is also reflected in the work of Dali. He believed that his painting should contain omens of war, which we see in a deadly head stuffed with skulls.
5. "Sleep", 1937
It depicts one of the surreal phenomena - a dream. This is a fragile, unstable reality in the world of the subconscious.
6. Appearance of a face and a bowl of fruit on the seashore, 1938
This fantastic painting is especially interesting, since the author uses double images in it, endowing the image itself with a multi-level meaning. Metamorphoses, amazing juxtapositions of objects and hidden elements characterize Dali's surrealist paintings.
7. The Persistence of Memory, 1931
This is perhaps the most recognizable surreal painting Salvador Dali, who embodies softness and hardness, symbolizes the relativity of space and time. To a large extent, it relies on Einstein's theory of relativity, although Dali said that the idea for the picture was born at the sight of Camembert cheese melted in the sun.
8. The Three Sphinxes of Bikini Island, 1947
This surreal depiction of Bikini Atoll evokes the memory of the war. Three symbolic sphinxes occupy different plans: human head, a split tree and a mushroom of a nuclear explosion, speaking of the horrors of war. The painting explores the relationship between three subjects.
9. "Galatea with spheres", 1952
The portrait of Dali's wife is presented through an array of spherical shapes. Gala is like a portrait of the Madonna. The artist, inspired by science, elevated Galatea above the tangible world to the upper etheric layers.
10. Melted Clock, 1954
Another depiction of a time-measuring object has been given an ethereal softness that is not typical of a hard pocket watch.
11. “My naked wife, contemplating her own flesh, which has turned into a staircase, into three vertebrae of a column, into the sky and into architecture”, 1945
Gala from the back. This remarkable image has become one of the most eclectic works of Dali, where classic and surrealism, calm and strangeness are combined.
12. "Soft construction with boiled beans", 1936
The second name of the picture is “Premonition of the Civil War”. It depicts the alleged horrors of the Spanish Civil War, as the artist painted it six months before the conflict began. This was one of Salvador Dali's forebodings.
13. "The Birth of Liquid Desires", 1931-32
We see one example of a paranoid-critical approach to art. Images of father and possibly mother are mixed with a grotesque, unreal image of a hermaphrodite in the middle. The picture is filled with symbolism.
14. "The Riddle of Desire: My mother, my mother, my mother", 1929
This work, created on Freudian principles, became an example of Dali's relationship with his mother, whose distorted body appears in the Dalinian desert.
15. Untitled - Fresco painting design for Helena Rubinstein, 1942
The image was created for the interior decoration of the premises by order of Helena Rubinstein. This is a frankly surreal picture from the world of fantasy and dreams. The artist was inspired by classical mythology.
16. "Sodom self-satisfaction of an innocent maiden", 1954
The painting depicts a female figure and an abstract background. The artist explores the issue of repressed sexuality, which follows from the title of the work and the phallic forms that often appear in Dali's work.
17. Geopolitical Child Watching the Birth of the New Man, 1943
The artist expressed his skepticism by painting this painting while in the United States. The shape of the ball seems to be a symbolic incubator of the "new" man, the man of the "new world".
The great Spanish painter Salvador Dali created more than one and a half thousand works in his entire life, among which you can find true masterpieces of the surrealist trend. But not only from the pictures this man is familiar to many fans of his work. He was a versatile creative person who found himself as well as a sculptor, writer, director and actor. most big dream The master of the brush was to create his own museum, which would most of all resemble a theater, and he succeeded. Now in Figueres there is his Museum-Theater, which stores many of the artist's works, not only in the form of paintings, but also sculptures.
Anna Maria
Anna Maria(1924). This picture shows younger sister Dali Anna. For a long time, the artist and his sister were very close, in many ways they were united precisely by spiritual kinship. On the canvas, the painter depicted Anna as a true beauty. The friendship between brother and sister continued until Dali met on his life path Galu - the Muse of his whole life. The sister's jealousy for his chosen one destroyed all family and friendly relations between Anna and Salvador.
The Persistence of Memory
« The Persistence of Memory" or "Soft Hours" (1931). This picture of the great surrealist is familiar to many. The work brought great fame to the painter. The canvas depicts several watch mechanisms displayed in a flowing form. In this picture, the painter moves away from the linear concept of time frames. Here you can see that the creation depicts the head of the artist himself, who is sleeping. To create a masterpiece, the genius took only a couple of hours. Now this work is stored in the New York Museum of Modern Art.
giraffe on fire
"Giraffe on Fire"(1937). The artist wrote this canvas almost before being sent to emigration to the USA. This work clearly demonstrates the struggle of the artist against the politics of his country. Salvador Dali called himself an apolitical person. This picture also displays the premonition of the painter of the imminent war. The main character of the canvas, the burning plane itself, is in the background and actually symbolizes the premonition of hostilities that will unfold in the near future in the state. In the foreground, the artist chose to depict two women, whose construction is supported by crutches. In this way, the master of the pen expressed the human subconscious.
The face of war
The face of war(1940). This work appeared already at the moment when the surrealist was already living in the USA. On the canvas you can see the image of the head, which is more like a skull, and snakes are located around it, as if emitting a hiss in the mouth and each of the eye sockets has one more skull, clearly reflecting the whole terrible essence of the war. Also on the canvas you can see the imprint of Salvador's hand. Now the picture is stored in the Museum of Rotterdam.
Mae West face
« Mae West's face(1974). The work belongs to late works painter and made in comic style. The picture shows the face of a famous American actress. The lips of the woman are made in the form of a red sofa, the curtains serve as hair, Mei's eyes are depicted in the form of two paintings, and the nose is a fireplace, which houses the clock, which is the bridge of the nose. The artist's work occupies an entire room, which is an illusion: the face of the actress is clearly depicted from afar, but as soon as you get closer, the objects from which the creator "collected" the face of West immediately become clear.
great masturbator
"Great Masturbator"(1929). One of the most famous paintings the artist reflects his controversial attitude towards the intercourse of a man and a woman. In childhood, Dali saw a book on his father's medicine, where photographs of the genitals of people with venereal diseases were displayed. Since then, the young creator associated sexual intercourse with the process of decay, which is clearly seen in the work. Subsequently, this incident greatly influenced the artist, who for a long time was disgusted with sex. Until the end of the life of Salvador Dali, the canvas belonged to his museum, after which it was moved to the Museum of Madrid.
Surreal composition
"Surreal Composition" or The Meat of the Holiday Chicken (1928). In this picture, many connoisseurs and fans of surrealism note the influence of Yves Tanguy, who was characterized by all the same manners of reflecting space and floating figures. Currently, the composition is stored in the museum of the same name of the great surrealist painter, but under a completely different name - "Inagural Goose Skin".
Portrait of Luis Bunuel
"Portrait of Luis Bunuel"(1924). Being at the age of 25, young Dali painted a portrait of a man who had a huge impact on his subsequent life. The young creator took part in several Buñuel films, including The Golden Age and Andalusian Dog. On the canvas, the painter portrayed his friend as a thoughtful and very serious person. It is easy to see that the picture itself is made in a gloomy tone, which the artist wanted to emphasize Louis's look, filled with deep thoughts. For a long time, the painting was owned directly by the person depicted in the portrait. Now the work is stored in the Reina Sofia Art Center, which is located in the capital of Spain.
Landscape near Figueres
"Landscape near Figueres"(1910). The painting belongs to one of the early works famous artist, an adherent of the direction of surrealism. This canvas was created by Dali as a child, at that time he was only 6 years old. The work is done with oil paints. The picture clearly shows the features of impressionism - a trend popular at that time among creative personalities. The painter will create such canvases in this direction until the 20s, after which he will move on to cubism and surrealism. Currently this canvas is in the private collection of one of Dali's admirers.
Atomic Leda(1949). At this time, the Spanish painter lived in California. The first sketches appeared 4 years before the painting was completed. On the canvas, the master of the pen depicted the ruler of Sparta and Zeus. In the work, all objects are depicted in weightlessness and do not touch each other, from which the first word in the name “atomic” appeared. By tradition, Leda is depicted in a nude image in the form of the artist's wife, Gala. Zeus in the picture is represented in the form of a swan. In the background you can see the rocky coast of the Costa Brava. The original is currently kept in the Salvador Dali Museum.
Salvador Domenech Felipe Jacinth Dali and Domenech, Marquis de Pubol (1904 - 1989) - Spanish painter, graphic artist, sculptor, director, writer. One of the most well-known representatives surrealism.
BIOGRAPHY OF SALVADOR DALI
Salvador Dali was born in the town of Figueres in Catalonia, the son of a lawyer. His creative abilities were already evident in early childhood. At the age of seventeen, he was admitted to the Madrid Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where fate happily brought him together with G. Lorca, L. Bunuel, R. Alberti. Studying at the academy, Dali enthusiastically and obsessively studies the works of old masters, the masterpieces of Velasquez, Zurbaran, El Greco, Goya. He is influenced by the cubist paintings of H. Gris, metaphysical painting Italians, is seriously interested in the legacy of I. Bosch.
Studying at the Madrid Academy from 1921 to 1925 was for the artist a time of stubborn comprehension professional culture, the beginning of a creative understanding of the traditions of the masters of past eras and the discoveries of their older contemporaries.
During his first trip to Paris in 1926, he met P. Picasso. Impressed by the meeting that changed the direction of the search for one's own artistic language, corresponding to his worldview, Dali creates his first surrealistic work “The Splendor of the Hand”. However, Paris inexorably attracts him, and in 1929 he makes a second trip to France. There he enters the circle of Parisian surrealists, gets the opportunity to see their solo exhibitions.
At the same time, together with Bunuel Dali, he makes two films that have already become classics - “Andalusian Dog” and “Golden Age”. His role in the creation of these works is not the main one, but he is always mentioned second, as a screenwriter and at the same time an actor.
In October 1929 he marries Gala. Russian by origin, the aristocrat Elena Dmitrievna Dyakonova occupied an important place in the life and work of the artist. Gal's appearance gave him art new meaning. In the book of the master “Dali according to Dali”, he gives the following periodization of his work: “Dali - Planetary, Dali - Molecular, Dali - Monarchic, Dali - Hallucinogenic, Dali - Future”! Of course, it is difficult to fit into such a narrow framework the work of this great improviser and mystifier. He himself admitted: “I don’t know when I start pretending or telling the truth.”
THE CREATIVITY OF SALVADOR DALI
Around 1923, Dali began his experiments with Cubism, often even locking himself in his room to paint. In 1925, Dali painted another painting in the style of Picasso: Venus and the Sailor. She was among the seventeen paintings exhibited at the first personal exhibition Dali. The second exhibition of Dali's work, held in Barcelona at the Delmo Gallery at the end of 1926, was met with even more enthusiasm than the first.
Venus and the Sailor The Great Masturbator Metamorphoses of Narcissus The Riddle of William Tell
In 1929, Dali painted The Great Masturbator, one of the most significant works of that period. It depicts a large, wax-like head with dark red cheeks and half-closed eyes with very long eyelashes. A huge nose rests on the ground, and instead of a mouth, a rotting grasshopper with ants crawling over it is drawn. Similar themes were characteristic of Dali's works of the 30s: he had an unusual weakness for the images of grasshoppers, ants, telephones, keys, crutches, bread, hair. Dali himself called his technique a manual photograph of concrete irrationality. It was based, as he said, on associations and interpretations of unrelated phenomena. Surprisingly, the artist himself noted that he did not understand all of his images. Although Dali's work was well received by critics who predicted a great future for him, the success did not bring immediate benefits. And Dali traveled the streets of Paris for days on end in a vain search for buyers for his original images. They, for example, were women's shoes with large steel springs, glasses with glasses the size of a fingernail, and even gypsum head roaring lion with fried chips.
In 1930, Dali's paintings began to bring him fame. Freud's work influenced his work. In his paintings, he reflected the sexual experiences of a person, as well as destruction, death. His masterpieces such as Soft the Clock and Persistence of Memory were created. Dali also creates numerous models from various objects.
Between 1936 and 1937, Dali worked on one of his most famous paintings, Metamorphoses of Narcissus, and a book of the same name immediately appeared. In 1953, a large-scale exhibition was held in Rome. He exhibits 24 paintings, 27 drawings, 102 watercolors.
Meanwhile, in 1959, since his father no longer wanted to let Dali in, he and Gala settled down to live in Port Lligat. Dali's paintings were already very popular, sold for a lot of money, and he himself was famous. He often communicates with William Tell. Under impressions, he creates such works as "The Riddle of William Tell" and "William Tell".
In 1973, the "Dalí Museum" opens in Figueres, incredible in its content. Until now, he is amazed by the audience with his surreal appearance.
The last work "Dovetail" was completed in 1983.
Salvador Dali often resorted to sleep with a key in his hand. Sitting on a chair, he fell asleep with a heavy key between his fingers. Gradually, the grip weakened, the key fell and hit a plate lying on the floor. The thoughts that arose during the nap could be new ideas or solutions to complex problems.
In 1961, Salvador Dali drew for Enrique Bernat, the founder of the Spanish lollipop company, the Chupa Chups logo, which, in a slightly modified form, is now recognizable in all corners of the planet.
In 2003, the Walt Disney Company released the animated film Destino, which Salvador Dal and Walt Disney began to draw back in 1945, the picture lay in the archive for 58 years.
A crater on Mercury is named after Salvador Dali.
The great artist, during his lifetime, bequeathed to bury him so that people could walk on the grave, so his body was immured in the wall in the Dali Museum in Figueres. Flash photography is not allowed in this room.
Arriving in New York in 1934, he carried a 2-meter-long loaf of bread in his hands as an accessory, and while visiting an exhibition of surrealist art in London, he dressed in a diving suit.
At various times, Dali declared himself either a monarchist, or an anarchist, or a communist, or an adherent of authoritarian power, or he refused to associate himself with any political movement. After World War II and returning to Catalonia, Salvador supported Franco's authoritarian regime and even painted a portrait of his granddaughter.
Dali sent a telegram to the Romanian leader Nicolas Ceausescu, written in the manner characteristic of the artist: in words he supported the communist, and caustic irony was read between the lines. Not noticing the catch, the telegram was published in the daily newspaper Scînteia.
The now famous singer Cher (Cher) and her husband Sonny Bono, while still young, attended the party of Salvador Dali, which he tripled at the New York Plaza Hotel. There, Cher accidentally sat on a strangely shaped sex toy placed on her chair by the host of the event.
In 2008, the film Echoes of the Past was filmed about El Salvador. The role of Dali was played by Robert Pattinson. For some time, Dali worked together with Alfred Hitchcock.
In his lifetime, Dali himself completed only one film, Impressions of Upper Mongolia (1975), in which he told the story of an expedition that went in search of huge hallucinogenic mushrooms. The video sequence of "Impressions of Upper Mongolia" is largely based on enlarged microscopic spots of uric acid on a brass strip. As you can guess, the "author" of these stains was the maestro. For several weeks he "painted" them on a piece of brass.
Together with Christian Dior in 1950, Dali created a "suit for 2045".
The canvas “The Persistence of Memory” (“Soft Clock”) Dali wrote under the impression of Einstein's theory of relativity. The idea in El Salvador's mind took shape as he looked at a piece of Camabert cheese one hot August day.
For the first time, the image of an elephant appears on the canvas "A dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening." In addition to elephants, Dali often used images of other representatives of the animal kingdom in his paintings: ants (symbolized death, decay and, at the same time, great sexual desire), he associated a snail with a human head (see portraits of Sigmund Freud), locusts in his work is associated with waste and a sense of fear.
Eggs in Dali's paintings symbolize prenatal, intrauterine development, if you look deeper - we are talking about hope and love.
On December 7, 1959, the presentation of the ovocypede (ovocypede) took place in Paris: a device that was invented by Salvador Dali and brought to life by the engineer Laparra. Ovosiped - a transparent ball with a seat fixed inside for one person. This "transport" was one of the devices that Dali successfully used to shock the public with his appearance.
QUOTATIONS DALY
Art is a terrible disease, but it is still impossible to live without it.
With art I straighten myself and infect normal people.
The artist is not the one who is inspired, but the one who inspires.
Painting and Dali are not the same thing, as an artist I do not overestimate myself. It's just that others are so bad that I turned out better.
I saw - and sunk into the soul, and through the brush spilled onto the canvas. This is painting. And the same is love.
For the artist, every touch of the brush on the canvas is a whole life drama.
My painting is life and food, flesh and blood. Don't look for intelligence or feelings in it.
Through the centuries, Leonardo da Vinci and I extend our hands to each other.
I think that now we have the Middle Ages, but someday the Renaissance will come.
I am decadent. In art, I'm something like Camembert cheese: just a little overdose, and that's it. I - the last echo of antiquity - stand on the very edge.
Landscape is a state of mind.
Painting is a color photograph made by hand of all possible, ultra-refined, unusual, super-aesthetic samples of concrete irrationality.
My painting is life and food, flesh and blood. Don't look for intelligence or feelings in it.
A work of art does not arouse any feelings in me. Looking at a masterpiece, I am ecstatic about what I can learn. It doesn't even occur to me to spread in tenderness.
The artist thinks with a drawing.
It is good taste that is fruitless - for an artist there is nothing more harmful than good taste. Take the French - because of good taste, they are completely lazy.
Do not try to cover up your mediocrity with a deliberately careless painting - it will reveal itself in the very first stroke.
First, learn to draw and write like the old masters, and only then act on your own - and you will be respected.
Surrealism is not a party, not a label, but a unique state of mind, not bound by slogans or morality. Surrealism is the complete freedom of a human being and his right to dream. I'm not a surrealist, I'm a surrealist.
I - the highest embodiment of surrealism - follow the tradition of the Spanish mystics.
The difference between the surrealists and me is that the surrealist is me.
I'm not a surrealist, I'm a surrealist.
BIOGRAPHY AND FILMOGRAPHY OF SALVADOR DALI
Literature
"The Secret Life of Salvador Dali as Told by Himself" (1942)
"Diary of a Genius" (1952-1963)
Oui: The Paranoid-Critical Revolution (1927-33)
"The Tragic Myth of Angelus Millais"
Film work
"Andalusian dog"
"Golden age"
"Spellbound"
"Impressions of Upper Mongolia"
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Salvador Dali, without exaggeration, can be called the most famous surrealist of the 20th century, because his name is familiar even to those who are completely far from painting. Some people consider him greatest genius, others are insane. But both the first and the second unconditionally recognize the unique talent of the artist. His paintings are an irrational combination of real objects deformed in a paradoxical way. Dali was a hero of his time: the master's work was discussed both in the highest circles of society and in the proletarian environment. He became a real embodiment of surrealism with the inherent freedom of spirit, inconsistency and outrageousness inherent in this trend of painting. Today, anyone who wants to have access to masterpieces, the author of which is Salvador Dali. The paintings, photos of which can be seen in this article, can impress every fan of surrealism.
The role of Gala in the work of Dali
Huge creative legacy left behind by Salvador Dali. Paintings with titles that evoke mixed feelings among many today attract art lovers so much that they deserve detailed consideration and description. The inspiration, model, support and main admirer of the artist was his wife Gala (an emigrant from Russia). All of his most famous canvases were painted during the period life together with this woman.
The Hidden Meaning of "The Persistence of Memory"
Considering Salvador Dali, it is worth starting with his most recognizable work - "The Persistence of Memory" (sometimes called "Time"). The canvas was created in 1931. The artist was inspired to write a masterpiece by his wife Gala. According to Dali himself, the idea for the painting arose from the sight of a melting under the sun's rays. What did the master want to say by depicting on canvas soft watch against a landscape?
Three soft dials adorning the foreground of the picture are identified with subjective time, which flows freely and unevenly fills all the free space. The number of hours is also symbolic, because the number 3 on this canvas testifies to the past, present and future. The soft state of objects indicates the relationship between space and time, which has always been obvious to the artist. There is also a solid clock in the picture, depicted with the dial down. They symbolize objective time, the course of which goes against humanity.
Salvador Dali also depicted his self-portrait on this canvas. The painting "Time" contains in the foreground an incomprehensible spread object, framed by eyelashes. It was in this image that the author painted himself sleeping. In a dream, a person releases his thoughts, which in the waking state he carefully hides from others. Everything that can be seen in the picture is Dali's dream - the result of the triumph of the unconscious and the death of reality.
Ants crawling over the case of a solid watch symbolize decay, decay. In the picture, insects line up in the form of a dial with arrows and indicate that objective time destroys itself. A fly sitting on a soft watch was a symbol of inspiration for the painter. Ancient Greek philosophers spent a lot of time surrounded by these "Mediterranean fairies" (that's what Dali called the flies). The mirror seen in the picture on the left is evidence of the inconstancy of time, it reflects both objective and subjective worlds. The egg in the background symbolizes life, the dry olive symbolizes forgotten ancient wisdom, and eternity.
"Giraffe on fire": interpretation of images
By studying the paintings of Salvador Dali with a description, you can study the artist’s work in depth, better understand the subtext of his paintings. In 1937, the work "Giraffe on Fire" came out from under the painter's brush. It was a difficult period for Spain, as it began a little earlier. In addition, Europe was on the verge of World War II, and Salvador Dali, like many progressive people that time, felt its approach. Despite the fact that the master claimed that his “Giraffe on Fire” had nothing to do with political events shaking the continent, the picture is thoroughly saturated with horror and anxiety.
In the foreground, Dali painted a woman standing in a pose of despair. Her hands and face are bloodied, it seems that they have been torn off the skin. The woman looks helpless, unable to resist the impending danger. Behind her is a lady with a piece of meat in her hands (it is a symbol of self-destruction and death). Both figures stand on the ground thanks to thin props. Dali often depicted them in his works to emphasize the weakness of a person. The giraffe, after which the painting is named, is drawn in the background. He is much fewer women, the upper part of his torso is engulfed in fire. Despite his small size, he is the main character of the canvas, embodying the monster that brings the apocalypse.
Analysis of "Premonitions of the Civil War"
Not only in this work did Salvador Dali express his foreboding of the war. Pictures with names indicating its approach appeared with the artist more than once. A year before "Giraffe" the artist painted "Soft construction with boiled beans" (otherwise it is called "Premonition of Civil War"). The structure of the parts of the human body, depicted in the center of the canvas, resembles the outlines of Spain on the map. The construction on top is too bulky, it hangs over the ground and can collapse at any moment. Beans are scattered below the building, which look completely out of place here, which only emphasizes the absurdity of the political events taking place in Spain in the second half of the 30s.
Description of "Faces of War"
"The Face of War" is another work left by the surrealist to his fans. The painting dates from 1940 - the time when Europe was engulfed in hostilities. The canvas depicts a human head with a face frozen in agony. She is surrounded on all sides by snakes, instead of eyes and mouth she has countless skulls. It seems that the head is literally crammed with death. The picture symbolizes the concentration camps that took the lives of millions of people.
Interpretation of "Sleep"
The Dream is a 1937 painting by Salvador Dali. It depicts a huge sleeping head, supported by eleven thin props (exactly the same as the women in the canvas "Giraffe on Fire"). Crutches are everywhere, they support the eyes, forehead, nose, lips. The body of a person is absent, but there is an unnaturally stretched back thin neck. The head represents sleep, and the crutches indicate support. As soon as each part of the face finds its support, a person will collapse into the world of dreams. Support isn't just for people. If you look closely, in the left corner of the canvas you can see a small dog, whose body also rests on a crutch. Supports can also be considered as threads that allow the head to float freely during sleep, but do not allow it to completely come off the ground. The blue background of the canvas further emphasizes the detachment of what is happening on it from the rational world. The artist was sure that this is what a dream looks like. The painting by Salvador Dali was included in the cycle of his works "Paranoia and War".
Images of Gala
Salvador Dali also painted his beloved wife. Pictures with the names "Angelus Gala", "Madonna of Port-Ligata" and many others directly or indirectly indicate the presence of Dyakonova in the plots of the genius' works. For example, in "Galatea with Spheres" (1952), he depicted his life partner as a divine woman, whose face is visible through a large number of balls. The wife of a genius hovers over the real world in the upper etheric layers. Became his muse main character such paintings as "Galarina", where she is depicted with a bare left breast, "Atomic Leda", in which Dali presented his naked wife as the ruler of Sparta. Almost all the female images present on the canvases were inspired by the painter's faithful wife.
The impression of the painter's work
Photos depicting paintings by Salvador Dali, high resolution allow you to explore his work the smallest details. The artist has lived long life and left behind hundreds of works. Each one is unique and incomparable. inner world, displayed by a genius named Salvador Dali. Pictures with names known to everyone since childhood can inspire, cause delight, bewilderment or even disgust, but not a single person will remain indifferent after viewing them.
The great and extraordinary man Salvador Dali was born in Spain in the city of Figueres in 1904 on May 11th. His parents were very different. Mother believed in God, and father, on the contrary, was an atheist. Salvador Dali's father was also called Salvador. Many believe that Dali was named after his father, but this is not entirely true. Although the father and son had the same names, the younger Salvador Dali was named in memory of his brother, who died before he was two years old. This worried the future artist, as he felt like a double, some kind of echo of the past. Salvador had a sister who was born in 1908.
Childhood of Salvador Dali
Dali studied very poorly, was spoiled and restless, although he had the ability to draw in childhood. The first teacher of El Salvador was Ramon Pichot. Already at the age of 14, his paintings were at an exhibition in Figueres. In 1921, Salvador Dali left for Madrid and entered the Academy there. fine arts. He did not like teaching. He believed that he himself could teach his teachers the art of drawing. He stayed in Madrid only because he was interested in communicating with his comrades. There he met Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñuel.
Studying at the Academy
In 1924, Dali was expelled from the academy for misbehavior. Returning there a year later, he was expelled again in 1926 without the right to reinstatement. The incident that led to this situation was simply amazing. At one of the exams, the professor asked the academy to name 3 of the greatest artists in the world. Dali replied that he would not answer such questions, because not a single teacher from the academy had the right to be his judge. Dali was too contemptuous of teachers. And by this time, Salvador Dali already had his own exhibition, which Pablo Picasso himself visited. This was the catalyst for introducing the artists. Salvador Dali's close relationship with Buñuel resulted in a film called Andalusian Dog, which had a surrealist twist. In 1929, Dali officially became a surrealist.
How Dali found his muse
In 1929, Dali found his muse. She became Gala Eluard. It is she who is depicted in many paintings by Salvador Dali. A serious passion arose between them, and Gala left her husband to be with Dali. At the time of meeting his beloved, Dali lived in Cadaques, where he bought himself a hut without any special amenities. Not without the help of Gala Dali, they managed to organize several excellent exhibitions that were in cities such as Barcelona, London, New York. In 1936, a very tragicomic moment happened. At one of his exhibitions in London, Dali decided to give a lecture in a diving suit. Soon he began to choke. Actively gesturing with his hands, he asked to take off his helmet. The public took it as a joke, and everything worked out. By 1937, when Dali had already visited Italy, the style of his work had changed significantly. Too strongly influenced by the work of the masters of the Renaissance. Dali was expelled from the surrealist society.
During the Second World War, Dali went to the United States, where he was recognizable, and quickly achieved success. In 1941, the US Museum of Modern Art opened its doors for his personal exhibition. Having written his autobiography in 1942, Dali felt that he was really famous, as the book sold out very quickly. In 1946, Dali collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock. Of course, depending on the success of your former comrade Andre Breton could not miss the chance to write an article in which he humiliated Dali - "Salvador Dali - Avida Dollars" ("Rowing dollars"). In 1948, Salvador Dali returned to Europe and settled in Port Lligate, leaving from there to Paris, then back to New York.
Dali was very famous person. He did almost everything and was successful. All his exhibitions cannot be counted, but the exhibition at the Tate Gallery was most memorable, which was visited by about 250 million people, which cannot but impress. Salvador Dali died in 1989 on January 23 after the death of Gala, who died in 1982.
Creation
It is difficult to find a personality more controversial among artists. Judgments, actions, paintings by Salvador Dali, everything had a slight touch of insane surrealism. This man was not just a surrealist artist, he himself was the embodiment of surrealism.
However, Dali did not come to surrealism immediately. The work of Salvador Dali began, first of all, with the study of the techniques of classical academic painting. Dali also tried himself in cubism, he treated the canvases of Pablo Picasso with the greatest reverence. As a consequence, elements of cubism can be traced in some of his surrealist works. The work of Salvador Dali was also greatly influenced by the painting of the Renaissance. He said many times that modern artists are nothing compared to the titans of the past (however, who would doubt it). But when he began to write in the style of surrealism, he became his love almost until the end of his life. Only at the end of his life did Dali move away from surrealism and return to more realistic painting.
Salvador Dali can be safely attributed to the classics of surrealism. Moreover, Dali's expression "surrealism is me" in modern world become true in the eyes of millions. Ask any person on the street who they associate with the word surrealism - almost anyone will answer without hesitation: Salvador Dali!
His name is familiar even to those who do not fully understand the meaning and philosophy of surrealism, even to those who are not interested in painting. Salvador Dali had a rare ability to shock others, he was the hero of the lion's share of secular conversations of his era, everyone spoke about him, from the bourgeois to the proletariat. He was perhaps the best actor among artists, and if the word PR existed then, then Dali could safely be called a PR genius, both black and white. However, it is foolish to talk about what Dali was like, if you really want to understand it - just take a look at his paintings, which are the embodiment of his extravagant personality; genius, weird, crazy and beautiful.
Nuclear mysticism
After World War II, humanity entered a new phase of existence. One of the most damaging and at the same time stimulating factors was the use of the United States nuclear bomb when the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed on August 6 and 9, 1945. Of course, from a moral and ethical point of view, this event was a shame for the civilized world, but there was another side - the transition to a fundamentally new level of scientific and technical thought. At the same time, more pronounced religious motives in Western European and American life.
Especially deeply new trends have penetrated into the environment creative elite and intelligentsia. One of the most sensitive tragic events creators was Salvador Dali. Due to his psycho-emotional features, he rather sharply perceived this universal human catastrophe and, against the background of the specifics of his art, developed his own artistic manifesto. This marked a new period in his life and work, which lasted from 1949 to 1966, called "nuclear mysticism".
The first signs of "nuclear mysticism" appeared in the work "Atomic Leda", where he spoke in synthesis with ancient mythology. So, after arriving from America for Dali, the theme of Christianity became the main one. Probably the first in the series of works can be considered the Madonna of Port Lligata written in 1949. In it, he tried to approach the aesthetic criteria of the Renaissance. In November of the same year, he made a visit to Rome, where, at an audience with Pope Pius XII, he presented his canvas to the pontiff. According to eyewitnesses, the Pope was not too impressed by the similarity of the Mother of God with Gala, because the church at that time headed for renewal.
After that significant event Dali came up with the idea of a new painting - "Christ San Juan de la Cruz", for the creation of which he took as a basis the drawing of the Crucifixion, the creation of which was attributed to the saint himself. On big picture Jesus was depicted over the bay of Port Lligata, the view of which was opened from the terrace of the artist's house. Later, this landscape was repeatedly repeated in the paintings of Dali in the 50s. And already in April 1951, Dali published the Mystical Manifesto, in which he proclaimed the principle of paranoid-critical mysticism. El Salvador was absolutely convinced of the decline of modern art, which, in his opinion, was due to skepticism and a lack of faith. Paranoid-critical mysticism itself, according to the master, was based on amazing successes modern science and the "metaphysical spirituality" of quantum mechanics.
With the help of his paintings, Dali tried to show the presence of a Christian and mystical beginning in the atom. He considered the world of physics to be more transcendent than psychology, and quantum physics greatest discovery XX century. In general, the period of the 50s became for the artist a period of intellectual and spiritual search, which gave him the opportunity to combine two opposite principles - science and religion.
Paintings by Salvador Dali
The paintings of Salvador Dali are one of the brightest examples of the embodiment of the manifesto of surrealism, the very freedom of the spirit, bordering on madness. Uncertainty, chaotic forms, the connection of reality with dreams, the connection of thoughtful images with delusional ideas from the very depths of the subconscious, the combination of the impossible with the possible, this is what Salvador Dali's paintings are. And with all this, with all the enormity of the work of Salvador Dali, it has an inexplicable appeal, even the emotions that arise when viewing paintings by Salvador Dali, it would seem that they simply cannot exist together. It's scary to even think what can go on in the head of a person capable of painting such canvases. One thing is clear - what was not there was the dullness of monotonous everyday life.
But already too much crap has been written, painting speaks better than any words. Enjoy.
"Atomic Leda"
Today, the painting "Atomic Leda" can be seen at the Salvador Dali Theater Museum in Figueres. The author of the canvas, as strange as it sounds, was inspired to write the discovery of the atom and reset atomic bombs on Japanese islands in 1945. The terrifying destructive power of the atom did not frighten the artist at all. Information about elementary particles, never touching each other and, along with this, forming the surrounding reality and objects around, became a new source of the master's creativity and the key plots of the paintings. Moreover, Dali, who did not tolerate any kind of touch, saw in the principle of the structure of the world a special symbolism for himself.
Atomic Leda was written in 1949. At the heart of the picture ancient greek myth about Leda - the ruler of Sparta and Zeus - the god of all the gods of Olympus, who fell in love with the queen and appeared to her in the guise of a swan. After that, the queen laid an egg, from which three children hatched - Helen of Troy and the twin brothers Castor and Pollux. With Castor, the master identified his older brother, who died before his birth.
Two more important objects in the picture are the square and the book. A square and a ruler, in the form of a shadow, are essential tools used in geometry. They also indicate a mathematical calculation, and in the sketches of the artist, the proportions of the pentagram, called the "golden section", can be traced. In these calculations, Dali was assisted by the famous Romanian mathematician - Matila Ghica. The book, according to many assumptions, is a bible and an indication of the artist's return to the Catholic Church.
The background of the picture is the land and the sea, like all parts of the picture, not in contact with each other. Salvador Dali interpreted this moment using the example of one of the sketches, explaining that in this way he sees the projection into reality of the origin of the “divine and animal”. The rocks on the sides of the picture are part of the Catalan coast, where the artist was born and raised. It is known that when Dali worked on the canvas, he was in California, so the longing for his native landscapes splashed out in the pictures of the creator.
"The Face of War"
Salvador Dali could not see how the Nazi troops break into his native France. He left for the USA with his wife, leaving his favorite places, realizing with pain and bitterness that everything would be destroyed and broken.
The horror of war, fear, bloodshed overwhelmed the mind of the artist. Everything that was sweet and dear for many years was trampled, burned and torn to pieces in an instant. It seemed that all dreams, all plans were buried alive under the fascist boot.
In the USA, Dali was waiting for success, recognition, his life there was very happy and eventful, but then, when the artist was sailing on the ship, leaving France, he did not know this yet. Each of his nerves was taut, like a string, emotions demanded an outlet, and, right there, on the steamer, Dali proceeded to his painting “The Face of War” (1940).
This time he deviated from his usual manner, the picture was written extremely simply and intelligibly. She screamed, she burst into consciousness, she fettered with horror all who contemplated her. Eye sockets and twisted mouth repeat this nightmare many times. Skulls, skulls, skulls, and even inhuman horror - that's all that war brings to everyone who gets in its way. Next to the war there is no life, and in itself it is nightmarish and dead.
Numerous snakes are born from the head and eat it. They look more like vile worms, but their mouths are open and it seems that even now their evil hiss is heard. The viewer of the picture is not an outside observer, he seems to be here, only looking at the nightmarish face from the cave. This feeling is reinforced by the trace of the hand in the corner of the picture.
Dali, as if, wants to call for reason - now, when you are under cover, in a cave, think about whether it is worth going to where there is only a lifeless mask of death, is it worth starting wars that devour their own starters, who bring endless suffering and are doomed to terrible death.
"A dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate"
The famous masterpiece of the outrageous surrealist Dali, created in 1944 and inspired by Freudian psychoanalysis, can be briefly called "Dream". Thus, Freud's large-scale work on the theory of dreams proved to be useful not only in the field of scientific psychology and psychiatry, but also served as the brightest inspiration for adherents of surrealism. It must be said that the psychoanalyst himself did not recognize this work, but one cannot deny the uniqueness of these paintings and the presence of many fans of such art.
Dreams can last for seconds, while creating the impression of a holistic performance in the arena of the unconscious. Freudianism insists on the possibility of external stimuli "penetrating" into a dream, while transforming into various symbolic images. So, on the canvas of Salvador Dali, a naked model (Gala's wife) and a small pomegranate with a bee soaring above it are in focus. These are real world objects. The other drawings of the composition are the product of sleep. The boundless sea personifies the unconscious of a person full of deep secrets. Bernini's ghostly elephant on "stilts" conveys the unsteadiness and instability of a sleepy state. A fruit with scarlet berries in a dream becomes enlarged.
The woman's body floats above the rocky plane, which conveys to the audience the possibility of the impossible, familiar in dreams. A little more, and Gala will wake up ... Before us is a blurred moment before her departure to the conscious world from the abysses of the unconscious. Now residents and tourists of Madrid have the opportunity to admire the canvas with their own eyes. The rest of art lovers know the work from the pages of the worldwide network and reproductions.
"Galatea of the Spheres"
All Dali paintings are distinguished by their unusual appeal. I want to carefully consider every corner, so as not to miss a single detail. So it is in his famous and great Galatea of the spheres. Looking at her, one wonders: how did the artist manage to depict a face so skillfully through a combination of spheres? One can only marvel at the perfection and harmony of their fusion. Only a true master can do such a masterpiece.
Salvador Dali painted his picture back in 1952 during the period of nuclear-mystical creativity. At that time, the artist studied various sciences and came across the theory of atoms. This theory impressed Dali so much that he began to write new picture. He depicts the face of his wife from many small spheres of atoms, merging into a single whole corridor. The symmetry of these circles forms a powerful perspective and gives the picture a three-dimensional appearance.
The lips of Galatea are the shadow of a row of balls. The eyes are like two separate small planets. The outlines of the nose, the oval of the face, the ears, the hair seem to break these spheres into separate atoms. Color combinations and contrasts make them appear voluminous, bulging and embossed. As if Galatea is a transparent shell, consisting of color contrasts of many small ideal spheres.
Only some of its elements reflecting the face of Gala, her hair, lips, body are painted in natural colors. The whole composition as a whole fascinates, bewitches the viewer. It gives the impression of moving circles. It is as if Galatea is spinning with the help of each individual living atom.
"Great Masturbator"
The painting, written in 1929 in the style of surrealism, in this moment exhibited at the Reina Sofia Art Center in Madrid (Spain). In the center of the picture is a deformed human face looking down. A similar profile is also depicted in Dali's more famous painting The Persistence of Memory (1931). A naked female figure rises from the lower part of the head, reminiscent of the muse of the artist Gala. The woman's mouth reaches out to the male genitals hidden under light clothing, hinting at the upcoming fellatio. The male figure is depicted only from the waist to the knees with fresh bleeding cuts.
Under human face, on his mouth, sits a locust - an insect in front of which the artist experienced an irrational fear. Along the belly of the locust and central figure ants are crawling - a popular motif in Dali's works - a symbol of corruption. Under the locust, a pair of figures is depicted, casting one common shadow. In the lower left corner of the picture, a lone figure hurriedly retires into the distance. In addition, the canvas also contains an egg (a symbol of fertility), a pile of stones and (under the woman's face) a calla flower with a phallic pestle.
The "Great Masturbator" is of great importance for the study of the personality of the artist, as it was inspired by his subconscious. The painting reflects Dali's controversial attitude towards sex. In his childhood, Dali's father left a book on the piano with photographs of genitals affected by venereal diseases, which led to the association of sex with decay and averted young Dali from sexual relations for a long time.
"Portrait of Luis Bunuel"
This picture was painted in 1924. It was originally in the collection of Luis Buñuel. It is currently located at the Reina Sofia Art Center in Madrid. Dali met Luis Buñuel at the Royal Academy of Arts in Madrid during his studies in 1922-1926. Buñuel was one of those who greatly influenced El Salvador. Later, Dali took part in the filming of two films by Buñuel: Andalusian Dog (1929) and The Golden Age (1930).
The portrait of Luis Bunuel was painted when the future director was 25 years old. He is depicted as a serious and thoughtful person with a fixed gaze, looking away from the artist and the audience. The picture is made in gloomy colors. Restrained colors create an atmosphere of seriousness and emphasize a thoughtful look.
A remarkable unity has been achieved in this masterpiece by Dali. active form and concentrated psychological characteristics. A superbly painted face is instantly recognizable, just as the features of Dali's individual style gaining maturity, the artist's ability for strict self-control when choosing pictorial means are immediately "grabbed".
"Melancholy"
Salvador Dali was a genius (perhaps a little crazy, but this is generally characteristic of geniuses who were ahead of their time) - even those in whose hearts his paintings do not find a response agree with this.
After all, these paintings, even more than any other art, must be understood with the heart, the center of the soul, which hurts, pulls, knocks and beats. After all, even having understood with the brain that the artist meant this, achieved this and generally protested against the Second World War and discrimination, for example, blacks, it will not work to fall in love with the paintings. They need to be felt. Feel the freedom beating in them - they are boundless, despite the fact that they are limited by the narrow space of the canvas.
So "Melancholia" is full of desert that stretches from end to end. The mountains on the horizon do not limit it, on the contrary, they seem to help to grow even more, to expand even more. Clouds twisting into strange shapes expand the sky. Faceless cupid angels are hooligans, one of them plays the lyre. The table, with carved posts, like a bed, looks almost ridiculous in the desert, and tramples all the laws of human perception. A man with an empty face looks into the distance bored and silent.
The whole picture resonates in the soul - melancholy, the wind in the desert, the chiming of the strings on the lute - but does not resonate in the brain, because the brain cannot feel it, for this there is a heart.
"Geopolitical Baby Watching the Birth of a New Man"
The difficult period of the Second World War, the artist spent in America. His beloved Spain was in the very center of bloody events, and, of course, worries about the fate of mankind resonated in the soul of a genius. The picture was painted in 1943, at the height of hostilities in Europe. In the center is a huge egg symbolizing the planet. A crack passes through it and a hand can be seen firmly clinging to the shell. The outlines inside, they say what kind of torment, experiencing New person, and a drop of blood falls on a white cloth spread under the planet. In the right corner stands a woman with her hair blowing in the wind and bare breasts, pointing out to the baby, hugging her knees, the complex action of the birth of a new consciousness of humanity. The universe is depicted as a desert, where lonely silhouettes are visible. Written in yellow-brown tones, symbolizing the sick state the world is in.
"The Persistence of Memory"
The inspiration for one of the best works of Salvador Dali was piece of Camembert cheese. A deserted beach with a quiet expanse of water has become unconscious of a person. On the bough of a broken tree hang a molten clock that mimics the shape of cheese. In the center lies a bizarre creature in which you can see closed eyelids with long eyelashes, which also has a soft clock. A kind of idea of time, which slowly flows into the safe haven of human consciousness.
"Invisible Man"
At the heart of the human shape, which is lost in his fantasies and imagination. The author has created a work of striking depth, the boundaries are blurred, and the space becomes cosmically infinite. The same feeling is transmitted due to the connection of time periods in the history of mankind. Antiquity and the Middle Ages remained by means of columns and architecture, modernity is represented by clear forms of cubism. The picture contains many images understandable only to the artist. In The Invisible Man, Salvador Dali's fascination with Freud's theories is visible.
"Crucifixion"
On the chessboard in the left corner is a woman in Renaissance clothes, in front of the sea surface of the water. The gaze of the woman, in whom the artist's wife is recognizable, is directed upwards, where Jesus Christ is crucified. The face is not visible, the head is thrown back, the body is stretched out like a string, the fingers are bent in a painful spasm. geometric shapes the cube and the perfection of the young body merge and at the same time become antipodes. The cold surface of the crucifixion is human indifference and cruelty, on which love and kindness die.
Activities outside of painting
- In addition to painting, Dali's ebullient nature also found its expression in other areas of art: sculpture, photography, and cinema, which at the beginning of the 20th century was considered the most magical and promising of the arts.
- Dali visits America, where he meets and befriends the famous cartoonist Walt Disney and even draws a little for cartoons.
- Willingly removed in advertising, however commercials with his participation come out too eccentric and outrageous. A chocolate ad will be remembered for a long time, where Dali bites off a piece of chocolate, after which his mustache curls, and he says in a euphoric voice that he just went crazy from this chocolate.
- The creative heritage of Salvador Dali is simply huge: a bunch of amazing paintings, each of which is worth at least millions of dollars.
- The artist died in 1989, but his paintings will live forever, surprising us and more than one generation of our descendants with their mysterious, crazy, eccentric beauty and genius.
