 |
| Salvador Dalí |
Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904 in a small town in
Barcelona, Spain known as Figueras. Dalí’s childhood was filled with private
education and fits of megalomania. In fact, Dalí’s power-fuelled and
extraordinarily violent infancy is now considered to be one of his primary inspirations.
By being hypersensitive to his surroundings during his formative years, Dalí learned
to transform the extremities—his terrors, his ecstasies, his world—into art. His Spanish heritage has also informed many of
his pieces. Oftentimes, the rocky ravines of Catalan country and the sandy gulf
of Rosas find their way into the background of Dalí’s paintings. Another
influential aspect of Dalí’s childhood was the death of his older brother,
another Salvador Dalí. At the age of five, Dalí established an internal
dichotomy: he claimed he was the reincarnation of his brother; and with two
Salvador Dalí’s came two, disparate sources of influence. In this way, even at
an early age, Dalí recognized the significant impact that his surroundings would
continue to have on both him and his artwork.
Dalí’s paintings can fit into various stylistic moulds, including
Impressionism, Pointillism, Futurism, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, and predominantly,
Surrealism. Dalí dabbled in each of these various visual styles of art as a
student at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1922. The transition
into this formal artistic education shortly followed the death of his mother, Felipa
Domenech Ferrés. After leaving art school and Madrid, several years passed as Dalí
fine-tuned his ability to put his paranoiac and extreme visions onto the canvas.
Another external influence that held great importance in shaping Dalí’s work was
fellow artist, Giorgio de Chirico. De Chirico made a large surrealist impression
on Dalí as he pioneered the use of cavernous perspective, enigmatic shadows, and
evocative imagery—each of which are now symbols of Dalí. One such painting of Dalí’s
that alludes to de Chirico is his 1927 oil on wood panel painting, Apparatus and Hand.
 |
| Apparatus and Hand Salvador Dalí Oil on Wood 1927 |
In Apparatus and Hand, Dalí’s sharp shadowing mirrors that of de
Chirico. He thoughtfully positions the shadows to the left of their corresponding
objects, and furthermore, the lines with which he creates these shadows are piquantly
acute. Although such avant-garde and phantasmagorical imagery is not all that Dalí
has created as an artist, I have chosen Dalí precisely for his dream-like and mystifying
technique.
As a psychology major, I have taken
a particular interest in Dalí’s musings on Sigmund Freud. As a conducer of
surrealist art, Dalí recognized that not every stroke or choppy procession of objects
was a conscious decision. In fact, Dalí viewed his art as a twofold,
Freudian-like process: an initial outpour of his subconscious followed by subsequent
conscious reasoning and delusions with which to finish the work. Furthermore, Dalí has even claimed that he himself is the
most surprised by what ends up on a canvas, further demonstrating the supposed critical
potency that his subconscious has on his art. Sleep, a piece created by Dalí in 1937 is an oil painting on canvas
that seemingly directly corresponded with his piqued interest in the father of psychoanalysis.
 |
| Sleep Salvador Dalí Oil on Canvas 1937 |
According to Dalí, “in order for
sleep to be possible, a whole system of crutches in psychic equilibrium is
essential. If only one were missing, one would wake and above all the little
boat would disappear immediately” (Barnes, 2009). Dalí’s Sleep is itself a direct manifestation of this concept—a small boat
can be discerned as emerging from the ocean’s horizon and the mountainous face is
held upright, and thus lulled into sleep, by way of strategically placed stilts.
From this, it is clear that Dalí’s Sleep
is influenced by his surroundings and his unconscious ruminations. Moreover, in
accordance with one of Freud’s many theories surrounding sleep, Dalí’s Sleep references the unconscious manifestations
(perhaps unconscious needs or desires) that ultimately float into one’s subconscious
during slumber as if on a tiny, elusive boat, that at any moment, can disappear
with consciousness or wake.
Another one of Dalí’s pieces that
particularly intrigued me and ultimately prompted my decision to choose Dalí
for this project is an oil on canvas painting created in 1944. The piece is named
Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee
and features his primary muse (his wife Gala), arachnid-legged elephants, veracious
cannibalistic tigers, a bursting pomegranate, a miniscule bumble bee, a gun,
and more.
 |
| Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Salvador Dalí Oil on Canvas 1944 |
Dream
Caused by the Flight of a Bee is based on a dream that his wife had one
night of a bee buzzing around a pomegranate fruit. While both the fruit and the
bee make it into Dalí’s work, the primary focus of the image is his wife’s
naked body, the long-legged water-walking elephant, and the fish-tiger compilation.
Like many of Dalí’s surrealist pieces, this painting features impossibly perplexing
elements of reality that when combined, transport the viewer into a dream-like,
fantastical alternate universe. Additionally, I perceived Freudian influences on
this painting as well because each seemingly unconnected element suggests that
the unconscious must be the glue piecing them all together. While I am unable
to make sense of each and every element of this painting (beyond perhaps the
Port Lligart backdrop seemingly stemming from Dalí’s Spanish heritage and his
naked wife as a carnal muse), such inscrutable characteristics is what draws me
to Dalí’s work in the first place. When viewing a Salvador Dalí piece, onlookers
are transported from their immediate reality into a dream-like world, where
reason is optional and possibilities are endless.
Works Cited
Barnes,
Rachel. Salvador Dali. London: Quercus, 2009. Print.
Grenier,
Catherine, and David Radzinowicz. Salvador Dalí: The Making of an Artist.
Paris: Flammarion, 2012. Print.
Soby, James Thrall. Salvador Dali. New York: Museum of Modern Art New York, 1946. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment