This is the second article in the Artist series.
Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon has brought Renaissance art closer to all of us through The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and most recently, Inferno by bringing alive the work of notable painters like Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari, Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo, among others.
Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon has brought Renaissance art closer to all of us through The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and most recently, Inferno by bringing alive the work of notable painters like Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgio Vasari, Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo, among others.
In this series, we continue Dan’s work; and today we talk about: Surrealism and Salvador Dali (shown alongside). A name that commands respect in the world of art and painting. Dali was the pioneer of the surrealist movement – infamous for his eccentricities, and world renowned for his bizarre imagery in paintings that are admired even today. In fact, most people would argue that Dali’s name should be mentioned amongst the ‘greats’ of art. |
Surrealism
Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement that began in the early 1920’s, dedicated to expressing the imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and convention. The aim of Surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and reconcile it with rational life. There was no single style of Surrealist art but two broad types can be seen. These are the early dream-like work of Salvador Dali, and Rene Magritte, and the later free form or automatist work by artist such as Max Ernst and Joan Miro. Surrealist artists used unexpected juxtapositions and illogical scenes which they painted with photographic precision to express their subconscious imagination.
Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement that began in the early 1920’s, dedicated to expressing the imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and convention. The aim of Surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and reconcile it with rational life. There was no single style of Surrealist art but two broad types can be seen. These are the early dream-like work of Salvador Dali, and Rene Magritte, and the later free form or automatist work by artist such as Max Ernst and Joan Miro. Surrealist artists used unexpected juxtapositions and illogical scenes which they painted with photographic precision to express their subconscious imagination.
Story of Dali
Born in the town of Figueres, close to the French border in Catalonia (Northern Spain), Dalí was strongly influenced by incidents from his family life. When he was five, Dalí was taken to his brother's grave and told by his parents that he was his brother's reincarnation, a concept which came to influence a lot of his later works – the most notable of which was 'Portrait of My Dead Brother.' He was encouraged by his parents and sent to an art school in Madrid where he experimented with Impressionism, Futurism and Cubism (articles on these to follow later, feel free to Google them!)
It was in the student’s residence in Madrid that Dali found a lot of the inspiration for his later works. He became close friends with Pepin Bello, Luis Bunuel, and Federico Garcia Lorca – champions of surrealism in various fields such as writing, movies and theatre. Also, around that time, Dali met the prime inspiration for most of his paintings – his future wife Gala.
Famous works
The Persistence of Memory (1931), is perhaps the most recognized Surrealist painting in the world. The interpretation of the melting watches in this painting vary from them being unconscious symbols of the relativity of space and time to them being merely the manifestations of the Surrealist perception of a Camembert cheese melting in the sun. Dalí returned to the theme of this painting with the variation The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) showing this one systematically fragmenting into smaller component elements. This was widely seen to be a mark of the end of his fascination with Surrealism and a symbol of his new-found interest in science, especially in nuclear physics. He called the atom his “favourite food for thought”. This painting was said to be the effect of the bomb blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Born in the town of Figueres, close to the French border in Catalonia (Northern Spain), Dalí was strongly influenced by incidents from his family life. When he was five, Dalí was taken to his brother's grave and told by his parents that he was his brother's reincarnation, a concept which came to influence a lot of his later works – the most notable of which was 'Portrait of My Dead Brother.' He was encouraged by his parents and sent to an art school in Madrid where he experimented with Impressionism, Futurism and Cubism (articles on these to follow later, feel free to Google them!)
It was in the student’s residence in Madrid that Dali found a lot of the inspiration for his later works. He became close friends with Pepin Bello, Luis Bunuel, and Federico Garcia Lorca – champions of surrealism in various fields such as writing, movies and theatre. Also, around that time, Dali met the prime inspiration for most of his paintings – his future wife Gala.
Famous works
The Persistence of Memory (1931), is perhaps the most recognized Surrealist painting in the world. The interpretation of the melting watches in this painting vary from them being unconscious symbols of the relativity of space and time to them being merely the manifestations of the Surrealist perception of a Camembert cheese melting in the sun. Dalí returned to the theme of this painting with the variation The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) showing this one systematically fragmenting into smaller component elements. This was widely seen to be a mark of the end of his fascination with Surrealism and a symbol of his new-found interest in science, especially in nuclear physics. He called the atom his “favourite food for thought”. This painting was said to be the effect of the bomb blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
The Invisible Man is the first time Dali uses double images (the image of a man is hidden among the components in the painting shown beside). For those of you like me, who are oblivious to the finer nuances of such images - the yellow clouds form the man’s hair; his face and upper torso are formed by ruined architecture in the landscape and the waterfall forms the vague outline of his legs. As with almost all Dalí’s work, the painting has a sexual connotation. The recurring image of the “jug woman" appears on the left of the picture. To her right is a womb-shaped object, which partly delineates the man’s right arm. The dark shape outlining the fingers and legs of the man is suggestive of the female form. Beneath the man a wild beast is prowling – another recurring sexual symbols. Dalí's paintings were associated with three general themes: depicting a measure of man's universe and his sensations; the use of collage; and objects charged with sexual symbolism, and ideographic imagery. He introduced what came to be known as the ‘Paranoiac-Critical method’ in the early 1930s – a Surrealist method used to help an artist tap into their subconscious through systematic irrational thought and a self-induced paranoid state. By inducing this paranoid state one can forego one’s previous notions, concepts, and understanding of the world and reality in order to view the world in new, different and more unique ways. |
Eccentric to a fault, Dali was one of the leading painters that influenced the development of intellectual thought and brave depiction of symbolism in modern art as we know it today.
Other works of Salvador Dali can be found here.
This article was written by Sowjanya Kanuri, Kulothungan and Vishnu Kant. All PGP students of IIM Ahmedabad.
Other works of Salvador Dali can be found here.
This article was written by Sowjanya Kanuri, Kulothungan and Vishnu Kant. All PGP students of IIM Ahmedabad.