Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali is my main inspiration for my feature; a surrealist painter and film-maker born in Figueres, Spain in 1904. He was well known for the portrayal of bizarre surreal images in his works, his painterly skills were often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. Dali explored many artistic methods such as film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. 'The Persistence of Memory' was completed in 1931, and was his best known work. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork, he was highly imaginative.
 

The Dali Atomicus, photo by Philippe Halsman (1948)

ARTWORKS

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY (1931)

The painting by Dali stresses his theories of 'softness' and 'hardness'; the soft watches connote to "the unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, which is a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order" - as described by Dawn Ades. This painting is believed to support Einstein's Special theory of Relativity - but Dali would deny this to perhaps confuse viewers and suggest that the softness is likened to melting Camembert cheese.  A human like figure is clear in the centre, which suggests Dali himself, the use of ants such as on the orange clock represent either death, or in other painting female genitalia.  The figure in the middle of the picture can be read as a "fading" creature, one that often appears in dreams where the dreamer cannot pinpoint the creature's exact form and composition.  The iconography may refer to a dream that Dalí himself had experienced, and the clocks may symbolise the passing of time as one experiences it in sleep or the persistence of time in the eyes of the dreamer.  Dream like imagery is more likely to be portrayed rather than full-waking consciousness.     

DREAM CAUSED BY THE FLIGHT OF A BEE AROUND A POMEGRANATE A SECOND BEFORE AWAKENING (1944)

 

Refferred to a 'hand-painted dream photograph', this surrealist piece by Dali suggests his wife Gala, his wife as the main subject of the scene.  The bayonet is a suggestion to a stinging bee, the tigers distinct stiped pattern also suggest the bee body shape.  This is a reference to Freud's dream theories, where the womens abrupt awakening from her peaceful dream is represented.  The fish may represent the bee's eyes, because of similarity of the fish's scaly skin with the scaly complex eyes of bees.  The elephant is a distorted version of the "Pulcino della Minerva" sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini facing the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.  There is a heart-shaped shadow cast by another, smaller pomegranate which represents Venus.  It has also been a suggestion that this is representation of the Theory of Evolution.  Dalí said his painting was intended "to express for the first time in images Freud's discovery of the typical dream with a lengthy narrative, the consequence of the instantaneousness of a chance event which causes the sleeper to wake up. Thus, as a bar might fall on the neck of a sleeping person, causing them to wake up and for a long dream to end with the guillotine blade falling on them, the noise of the bee here provokes the sensation of the sting which will awaken Gala."

 

THE FACE OF WAR (1941)

 

The trauma of war often served as an inspiration to Dali's artworks; he painting towards the end of the Spanish Civil War and World War 2.  A disembodied face hovers aganst a deser landscape, almost like a corpse which suggests misery.   In its mouth and eye sockets are identical faces. In their mouths and eyes are more identical faces in a process implied to be infinite.  This is an emphasis on the results of war; a symbol of endless death and decay.

LOBSTER TELEPHONE (1936)

Dali believed that objects were a reflection of subconscious motives, that also revealed secret desires.  The lobster usually appears in drawings by Dali that suggest sexual connotations and erotic pleasure - this piece is playful and witty.






THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY - SCULPTURE (1980)

Dali examines human perception of time again through the same painting, through sculture form that suggests a limp clock on a tree branch, a symbol of life.   In his words, "Materialization of the flexibility of time and the indivisibility of time and space. Time is not rigid. It is one with space - fluid".  The limp watch no longer 'keeps' time; it does not measure its passage.