FREE ESSAY ON SALVADOR DALI

SALVADOR DALI

Salvador Dali, was born Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech on Monday, 11 May 1904, in
the small Spanish town of Figueres, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, approximately
sixteen miles from the French border in a region known as Catalonia. His parents
supported his talent and built him his first studio while he was still a child in their
summer home at Cadaques. Dali went on to attend the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in
Madrid, Spain. He was married to Gala Eluard in 1934 and died on 23 January 1989 in a
hospital in Figueres (Etherington-Smith, 12).
Dali never limited himself to one style or particular medium. Beginning with his early
impressionistic works, greatest inspiration.
Surrealism emerged from what was left of Dada (a European movement categorized by its
irrationality and lack of traditional values, sometimes referred to as nihilistic) in the
mid 1920's and unlike Dada, Surrealism held a promising and more positive view of art and
because of this it won many converts. Surrealism actually got its beginnings as a
literary, not artistic, trend in Parisian publications (Stangos, 122). What Surrealism
and Dadaism held in common was their belief in the importance of the unconscious mind and
its manifestations, as was stressed by Freud. They both believed that through the
unconscious mind a plethora of artistic imagery would be unveiled. Both of these , called
automatism. The Surrealists also wanted to answer the question how shall I be free? and
to express thought without any concepts other than the question itself. They believed
that automatism would reveal the true and individual nature of anyone who practiced it,
far more completely than could any of his conscious creations. For automatism was the
most perfect means for reaching laid his foundation for his own Surrealistic art in his
youth through his 'critical paranoia' method. This contribution of his was an alternate
manner in which to view or perceive reality. It was no new concept; it could be traced
back to Leonardo da Vinci and his practice of staring at stains on walls, clouds,
streams, etc. and seeing different figures in them (Stangos, 138). Anyone who looks at a
cloud and sees something other than just a cloud uses this technique. 
Dali however gave this method a different twist. Dali linked his paranoiac-critical
method, the ability to look at any object and see another, with paranoia, which was
characterized then by chronic delusions and hallucinations. Dali himself was not paranoid
but was able to place himself in paranoid states. In one of his more famous statements he
said, "The only difference between myself and a madman is that I am not mad." He was able
to look at reality and dream of new ideas and paint them, which he called his
"hand-painted dream photographs." (The Persistence of Memory, 163)
Through his paranoiac-critical method, Dali was able to look at everyday objects and
attach a subjective meaning based on his obsessions, phobias and conflicts. The result
was a new, imaginative visual presentation of reality. By the forties, however, Dali
began his move from Surrealism into what he called his sculptures of the Venus de Milo
found throughout the work and the face of his wife floating in the upper , another
recurring theme is the dog found beneath the veil that is formed by the surface of the
lake. This painting is full of double images, the sculptures becoming the toreador, the
dog in the lake, the blood on the bull's back becoming the flies, and the rock face
serving as the banderillas that pierced the bull. This work is full of Dali and he
himself referred to it as "All Dali in one Painting." 
Another work I wish to speak of is an earlier one, which was mentioned previously, The
Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire. This painting, similar to The
Hallucinogenic Toreador, displays a variety of double images. His same kind of phenomena.
It appears empty now; the pear that was in the bowl is now a part of the mountain in the
horizon in the background. Again, this work proves how powerful the hallucinatory force
is. Dali's paranoiac-critical method proves to be very effective but it also proves to be
what ultimately led him away from Surrealism and into his new form of classic art. 
The third and final painting I will touch upon is Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The
Three Ages). This work was completed around the same time (the early 1940's) as The Slave
Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire. This painting as well is a primary example
of Dali's shift away from Surrealism. There are the three ages depicted, old age on the
left, adolescence in the center and infancy on the right. Again the hospital in Figueres
because of respiratory complications and heart failure (Etherington-Smith).