Sunday, 27 April 2014

Essay - Salvador Dali

''Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings'' -Salvadore Dali Quote 


Salvador Dali was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter who was born in Figueres, Spain. Dali started painting when he was only 6 years old  and now a days he’s a well known artist.

As a childhood Dali had ''perverse and sadistic ''elements that were to become a major part of his symbolic ways of how he looked at things and interpenetrated them.
 

He’s best known for the ‘‘striking and bizarre’’ images in his surrealist works of art. As any other artist Dali was inspired by something to show his painting skills and this was often the surrealism, nature and Science themes.

Dali's uniqeness all came from perviouse artists of the Surrealism movement. Such artists were :Luis Buñuel, Garcia Lorca,Paul Eluard and Gala. He was also very much inspired from his friend Freud as he studied the art of the unconscious mind. Dali took certain elements of this artists and by time he basically took over the surrealism movement as he was very outstanding, the audience just loved him.

When Dali was younger, one of his sources of enjoyment was throwing himself down stairs. He said ''The pain was insignificant and the pleasure was immense'' He wanted both in the same time. This element reflects also in his paintings and designs as he interestingly compares things that usually they are never combined together. A great example of this exciting toughth is his iconic lobster telephone. He was interested in creating fun  and humor elements in everyday life, in this case he thought that when your calling someone its like you're talking to a lobster... Weird right !!

When looking at a lobster visually you'll never think of a telephone, but Dali made it possible and interestingly, he made them look very appealing. He took care that the lobster is not just applied on the telephone, but it is well thought that the lobster goes with the shape of the telephone.


 [Lobster Telephone -1936] 

In his paintings Dali often used objects that symbolized episodes of his childhood. An interesting symbol was eggs and fried eggs from his 'intra-uterine' images. These are 3 example of the numerous paintings.

 [Sublime moment - 1938, oil on canvas, 38 x 47 cm]
[Fried eggs in a plate without a plate,1932,Oil on canvas, 60 x 42 cm]


[Fried eggs presented in a spoon,1932, Oil on canvas]

With no doubt the most famous painting which features an egg is 'Geopoliticus Child watching the birth of a new man'. 


[Geopoliticus Child watching the birth of a new man, 1943,
Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 50 cm]
 

In this art work Dali shows us a huge egg form and a man struggling to 'hatch' out of it. The egg symbolizes the world.As the man is hatching you can notice the blood coming out from the egg shall.

On the right-hand corner there's 2 human figures, an adult and a child. The adult is symbolizing the sex as the child is symbolizing the innocence. The position of the child is interesting as he seem to be afraid. He's holding tightly to the adult knees as she's pointing her finger to show him the birth of the man.

This piece was very successful as Dali used strong formal elements. The first thing that I noticed is the vibrant contrast between the white egg and the dark blue background. This contrast imminently indicates a focal point on the man.

Dali made good use of lines to create the brilliant shapes and forms. The way the man is painted shows the movement of him getting out of the egg. While he's doing so, he seem to be making a lot of effort as he's holding very tight to the egg shall and stretching it with his foot. 

Salvadore dali is a very interesting artist which will never be forgotten. He changed the way we look at things and the also changed the way we think. When looking at Dali's art you need to expect the unexpected.


Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them - Salvador Dali




The most 10, 10 most famous Salvador Dali paintingshttp://www.themost10.com/famous-salvador-dali-artworks/, [Accessed on 27/04/2014]

Fine Maine, Feb 18 2010, Lobster telephone, http://www.finemainelobster.com/lobster-telephone/, [Accessed on 27/04/2014]


Salvador Dali Birth, http://www.surrealists.co.uk/dali.php, [Accessed on 27/04/2014]

Jun 25 2007, Influences in the life of Salvador Dali,http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A585344, [Accessed on 27/04/2014]


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