Salvador Dali Surrealism
SALVADOR DALI & SURREALISM
Surrealism (from French surrealisme - supernaturalism) - a
modernistic direction in the art, appeared after the First World War in France,
during 1920s. Its founders considered surrealism as a way to recognize
subconscious, or supernatural. By definition of the founder, and the ideologist
of this direction André Breton the
surrealism is " the pure mental automatism, the purpose of which is to
express, either orally, or in writing, everyday ideas. Surrealism is a
dictation of ideas beyond any control of mind, beyond any aesthetic or moral
imaginations." (Ades 28) Artists weren’t only creating new style in art
and literature, but, first of all, they were modifying the world and life.
Surrealists were sure that inconceivable was
beginning to incarnate the earth.
The formation of Surrealism takes its roots from Dadaism. The
impudent art arisen in conditions of horror and disappointment of the artists
before the major catastrophe – the European revolutions (1916-1918). This event
shattered Switzerland, Austria, France and Germany. Dadaism basically rejected
any positive aesthetic value, and offered an “antiaesthetic” value for
everything. For Dadaists everything " reasonable, kind, eternal " had
failed, and the world appeared to be unfair, mean, and ugly. The values of
Dadaists were to destroy any style of beauty by means of "ugliness".
Revolt of Dadaist had somewhat settled in the middle of 1920s. Dadaists mainly
relied on “accidental effects” as a main working tool. Artists began dripping
paint on canvas, and forming irrational configurations. The surrealistic
attitude towards inconceivable, or to the
elements of chaos is directly grown from Dadaistic roots. But surrealists trend
in art wasn’t simply to destroy, but create through destruction. The bohemian
anarchism of Dadaists had a strong affect on Dali, and therefore he became a
true follower of their scandalous behavior. (Faerna,
32-40)
Surrealists hunted for unpredicted in order to free from the control
of the mind. (For example, they placed a sheet of a paper on rough surfaces and
rubbed a paper with dry paints, and received fantastic configurations reminding
of thickets of a fantastic wood.) But great masters weren’t satisfied with such
primitive methods of painting. They had to achieve internal irrationality or
mindless state of mental life. For this purpose, forms of visual self-hypnosis
were practiced. They created "bewitching" forces by staring at the
movement of fire, or the movement of clouds, or etc. Transition from
"mechanical" perceptions to "psychological” (or
psychoanalytical) perception, gradually influenced all masters of surrealism.
(Descharnes, 8)
Surrealists assembled meetings or "trainings" which were
named as sommeils – or "dreams in reality ". They played during these
meetings. They were interested in accidental and unconscious semantic
combinations, which occurred during "bouts-rimes (word game).” Each of
them made a phrase, not knowing about the words made by the other participants
of the game. So, once they came up with a phrase "The refined corpse will
drink a fine wine " was invented. The purpose of this game was to train to
free your consciousness and logic. By doing so they were able to gain chaotic
forces from the chasms of subconscious. By this way, ideas of surrealism had
really turned into an explosive: destroying everything on its way, shattering
any truth or a principle based on a reason, belief, virtue, or ideal beauty. It
destroyed beauty that was viewed by radical innovators as art. They viewed life
as a synonym of deceit, and lifelessness. Many surrealists did not focus much
on techniques of painting, they were interested in the outcome of the
painting. The burst of nihilism was formed among young artists during those
times. Not having faith in anything, they also drew this “ANYTHING."
Dali’s surrealism, doesn’t present any politics, an intimate life,
an aesthetic beauty, a history, or anything else. In his art there is only a
Surrealistic Creativity, which transforms everything into something new as it
contacts it. Dali painted about everything that was essential for the person of
that time. The themes of his painting varied from sexual revolution to
preparation of meal. Some of other themes of his paintings were civil war,
nuclear explosions, Nazism, Catholic beliefs, science, or classical art. For
sane people, Dali’s art was something inconceivable and shocking. Somehow he
even built a so-called “surrealistic object,” which was absolutely not suitable
for actual use. This was his embodiment of his obsessive ideas, and manias.
This object was called “the astral chair.” The chair’s leather coating was
replaced by chocolate coating, a door handle was screwed on one leg, and other
leg stood on a mug with beer. Surely such a chair would simply collapse by the
impact of a door swing, spilling the beer all over the floor, and causing an
alarm and confusion for the people around it.
Dali alienated himself from his colleagues. Therefore they turned
against Dali. His friends started denying Dali’s art. André Breton after
another disagreement with the artist, made an anagram of letters of his name
“Avida Dollars – Dollar Thirsty.” He hinted that all that Dali created, had an
advertising character, and are directed strictly at making money, and that art
itself had no value for him.
Dali sometimes proclaimed to be the only unique surrealist. And at
the same time he said that, "Painting is the color photo made by a brush
". But it’s useless to blame Dali for inconsistency, because irrationality
– was his value and element of thinking and painting. This method was the true
description of Dali’s style both in life, and in art. Dali has literally
treated all those ideas, principles, values, and people with whom he associated
with impudently, and disrespectfully. He implemented the ideas of surrealism to
the extent. Dali is dangerous to the silent human nature; he is dangerous for
humans’ "well-being" because he discredits senses and values of human
culture. He discredits both religion and godlessness, both Nazism and antifascism,
both admirations of art, and avant-guard revolt against them, both belief in
the humanity and disbelief in it.
Dali searched for new decisions, and forms of art starting from his
childhood. Once, he painted a still life painting with only three colors on an
old worn-out door. He used the door instead of canvas. It surprised him that
this still-life painting amazed his friends and relatives. It was the image of
a handful of the berries put under the sun. Then someone from spectators had
noticed, that at cherries were missing tails. The young artist had forgotten to
paint them. He quickly ate the berries that he was drawing earlier, and
attached the real tails to the still-life painting. He pulls out the woodworms
of old door, and attached them to berries, and he created painting with live
woodworms and real berry tails. At seeing this, the spectators were
overwhelmed.
Having entered the School of fine Arts in Madrid, Dali hoped to find
worthy teachers. He hoped to find someone who could teach him the sacred craft
of drawing, but he very soon got disappointed. He publicly declared that he
didn’t want to be tested by those teachers who "knew almost nothing, and
incapable of anything.” Therefore he got expelled from the art school. He
admired the great masters of Italian Renaissance. He explained how his
surrealistic creativity began. He wrote, "The inevitable happened -here
comes Dali. The core surrealist, moved by "will and authority." He
proclaimed unlimited freedom from any aesthetic or moral compulsions, and
declared that it is possible to go up to the extreme limits of any artistic
experiments, as long as you don’t care about any consequence. (Gibson, 6-9)
All this wasn’t only his private affair; it was the purpose of
surrealism. Dali truly was the surrealist to the core. Everything he touched or
spoke about turned into surrealistic images. Dali in his life mainly focused on
his surrealistic "ego.”
The artist has
created some sort of "password" that led to the secrets of his
creativity and personality. His masterpieces and graphic works are constructed
like texts. In his works, he presents the history of World’s culture as a
series of metaphors. And same kinds of citations are applicable to his masters
of the past. In his painting "Spain", we see the resemblance to
Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings. And in his portraits and still-life drawings we
can relate to Italian painter of XVI century Arcimboldi Giuseppe.
(Descharnes, 27)
Dali perfectly managed
to change the format of an art on an easel painting. The extended horizontal
canvas are full of narration, that contain consecutive display of metamorphosis
("Metamorphosis of Narcissus." Oil on canvas, 20 1/8x30 3/8 inches,
1937)
The vertical stretched canvas changes the dynamics of the picture,
adding solemnity to it Dali thought that horizon in the paintings were very
essential.” The low horizon gives an image some sort of theatrical look (for
example, "The Sacrament of the Last Super.” Oil on canvas, 65 5/8x105
½ inches, 1955)
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In his compositions with high horizon, the features close to the
folklore beginning are seen. The images have ornamental - symbolical character.
The artist loved big canvases. His wide canvases are similar to those of
medieval masters. The main value of works of Dali consists of creation of
magnificent picturesque and graphic images. The artist presents himself in his
paintings, as the refined colorist, brilliant painter, master of complexity,
and yet architectonically conceivable painter (Ades, 17). Those paintings, in
which Dali transforms the sign into artistic images, are authentic masterpieces
of paintings and graphics. The tragic gift of Salvador Dali has found its
bright reflection in his one of the most famous painting called " Soft
construction with boiled beans – Premonition of Civil War." (Oil on
canvas, 29 5/16x39 3/8 inches, 1936)
The background of
the painting is covered with cloudy sky. There is an inconceivable figure that
has human body parts, and the face that is in total agony. The hand is holding
the breast that doesn’t have a body, it has a head, and a neck with inflated
veins, and from there onward comes a leg that is standing on the other part of
human body that stretches out diagonally. And in the middle of this diagonally
stretched body part, there is a small locker – a design that Dali frequently
presented in his paintings as an illusion of stability of ordinary life. There
are beans all over the ground, and an ordinary man, near this figure looking
down to the ground. The horizon is given low in this picture, covering only
small part of the ground. The picture has an enormous anti-war pathos. It has a
very expressive message in its composition, contrast color combinations, and a
linear composition.
The unusual gift of Salvador Dali, his
overwhelming creativity makes him a genius of his age. His art presents the
humanistic symbol of his century. Surrealism is not an artistic movement; it is
an artistic thinking of how to interact with world. When one journalist asked
Salvador Dali “what the surrealism was, Dali answered that Surrealism is Dali
himself, and he had a full right to say so.
Ades, Dawn. Dali’s
optical Illusion. Wadworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in association with Yale
University Pres Ney Haven and London, 1999.
Descharnes,
Robert. Dali. Harry N. Abrams Publishers, New York 2000
Faerna, Jose
Maria, ed. Dali. Trans. Teresa Waldes. Harry n.
Abrams, Inc., Publishers 2000.
Gibson, Ian. The
Shameful life of Salvador Dali. W. W. Norton & Company:
New York, 1998.