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Showing posts with label Salvador Dali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salvador Dali. Show all posts

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Dali on Religion & Faith as Expressed in Art


Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubist)
The Basket of Bread
He spent his life as a radical, disruptive, innovative and brilliantly extravagant artist. His life style was equal parts showman and creative genius. Many thought him mad but he was crazy in the best of ways; “like the proverbial fox.” You might think that such a man in death would be quietly at peace…not the surrealist master; Dali! His body was exhumed just this past Thursday (his famous mustache remaining gloriously intact.) It seems a sixty plus year old woman believes she is Dali’s child. She is looking to be compensated; hoping to find a DNA match. The Great Salvador Dali continues to stir up the world, even in death he rises.

Pardon me for changing gears to a point; but my original intention for this blog was to make note of the of the man’s religiosity as expressed in his art, particularly in his paintings. He excelled in his efforts like no other of his generation. There were others including Marc Chagall, Emil Nolde and Stanly Spencer that painted Christian themes among their works, yet Dali achieved a power that remains unmatched. 

The Dream of Christopher Columbus
His painting’s subjects and themes include The Crucifixion of Christ; The Holy Virgin, The Madonna and Child, The Last Supper and even the religious zeal of Christopher Columbus. Dali’s work “Basket of Bread” was considered in his mind to be his most surrealistic endeavor. It spoke to the Eucharistic as expressed in The Holy Communion. Life as journey is allegorically viewed in his painting “Phantom Chariot” the message is akin to John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.”  Again; his crucifixions were literal and technical interpretations of the event of Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection. These works; as masterful and as great as any from time immemorial.

Phantom Chariot


The Old Testament’s Book of Ecclesiastes 3 talks about the importance of time as it unfolds within the span of our human life and physical existence. It states there is a time and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Melting Clock
                                                   
 Dali first addressed the passage of time in one of his highly referenced and signature works “The Persistence of Memory.” Among the most striking elements of the piece is the inclusion of the melting, lilting clocks and watches. These can likely be viewed as an interpretation of the temporal, declining nature of life. When asked about their meaning Dali replied “…the soft watches were inspired by the surrealist perception of a Camembert (cheese) melting in the sun. Life is as much as anything a series and process of gradual and eventual decay and finality. Dali would return to images of “melting clocks” on numerous occasions as surreal expressions along with other multiple symbolic imagery. 

Christ of St. John of the Cross
Salvador Dali continues to amaze and inform as we discover freshness to his life and works. We await his latest verdict as we applaud his grand visionary performances. The Magnificent Dali; the Eternal Dali, the Servant Dali.  
                                                

Salvador Dali Quotes


“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.” 

“A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.” 

“Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” 

“Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy —the joy of being Salvador Dalí— and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things is this Salvador Dalí going to accomplish today?” 


Friday, December 2, 2016

Salvador Dali PREMONITION OF CIVIL WAR


It was painted as a response to the looming Spanish Civil War by the Master Surrealist; Salvador Dali. It rivals and is a foil to another artist’s statement on the same destructive force; Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Dali’s miracle; “Soft Construction with Boiled Beans Premonition of Civil War” Is amazingly on point. Dali’s depiction of an entity/creature painfully and horrifically in the process of destroying itself is both alarming and seductive.
Dali’s creation is also in many ways cause for celebration. His colors are rich; his technique, his drafting skills are brilliant and the genius of his imagination is phenomenal. Rarely has any artist taken such an ugly truth as civil war and transformed that truth into something beautiful; something to study and treasure. Premonition of Civil War is a true masterpiece of priceless magnitude and monumental in stature.


In light of the recent election of Donald J. Trump this nation finds itself at tremendous odds. Protests that have taking place; largely in cities across the nation, demonstrate a bitterness and unparalleled divisiveness on many levels. Individuals are being attacked and bullied in schools while others walk out of their own schools in response and protest. This is a time of civil disobedience that I haven’t personally seen since the Nineteen Sixties. Actor Robert Di Nero said Trump’s election felt emotionally something like those he felt on "Nine Eleven," 2001. Decidedly one of the worst days in American History. I have to agree with Mr. Di Nero. Something of my own feelings of that time hauntingly returned to me.



A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. 
                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                           Abraham Lincoln


                          
Donald Trump’s presidency will not destroy the union. It in all likely hoods will not lead to civil war. But he will be passionately opposed when wrong and equally acknowledged when right. The nation will vote again in four years, we will choose quite possibly Mr. Trump’s replacement. It is too our good fortune and credit that we have such a system of government. At present Donald Trump chooses and prepares his administration, the protests continue, we continue to look to great art for comfort and inspiration…life and creativity go on. We are very much a nation of one with many different minds and visions. We are a nation of people and ideas of which the best of each will ultimately endure. 



Friday, March 1, 2013

Dali Drawings




 Sigmund Freud, Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney; all varied and names to be associated with Salvador Dali. Dali’s showmanship and his works intrigued enlivened and enriched the lives of his viewers and admirers for decades. He still touches millions even though he is not currently en vogue in anything close to the same manner he was just a few years prior. Dali dazzled and confused with his paintings, films, prints and sculptures. His drawings were equally impressive and mysterious. They are the features of this blog.



The lines of Dali are elegant and masterful. The drawings range from the subtle to the beautifully extravagant. The many dream images, the surreal works he playfully produced in his lifetime are statements to his unusual and marvelous mind. 




He could be both baroque and modern in ways that few were able to equal. Perhaps the fact that he outdistanced his surrealist peers is the reason he was denounced by those fellows. To call Dali a genius is almost redundant but if such a thing exists he is certainly among those elite. It has been said that and there is a thin line between genius and madness.
 
 
Dali walked that line for the entirety of his public life with his wife and muse Gala by his side. We can only guess at the meanings and symbols he conjuring’s provided his public; but that is part of the pleasures of his work. He mastered many forms and illuminated many lives.
 


                   “The only difference between a madman and myself is that I am not insane.”
                                                                                                                             Salvador Dali