I remember my first encounter with one of Salvador Dali’s paintings very vividly. The painting was the one with the leaping tigers. One of my friends was going through their luggage that was in a suitcase in my room and the card with the image fell. I picked it up and looked at her wondering why she would carry such a strange image which was frightening as the tigers looked fierce ready to devour their prey. At that time, we were all manga and pop music oriented. This seemed out of place. She said that it was her uncle who travelled to Spain and visited the museum of Salvador Dali, who sent it to her. I have heard this name before but never in relation to an image. This is how Salvador Dali entered my life. However, it was not until the “Persistence of memory” of the images of the two fierce tiger painting that I wanted to know more about the artist.
On a Sunday afternoon after high school, I had to go pick up some books from the nearby library store. The weather was full of sadness, sorrow, with all the rain that seemed to have long-lasting plans on our town. So, I decided to wait inside the bookstore and go through the books I otherwise would not have picked up Salvador Dali’s works. There was one particularly fancy book with the title: “LiquidDesire, Salvador Dali”. I opened it to the page with the leaping tigers. Coincidence? Of course, I told myself. Anyway, I decided to look deeper into it. How amazed I was to see the works that were inside. They seemed insane at first, but after a closer look, I fell in love with the amazing images which depicted his style of Surrealism through which Dali’s expressed his erotic desires. It usually happens that when an artist works in a weird style his technique is also strange and that always raises a question in my head –can he paint at all? However, in this case it was obvious that Salvador Dali was an outstanding academic artist. His preciseness in employing the elements of color, space and shape were stunning.
I could not afford the book, so I picked the ones I was sent for and left the store wondering. I was wondering about the interesting things that must have been going on inside the artist’s mind. At that moment, he seemed like a newly read fairy-tale to me as his works were just amazing. Then I decided he deserved a closer look to understand what motivated Dali in creating his pieces of art.
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalíi Domènech, Marqués de Dalíy de Púboldied 12 years before I was born. In a small town of Figures in Barcelona，he was raised in a wealthy family as an intolerable and spoiled child. From the very young age, he painted and even despite his temper, he joined the Madrid School of Arts. I was raised to believe that my generation was a creative one, but looking at the public appearances of Salvador Dali, I think that we live in a very modest society. It must have been pleasant to live in that moment of a lasting carnival where people were allowed to express their desires and feelings through art; however, on the other hand, it brings a lot of complexes to compensate the grand desire to shock and surprise.
Remembering Salvador Dali, I can’t help but think of his artworks. Although, it is hard for me to pick my favorite painting out of his many works. I think that his paintings were influenced by science, which he was fascinated with from a very tender age. Ever since his adolescence, he swallowed scientific articles and news about any inventions like hot pies. Such works as: “Metamorphosis of Narcissus”, “Invisible Sleeping Woman Horse Lion”, “Hypercubic Christ or Crucifixion” were influenced and inspired by Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Ramon Lull and other men of science. His “Persistence of Memory” is an affirmation that he was not only an artist but also a philosopher.
During my high school years, I had so many projects that involved creativity. Creative thinking, creative writing, creative reading, creative breathingI was squeezed like a lemon with all the creativity. At one moment, I caught myself flickering through some people’s inspirational boards online. Where does one get so much creativity? It seems that it has never been an issue for the Spanish artist. It is not even that he was good at something; it is that he was good at so many things. He was a painter, a decorator, a designer and a showman. Everything he touched or did immediately became a masterpiece. In this addition, he was a kind of King Midas. Some critics say that he lost his inner muse after he turned forty and that everything he did after that was nothing more than kitsch. I am no art critic, but even if it was his image of enfant terrible that got him through another forty years of popularity, then I think he just was successful at this too.
I sometimes reflect on the fact whether there is a fair deal made in heaven when someone is discharged of their talent; whether the contract has consequences, whether it is necessary to sacrifice something? It seems that in most cases, sanity is at stake, but so is love. Looking at the love life of Salvador Dali, it seems his love, at first sight, emanated from the desire to substitute his deceased mother with Gala –the love of his life. But then, are we not all looking for something missing in our partners? So I like to believe that Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalíi Domènech, Marqués de Dalíy de Púbol did not miss out on anything as he seemed to have lived his life to the fullest.
As for sanity, I guess, the artist was living the only possible way he knew. Would he exchange his talent for a happy life with family, children and a golden retriever? I will certainly ask him if I see him. On the other hand, who measures sanity? What if it is us, who live insanely –doing ordinary things on a daily basis, while there are so many opportunities to express ourselves?
I learned that later in his life, Salvador Dali was very patriotic to his homeland. No matter where he went, he always came back to Figures and finally settled there and built a small house in the woods that is now a museum. However, it is not only his hometown that as a magnet drove him to Spain, but also Cadaques, Pubol and Portlligat, which he loved visiting as a child. In many of his works, we can see landscapes of his homeland and this is how intuitively he globalized his beloved Catalonia. Interesting, that a man of so many possibilities, a man who seemed so insanely cool in all his acts, needed to come back to his roots to reboot. All this and his attachment to Gala indicate that Salvador Dali was a very tender child inside of his grown-up mustache core.
It is often the case that the most talented people are very childlike. This is probably because children are most creative creatures in the beginning, before we change them to suit our civilized world. Somehow during his 84 years of life, no one managed to change Salvador Dali. He remained true to his beliefs and inner self. He probably suffered from it at times but did not know how to live differently. We would never know how he truly felt, but we should be glad he existed. During his journey he influenced many artists. And although Andre Breton is considered the official founder of the art style, it is Salvador Dali, who comes to mind when someone says Surrealism. In addition, he left a great baggage of works that can inspire many people around the world. Thankfully, art is a language that needs no interpretation.
Some years ago, I was told that Salvador Dali invented the “Chupa-Chups” (candy on a stick) wrap design.It is funny, how he managed to enter so many spheres of our lives. In so many senses he immortalized himself and not even only through his main occupation. Every time I eat it since then, I wonder, does every wrap count as a reproduction?
Annotated Bibliography
Shanes, Erick. The Life and Master Works of Salvador Dali. New York: Parkston International, 2013.
The book provides a biography of the life of Salvador Dali. It contains information on his early life as a child, his teenage years, college life, his career, love life, and ultimate demise. The book also provides a discussion of his famous works by providing the images of these works and a brief description below these paintings. From the insights gained from the book therefore, insights into industrious life of Salvador can be seen and how major events influenced his success as an artist.
Ruiz, Carme. “Salvador Dalí and Science. Beyond a Mere Curiosity.” www.Salvador- Dali.Org. Last modified 2010. Accessed April 26, 2016.
The article presents a succinct analysis of the life of Salvador Dali as well as his early passion and dalliance with science. Based on this article, Salvador embraced science in his teenage years, a fact that heavily influenced his art work. Based on the article, Salvador’s passion for science lasted throughout his lifetime and his art work contained content on various scientific aspects including quantum physics, mechanics, and mathematics among many others. Consequentially, through Salvador's passion for science, insights into the science of the 20th century is obtainable.
"Salvador Dalí's Catalonia - A Guide to the Artist's Favourite Places." The Totally Spain Travel Blog. 2013. Accessed April 26, 2016
This article offers insights into the favourite places of Salvador. The noteworthy place according to the article is Catolina in Spain. Catolina is profound based on the article since it was the place of birth of Salvador and his death place. From the article also, insights into the way of life of the artist can be obtained due to the available evidence from the artworks, paintings, drawings, and frescos. Finally, from observing the favourite places that the artist frequented, the article offers insights into what influenced Salvador's artwork.
Eaude, Michael. "Obituary: Enric Bernat." The Guardian. 2004. Accessed 26 April 2016
This piece from the Guardian offers interesting insights into the life of Salvador through the life of Enric Bernat. From his created sweets business dubbed ‘chupa Chups’, Salvador’s ingenuity is evident as an artist when he is called upon to design the created company’s logo. From this venture, Enric Bernat built a huge multibillion empire with Salvador’s help. The article is thus insightful in offering sneak peeks into the artist’s life.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica.“Salvador Dali. Spanish artist”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Last updated 14 March 2016. Accessed 26 April 2016
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica presents the life and career of Salvador Dali in a precise way. From his birth in 1904, in Spain, the Encyclopedia’s entry documents his life as an artist in Madrid and in Spain involved in paintings and later on switching into an academically oriented form of painting following influence from Raphael, a Renaissance painter.
Bibliography
Eaude, Michael. "Obituary: Enric Bernat." The Guardian. 2004. Accessed 26 April 2016
Ruiz, Carme. “Salvador Dalí and Science. Beyond a Mere Curiosity.”Www.Salvador-
Dali.Org. Last modified 2010. Accessed April 26, 2016.
"Salvador Dalí's Catalonia - A Guide to the Artist's Favourite Places." The Totally Spain
Travel Blog. 2013. Accessed April 26, 2016.
Shanes, Erick. The Life and Master Works of Salvador Dali. New York: Parkston International, 2013.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Salvador Dali. Spanish artist”. Encyclopedia
Britanica.Last updated 14 March 2016. Accessed 26 April 2016
