Essay on Does Dali Dream of Distorted Elephants?

Salvador Dali was an artist who was almost more notorious for his colorful personality as for his artistic talents. He took an apolitical outlook on world politics, but often dabbled in anti-establishment movements. This essay explores the life of Salvador Dali, the historical and political time he lived in, and how these influenced his work.

Salvador Dali was a pioneer. Few pages are not enough to tell the story of an eccentric, hardworking, disturbed and misunderstood master. Born in Figueras, Spain on May 11, 1904 near France into a middle class family. Childhood was turbulent, difficult, and abusive. Raised full of indulgences by his mother that resulted in the known eccentricities he had. (Dali, Secret Life, 115). Bright, extreme intelligent and fast learner child that created highly sophisticated drawings by age 6. In 1916 went to study drawing at College de Hermanos in Figueres, starting to show eccentric behavior for the first time.

Surrealism is a movement that built off of the burgeoning look into art, psychology, and the workings of the mind. Popularly associated with the works of Salvador Dali, Surrealist art takes imagery and ideology and creates correlation where there is none, creating new forms of art. In this essay I will look to explore the inception of the surrealist movement, including the Surrealist Manifesto, to stress the importance of these artists and their work in the 20th century and beyond. I also will look to films from our European Cinema course to express how films incorporate the influence of surrealism both intentionally and unintentionally.

The surrealist movement of the 1920s-1930s was largely based on the notion that excessive rational thought is a catalyst of conflict and war throughout the world. Salvador Dali’s The Persistence

André Breton ran the Surrealist Movement with impressive discipline and rigidity, making an interesting contrast between what the Surrealists preached and the management style of its leader. An interesting story, for example, tells how Salvador Dalí, one of the most prominent members of the Surrealist movement, attended a New York costume party dressed up as Charles Lindbergh’s son, who had been recently kidnapped and murdered. New York’s society did not take the statement well and eventually made Dalí apologize for his behavior. Breton, however, almost dismissed him from Movement because he claimed that “no one should excuse himself for a Surrealist act[6].” This anecdote demonstrates the seriousness of Breton and his Movement towards its final objective: revolution and the slashing of society’s conventions in the interest of a subconscious reality.

Every artist has his or her own style of painting. Each painting tells some sort of story or has some type of personal meaning to the artist. One of the most important figures in modern art is Pablo Picasso. Not only was Pablo Picasso a genius in the field of abstract art, but he also experimented with sculpting and ceramics. Pablo Picasso has taken the world to many places with his unique style of work which is why I believe he is considered to be a genius of the 20th century.

Salvador Dali is one of the most famous surrealist artists. His artwork is fascinating to look at and analyze. All of his work is very imaginative, rendered at a high level of realism, and is filled with extensive symbolism. First I will talk about the history of Surrealism, then how Dali studied and admired Sigmund Freud's theories which greatly influenced his art, he used Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of dream interpretation to invent a technique for his work, and then using this technique he painted his bizarre dreams.

Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy's Surrealism introduces us to dozens of creative visual artists who transformed the art world (and the world at large) with their mesmerizing paintings and sculptures. Along the way Klingsöhr-Leroy treats us to a veritable mini-history of Surrealism with a critical introduction that situates the movement with regard to Art History and History in general. Using Klingsöhr-Leroy's writings as my point of departure, I will, in these pages, seek to draw a connection between the work of the surrealists and the writing of Junichiro Tanizaki in The Key. One of Klingsöhr-Leroy's key theses is that surrealist artists sought to incorporate Sigmund Freud's theories on their splendid canvases; similarly, Tanizaki can be seen to reveal

Before this project, I had actually seen a few of Magritte’s paintings on social media that I thought were intriguing because they appeared dreamlike and unconventional. Then, because of this previous exposure, I expected to find many art pieces that were surreal. Surrealism is a genre I have always had an affinity for and have wanted to explore more, which is my main reason for choosing Magritte. The most important thing I learned while doing research on Magritte was about his role in the Surrealism movement and influence on other artists.

This painting has made a major effect on my life and has made my artwork go to a more relaxed level. Instead of just painting a landscape Dali painted a toreador of symbols and some was what he saw on an acid trip. That was not why I picked this painting .

Salvador Dalí is best known as the flamboyant and eccentric poster-boy of the Surrealist Movement. Born in 1904, Dalí spent the majority of his life working on various forms of his art, making him one of the most versatile artists of the twentieth century. While he is notorious for his paintings, he worked with many different mediums, which included sculpting, fashion, photography, and film. He began to show an incredible skill in art from very early on in his life, a skill that was nurtured by both of his parents. He began his formal training at age ten, which he continued until he was twenty two. Dalí was enrolled in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando until he was expelled from the academy for confidently claiming that “none of

Dali’s painting appears to be representative of mainly the subconscious mind because many of the elements in the painting express objects or ideas that are highly characteristic of memories, dreams, or even socially unacceptable elements. More importantly, The Museum of Modern Art explains that a year before this painting was made Dali began to undergo his “paranoiac-critical method” which stimulated

What elements of dada and surrealism suggest the influence of Freud? The 20th Century marked a changed in how people viewed the known world. Since its beginning art has played a major role in how people were able to express themselves. The early 20th century brought rise to new and exciting art forms. These were types of writings, paintings and, documentaries that no one had ever seen before. From expressionism to Dadaism types of work ranged by all means of the artist. About the 1920's a new wave of art would soon be seen worlds over. This art form introduced psychology in a new way to look at the conscious and subconscious minds. From the beginning Dadaism and surrealism showed true signs of influence from

Rene Magritte was an enigmatic and strange man who painted surrealism paintings. Little is known about his childhood except that his mother, Regine Magritte took her own life by drowning herself in the Sambre river. Young Magritte is thought to have discovered her body floating with her night garment covering her face. There is speculation that this trauma was an influence on many of Magritte’s works. When Rene Magritte took up his brushes, he created beautiful visual riddles that delight and bewilder the viewer. His clean lines and highly detailed finishes made his brush strokes nearly invisible; his paintings look as if they came from a printing press. Magritte referred to his paintings as “his labors.” He did labor over the paintings

Salvador Dali was born into a middle class family on May 11th 1904 in Figures, Spain. During his lifetime, he was an eccentric painter, writer, sculptor and experimental film maker. In Dali’s early years of painting he experimented at first with landscapes, most of which were of his home in Figueres, Spain. Dali also made paintings of the surrounding area of his family’s summer home, in the seaside town of Cadaques. Dali’s transitional period was between 1927 and 1929, these were years of experimentation. In this period gravel, rocks, cork, and other materials can be noted on his canvases. This was more abstract period then others, at this time in Dali’s life he had just been kicked out of the art school he had been attending .