Dedication to one genius. Salvador Dali: the most famous paintings

Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso - two great Spaniards - left in the shadow of their world fame many masters of art of the twentieth century. No one has been written about, talked about, argued about as much as about them; no one can compare with them in the number of books, albums, brochures, articles published about the work of these two titans.

It would seem that nothing foreshadowed in early work young El Salvador of the appearance of a grandiose talent, eclipsing everything that one could imagine with its shocking, explosive, miraculous art. There is no such force that even now could be opposed to his phantasmagoria.

The first retrospective exhibition of Dali's works from the collection of the Salvador Dali Gala Foundation. Figueres" in Moscow, in the halls of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin for the first time presented his work to the Russian public on such a large scale. It became a holiday, a discovery of the phenomenon of an outstanding master for all admirers, adherents and even recent detractors of "surrealism".

So much has already been written about him that hardly anyone would take the liberty of adding something new to the tens of thousands of pages of already printed texts, but still Dali's work is inexhaustible, it remains a mystery, the mystery of "one" genius. For a sensitive heart and an inquisitive mind, it is an inexhaustible source of fantasy and inspiration. More than once we will ask ourselves the question: what is the phenomenon of his art, fate, personality, and each of us will look for our own answer.

The universal gift of Salvador Dali, the purpose of the talent of the oracle and the skill of the demiurge plunged into confusion, caused delight and anger, instilled hope and disappointment at the same time.

Let us take some liberties in answering the endless number of questions that arise about this Don Quixote of the twentieth century regarding his phenomenon, what is the secret, one of the secrets of Dali's genius. It seems to me that in the life of the great Catalan, the most significant role was played by his Muse - Gala - Elena Dmitrievna Dyakonova (nee). It was to her, an extraordinary Russian woman, that he, by his own admission, owed everything that made him the one and only genius among all other contemporaries. By her appearance in Dali’s life, she, Gala, as her first husband, the poet Paul Eluard, which literally translates from French into Russian means “holiday”, awakened and sharpened in him supersensible intuition, multiplied by complexes, instilled faith in his unique unsurpassedness and messianic purpose. Most likely, she introduced him to literary heritage N.V. Gogol and F.M. Dostoevsky, about the subsequent influence of which one can only guess and put forward the most incredible versions. She was destined to become for a genius not only a model, mother, wife and lover, but also his Alter Ego, a full-fledged co-author, as eloquently evidenced by a double signature Gala Dali, appearing in his paintings. Elena Dyakonova developed in him the miraculous gift of a virtuoso draftsman, master of composition and color; perhaps many of the motives, plots and scenarios of his paintings were suggested by her. But this is only an assumption.

The religious spirit and rational, materialistic consciousness coexisted organically in it; he was a unique improviser and prudent pragmatist. With his installations, art objects, stage actions, picturesque and graphic images, Dali did not entertain the audience, but hypnotized it. In his works, he turned the ironic plot into the grotesque. The incomparable colorist and draftsman constantly surprised the audience with irrepressible imagination and virtuosity in the implementation of an always intriguing idea. He did not flatter anyone, with the exception of that Muse, the Madonna, whom he idolized all his life, although in his environment were the most worthy people of the whole era, such as Pablo Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Garcia Lorca, Guillaume Appolinaire, Rene Magritte, Andre Breton ...

The microcosm of Dali's early, small, and sometimes miniature in format works contains an immense, universal abyss of the author's feelings and thoughts, exciting the imagination with many associations. His creations are a brilliant example of an intellectual game of recklessness and, at the same time, deeply thought-out variations and formulas of a special philosophical meaning and scale.

In my opinion, one of the striking characteristic signs of the unsurpassed, filigree professional skill of the artist is for us the opportunity not only mentally, but actually to increase almost to incredible limits both the miniature images of the painter and draftsman, and the smallest details of his fantastic compositions.

Brutality and fragility, outrageousness and humility - this is all he is, a man with a sensitive and tender soul, for whom art was not just a form of absolute self-expression, but also a means of protection from obscurantism and hypocrisy, the omniscient servility of immoral morals and infallible sinners. His apparent audacity knew no bounds, he challenged everything that was alien to him, while remaining a person easily vulnerable. The Spanish temperament helped him fight both with the outside world and with his internal complexes.

The author of these lines was lucky to be the first of the Russian art critics write very modest monographic works, one of which was published in 1989, the other in 1992. Solely because of the courage shown by the publishing house "Knowledge" and "Respublika", and thanks to the huge, mass circulation for publications about art, they received fairly wide publicity. One of its joyful results was for me a correspondence acquaintance with sister Gala - Lydia Dmitrievna Dyakonova (married Yarolimek). I mention this as a sign of memory and gratitude, and also in connection with the fact that she informed me in her letters about her meetings with Dali and her impressions of him.

I will allow myself to quote verbatim from her little message received from Vienna, where Lidia Dmitrievna lived: “Now there are many articles and brochures full of implausible stories, taking advantage of the fact that he was an unusually strange person and causing the most diverse reactions.” In her memoirs about Dali, Sister Gala noted his modesty, shyness and amazing responsiveness, which he showed in a family setting in relation to a few, but the people closest to his heart. “During our meetings in Paris and in Italy, he could be the sweetest and simplest person.” In these sincere words of not an outsider, as in her other statements, she shared with me her life impressions about the inner world of Salvador Dali, unknown to the majority, closed from prying eyes, which coincided with my speculation about him and his work.

The content of this more than modest dedication to "one genius" does not imply a description of the graphic and pictorial works presented in the Moscow exposition (by the way, in the brilliant design presentation of Boris Messerer). Recently, many translated publications about Dali's creative heritage have appeared, including books by his closest assistant, long years who worked with him, the main biographer of the great maestro - Robert Descharnes, as well as literary works the artist in excellent translations by Natalia Malinovskaya, which will fully satisfy the interest of the multi-million audience of Russian connoisseurs and art lovers.

spiritual, philosophical, symbolic meaning Creativity of Salvador Dali has a magical appeal, goes beyond the conditional boundaries of a particular time, not only because the world of images created by him is determined by the historical scale artistic thinking, in which the vices and virtues of mankind, good and evil, beauty and ugliness are conjugated, giving rise to an incredible, all-consuming energy of providence. Being a true creator, a genius, he possessed the ability to foresee and anticipate, created his own aesthetics of meanings, revived the art of past eras and became the forerunner of the art of the future. Declaring certain postulates in this text, we will not deceive ourselves in the impeccability of our own feelings and perception of myth and reality, reflecting the contradictory essence of the unknown and the known.

Dali's legacy is enormous, he showed himself in various epistases of holiness and the fall, in painting, graphics, sculpture, cinema and literature, in decorative arts and design, has become a comprehensive dramatic figure in the artistic culture of the twentieth century. His work was, is and will be unpredictable, not subject to formal, dispassionate retelling. What is the secret of the phenomenon of the doctrine of Dali's art - Time will tell.

"Historical surrealism" has become one of the most notable phenomena artistic culture of the past century. It captured a pronounced tendency to create a new mythology; he changed and expanded ideas about the possibilities and forms of perception of modern man, had a direct impact on evolutionary transformations in art, anticipated the emergence of transavant-garde and latest trends postmodernism. The official chronology of the movement is limited to 1924-1968: from the opening of the Bureau of Surrealist Research and the publication of Andre Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism to the Prague Spring - in any case, these time limits are defined by Alain and Odette Virmo.

In their encyclopedic study “Masters of World Surrealism”, they wrote: “Surrealism, no doubt, like no other movement, left the deepest mark in the history of the twentieth century. It was absorbed, sometimes involuntarily, by several successive generations, having crossed the line of May 1968, on our entire planet. This is also evidenced by the work of domestic masters of painting, sculpture and graphics, who are by no means epigones, unconditional adherents of surrealism or bearers of its postulates. With regard to many of them, it is generally unjustified to speak of any direct influence of the concepts of "pure mental automatism", "paranoiac-critical doctrines" or other, conditional paraphernalia characteristic of the assessments of this movement. Of course, we find certain echoes with the legacy of Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Victor Brauner, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Joan Miro in the works of a number of Russian artists of the post-war generation, which by no means means their direct connection with the surrealist tradition, but, on the contrary, testifies to the independent nature of such a phenomenon. An example of a special detached parallelism, independent of spectator associations and art criticism comparisons, are individual works such our masters as Alexander Rukavishnikov, Sergey Sharov, Andrey Kostin, Igor Makarevich, Andrey Esionov, Valery Maloletkov, Konstantin Khudyakov. The creativity of each of them is in itself deeply individual and separate from the general, collective tendencies. At the same time, we know many interesting and original authors who continue, asserting their role, to develop surrealist ideas, following well-known principles and canons, which does not detract from the merits of their art. This is Evgeny Shef (Sheffer), now living in Berlin; Viktor Krotov, based in Moscow and Paris; Sergei Chaikun, Sergei Potapov, Oleg Safronov, Alla Bedina, Mikhail Gorshunov, Yuri Yakovenko, Alexander Kalugin.

A predisposition to phantasmagoria, mysteries, buffoonery, the playful basis of creativity allows us to talk about a certain surrealistic vision of the world by Alexander Sitnikov, the mediated perception of reality in the works of Valery Vradiy with other threads connects the artist with this phenomenon in art, as well as Vladimir Lobanov, but in a completely different way. perspective.

In the artistic culture of Russia, one can find many brilliant examples of surrealistic figurative thinking, primarily in literature, in the legacy of N.V. Gogol, M.A. Bulgakov, Daniil Kharms. Perhaps it is here that one should look for the origins, the roots of interpretative pluralism, which was one of the motives for the emergence of surrealism as historical phenomenon on Russian soil.

Unlike foreign authors who cultivate various aspects, themes and techniques of "historical surrealism", Russian authors are dominated by other emotional and semantic dominants and associative series. Brutality, aggression - indispensable components of metaphysical, occult imagery in the work of the Western representatives of this movement - have actually been reduced to nothing by our masters. In the works of Russian carriers of surrealistic thinking, other subconscious motivations, sensations and premonitions predominate. Their sacred metapsychosis is associated with a special romantic sensitivity, a special intuitionism. In the work of domestic followers of surrealism, of course, there are dramatic metamorphoses, which are rather a confirmation of sacrifice not in the name, but in spite of the attitudes towards the mutation of spiritual consciousness, towards the destructive pathos of aggressive resistance to everything that exists. We have more sentimentalism, self-flagellation and detachment than instinctive submission of everyone and everything to some super-task.

The game culture, metaphor and grotesqueness of Russian art also bring into the surrealist strategy a taste of failed sensual expectations and desires, a kind of passive, otherworldly contemplation, although not excluding spontaneous demonism and courage.

The French literary critic, semiotician, philosopher J. Derrida argued: "The literal meaning does not exist, its "appearance" is a necessary function - and it should be analyzed as such in a system of differences and metaphors." Of course, to a greater extent these words refer to research literary texts, and, nevertheless, the literary, linguistic, philosophical methodology of studying the material in this case seems acceptable for understanding the heritage of surrealist art, the key to interpreting the works created by its founders and followers.

In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the words of Salvador Dali. The great mystifier, myth and reality of art of the 20th century wrote: “...when the Renaissance wanted to imitate Immortal Greece, Raphael came out of it. Ingres wanted to imitate Raphael, from this came Ingres. Cezanne wanted to imitate Poussin - Cezanne turned out. Dali wanted to imitate Meissonier. OUT OF THIS IS DALI. Nothing comes of those who do not want to imitate anything.

And I want to know about it. After Pop Art and Op Art, Art Pompier will appear, but such art will be multiplied by everything that is of value, and by all, even the most insane, experiments in this grandiose tragedy called "Modern Art".

Surrealism, as a new phenomenon of artistic culture, has become a logical continuation of Dadaism, the search for a special metalanguage with which one could find an explanation or give an analysis of another language - the subject. One of the main historical merits of surrealism is that it united outstanding poets and artists, cinematographers and musicians around the declared ideas, who personify the great era of “storm and stress”. These are Tristan Tzara and Antonin Artaud, Philippe Soupault and Andre Breton, Andre Suri and Luis Buñuel, Andre Masson and Alberto Giacometti, Hans Arp and Eric Satie, Yves Tanguy and Pablo Neruda, Francis Picabia and Pablo Picasso, Paul Eluard and Suze Takiguchi, El Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, Max Ernst and Man Ray, Wilfredo Lahm and Paul Klee, Pavel Chelishchev and Fritz Van den Berghe, whose names are perceived as synonymous with the brightest luminaries in the sky of art of the past century, shining on the horizons of egoistic globalization of their own individualism. We also include our compatriots among them, according to the art criticism classification, however, they were far from surrealistic sermons), such as Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Pavel Filonov. “What is not born internally,” Kandinsky wrote, “is stillborn.” It is this thesis that confirms the viability of surrealism as a timeless phenomenon, since the entire “avant-garde” is nothing more than intellectual game no rules.

Let us recall Salvador Dali and his works again: time has shown an unfading interest in the personality and work of the Spanish genius in the new millennium. Convincing confirmation was the exhibition of the master's works, which were visited by hundreds of thousands of spectators. Among them is the exposition at the Pushkin Museum named after A.S. Pushkin in Moscow in 2011, the largest retrospective of works by S. Dali at the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2012-2013, a Paris exhibition of 22 street artists from different countries at the Dali Museum in Montmartre in 2014-2015, which featured little-known works by contemporary artists Fred Calmets, Jérôme Menage, Arnaud Rabier, Valeria Attinelli and other representatives of street art.

The words of Andre Malraux are true: “We exist to live, art - to come to life” - to come to life in our imagination, subconscious, memory, to be in demand. Just as Dali was inspired by the images created by Bernini, Vermeer of Delft, Velasquez, Meissonier, Millet, so the new generations of artists for whom he remains an idol will always admire and be surprised by his fantastic mirages, mysteries, discover in them for themselves and for the world the infinite depth of Genius.

Thousands of books and songs have been written about Salvador Dali, many films have been shot, but it is not necessary to watch, read and listen to all this - after all, there are his paintings. The ingenious Spaniard proved by his own example that a whole universe lives in every person and immortalized himself in canvases that will be in the center of attention of all mankind for more than one century. Dali has long been not just an artist, but something like a global cultural meme. How do you like the opportunity to feel like a reporter for a yellow newspaper and delve into the dirty linen of a genius?

1. Grandfather's suicide

In 1886, Gal Josep Salvador, Dali's paternal grandfather, took his own life. The grandfather of the great artist suffered from depression and persecution mania, and in order to annoy everyone who “follows” him, he decided to leave this mortal world.

Once he went out to the balcony of his apartment on the third floor and began to shout that he had been robbed and tried to kill him. The arriving police were able to convince the unfortunate man not to jump from the balcony, but as it turned out, only for a while - six days later, Gal nevertheless rushed from the balcony upside down and died suddenly.

The Dali family understandably tried to avoid publicity, so the suicide was hushed up. There was not a word about suicide in the death certificate, only a note that Gal died "from a traumatic brain injury", so the suicide was buried according to the Catholic rite. For a long time, relatives hid the truth about the death of their grandfather from Gal's grandchildren, but the artist eventually found out about this unpleasant story.

2. Addiction to masturbation

As a teenager, Salvador Dali loved, so to speak, to measure penises with classmates, and he called his "small, pathetic and soft." The early erotic experiences of the future genius did not end with these harmless pranks: somehow a pornographic novel fell into his hands and he was most struck by the episode where main character boasted that he "could make a woman squeak like a watermelon." The young man was so impressed with the power artistic image that, remembering this, he reproached himself for his inability to do the same with women.

In the autobiography secret life Salvador Dali" (in the original - "The Unspeakable Confessions of Salvador Dali") the artist admits: "For a long time it seemed to me that I was impotent." Probably, in order to overcome this oppressive feeling, Dali, like many boys of his age, was engaged in masturbation, to which he was so addicted that throughout the life of a genius, masturbation was his main, and sometimes even the only way of sexual satisfaction. At that time, it was believed that masturbation could lead a person to insanity, homosexuality and impotence, so the artist was constantly in fear, but could not help himself.

3. Dali associated sex with putrefaction.

One of the complexes of the genius arose through the fault of his father, who once (on purpose or not) left a book on the piano, which was full of colorful photographs of male and female genitalia, disfigured by gangrene and other diseases. Having studied the pictures that fascinated and at the same time terrified him, Dali Jr. lost interest in contacts with the opposite sex for a long time, and sex, as he later admitted, became associated with decay, decay and decay.

Of course, the artist's attitude to sex was noticeably reflected in his canvases: fears and motives for destruction and decay (most often depicted in the form of ants) are found in almost every work. For example, in The Great Masturbator, one of his most significant paintings, there is a downward looking human face, from which a woman "grows", most likely written off from the wife and muse of Dali Gala. A locust sits on the face (the genius experienced an inexplicable horror of this insect), on the abdomen of which ants crawl - a symbol of decomposition. The woman's mouth is pressed against the groin of the man standing next to him, which hints at oral sex, while cuts bleed on the man's legs, indicating the artist's fear of castration, which he experienced as a child.

4. Love is evil

In his youth, one of Dali's closest friends was the famous Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. There were rumors that Lorca even tried to seduce the artist, but Dali himself denied this. Many contemporaries of the great Spaniards said that for Lorca the love union of the painter and Elena Dyakonova, later known as Gala Dali, was an unpleasant surprise - supposedly the poet was convinced that the genius of surrealism could only be happy with him. I must say, despite all the gossip, there is no exact information about the nature of the relationship between the two prominent men.

Many researchers of the artist's life agree that before meeting Gala, Dali remained a virgin, and although at that time Gala was married to another, had an extensive collection of lovers, in the end she was ten years older than him, the artist was fascinated by this woman. Art historian John Richardson wrote about her: “One of the most obnoxious wives that a modern successful artist could choose. It's enough to get to know her to start hating her." At one of the first meetings with Gala, he asked what she wanted from him. This, no doubt, an outstanding woman replied: “I want you to kill me” - after such a Dali immediately fell in love with her, completely and irrevocably.

Dali's father could not stand his son's passion, mistakenly believing that she was using drugs and was forcing the artist to sell them. The genius insisted on continuing the relationship, as a result of which he was left without his father's inheritance and went to Paris to his beloved, but before that, in protest, he shaved his head baldly and "buried" his hair on the beach.

5 Voyeur Genius

There is an opinion that Salvador Dali received sexual satisfaction from watching others make love or masturbate. The ingenious Spaniard even spied on his own wife when she took a bath, confessed to the "exhilarating experience of a voyeur" and called one of his paintings "Voyeur".

Contemporaries whispered that the artist arranges orgies at his home every week, but if this is true, most likely he himself did not take part in them, being content with the role of a spectator. One way or another, Dali's antics shocked and annoyed even the depraved bohemia - art critic Brian Sewell, describing his acquaintance with the artist, said that Dali asked him to take off his pants and masturbate, lying in a fetal position under the statue of Jesus Christ in the painter's garden. According to Sewell, Dali made similar strange requests to many of his guests.

Singer Cher recalls that once she and her husband Sonny went to visit the artist, and he looked like he had just participated in an orgy. When Cher began to twirl the beautifully painted rubber rod in her hands, the genius solemnly informed her that it was a vibrator.

6. George Orwell: "He's sick and his paintings are disgusting"

In 1944 famous writer dedicated an essay to the artist entitled "The Privilege of Spiritual Shepherds: Notes on Salvador Dali", in which he expressed the opinion that the artist's talent makes people consider him impeccable and perfect.

Orwell wrote: “Tomorrow come back to the land of Shakespeare and find that his favorite entertainment in free time- rape little girls in railroad cars, we shouldn't tell him to keep going just because he's capable of writing another King Lear. You need the ability to keep in mind both facts at the same time: the one that Dali is a good draftsman, and the one that he is a disgusting person.

The writer also notes the pronounced necrophilia and coprophagia (craving for excrement) present in Dali's canvases. One of the most famous works of this kind is considered the "Gloomy Game", written in 1929 - at the bottom of the masterpiece is a man stained with feces. Similar details are present in the later works of the painter.

In his essay, Orwell concludes that "people [like Dali] are undesirable, and the society in which they can flourish has some flaws." It can be said that the writer himself admitted his unjustified idealism: after all, the human world has never been and never will be perfect, and Dali's impeccable canvases are one of the clearest evidence of this.

7. Hidden Faces

Salvador Dali wrote his only novel in 1943, when he was in the United States with his wife. Among other things, in the literary work that came out from under the hand of the painter, there are descriptions of the antics of eccentric aristocrats in the Old World engulfed in fire and drenched in blood, while the artist himself called the novel "an epitaph to pre-war Europe."

If the artist's autobiography can be considered a fantasy disguised as truth, then "Hidden Faces" is more likely a truth pretending to be fiction. In the book, which was sensational at the time, there is such an episode - Adolf Hitler, who won the war in his residence "Eagle's Nest", tries to brighten up his loneliness with priceless masterpieces of art from all over the world spread around, Wagner's music plays, and the Fuhrer makes semi-delusional speeches about Jews and Jesus Christ.

Reviews for the novel were generally favorable, although The Times literary reviewer criticized the novel's whimsical style, excessive adjectives, and chaotic plot. At the same time, for example, a critic from The Spectator magazine wrote about Dali's literary experience: "It's a psychotic mess, but I liked it."

8. Beats, so ... a genius?

The year 1980 was a turning point for the elderly Dali - the artist was paralyzed and, unable to hold a brush in his hands, he stopped writing. For a genius, this was akin to torture - he had not been balanced before, but now he began to break down with or without reason, besides, he was very annoyed by the behavior of Gala, who spent the money earned from the sale of her brilliant husband’s paintings on young fans and lovers, gave them themselves masterpieces, and also often disappeared from home for several days.

The artist began to beat his wife, so much so that one day he broke two of her ribs. To calm her husband, Gala gave him Valium and other sedatives, and once Dali slipped a large dose of a stimulant, which caused irreparable damage to the psyche of a genius.
The painter's friends organized the so-called "Salvation Committee" and sent him to the clinic, but by that time the great artist was a pitiful sight - a thin, shaking old man, constantly in fear that Gala would leave him for the actor Jeffrey Fenholt, performer leading role in the Broadway production of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.

9. Instead of skeletons in the closet - the corpse of his wife in the car

On June 10, 1982, Gala left the artist, but not for the sake of another man - the 87-year-old muse of a genius died in a hospital in Barcelona. According to her will, Dali was going to bury his beloved in his Pubol castle in Catalonia, but for this her body had to be taken out without legal red tape and without attracting too much attention from the press and the public.

The artist found a way out, creepy, but witty - he ordered Gala to be dressed, "put" the corpse in the back seat of her Cadillac, and a nurse supporting the body was located nearby. The deceased was taken to Pubol, embalmed and dressed in her favorite red Dior dress, and then buried in the crypt of the castle. The inconsolable husband spent several nights kneeling in front of the grave and exhausted with horror - their relationship with Gala was difficult, but the artist could not imagine how he would live without her. Dali lived in the castle almost until his death, sobbed for hours and told that he saw various animals - he began to hallucinate.

10. Infernal invalid

A little over two years after the death of his wife, Dali again experienced a real nightmare - on August 30, the bed in which the 80-year-old artist was sleeping caught fire. The cause of the fire was a short circuit in the lock's electrical wiring, presumably caused by the old man's constant fiddling with the maid button attached to his pajamas.

When a nurse came running to the noise of the fire, she found the paralyzed genius lying at the door in a semi-conscious state and immediately rushed to give him artificial respiration from mouth to mouth, although he tried to fight back and called her "bitch" and "murderer". The genius survived, but suffered second-degree burns.

After the fire, Dali became completely unbearable, although he did not have an easy character before. A publicist from Vanity Fair noted that the artist turned into a "disabled person from hell": he deliberately stained bed sheets, scratched the face of the nurses and refused to eat and take medicine.

After recovering, Salvador Dali moved to the neighboring town of Figueres, his theater-museum, where he died on January 23, 1989. The Great Artist once said that he hopes to be resurrected, therefore he wants his body to be frozen after death, but instead, according to his will, he was embalmed and immured in the floor of one of the rooms of the theater-museum, where it is located to this day.

We can say with confidence that people who have not heard of Dali simply do not exist. Some know him by his work, which reflected an entire era in the life of mankind, others by the outrageousness with which he lived and painted.

All the works of Salvador Dali are worth millions these days, and there are always connoisseurs of creativity who are ready to pay the necessary amount for the canvas.

Dali and his childhood

The first thing to say about the great artist is that he is a Spaniard. By the way, Dali was incredibly proud of his nationality and was a true patriot of his country. The family in which he was born determined him in many ways life path, position features. The mother of the great creator was a deeply religious person, while his father was a convinced atheist. From childhood, Salvador Dali was immersed in an atmosphere of ambiguity, some ambivalence.

The author of paintings, valued in millions, was a rather weak student. Restless character, irrepressible desire for expression own opinion, too violent imagination did not allow him to achieve great success in learning, however, as an artist, Dali showed himself quite early. Ramon Pichot was the first to notice his ability to draw, who directed the talent of the fourteen-year-old creator in the right direction. So already at the age of fourteen, the young artist presented his work at an exhibition held in Figueres.

Youth

The works of Salvador Dali allowed him to enter the Madrid Academy of Fine Arts, but the young and even then outrageous artist did not stay there for a long time. Being convinced of his exclusivity, he was soon expelled from the academy. Later, in 1926, Dali decided to continue his studies, but was again expelled, already without the right to restoration.

A huge role in the life of the young artist was played by his acquaintance with Luis Bonuel, who later became one of the most famous directors working in the genre of surrealism, and Federico, who went down in history as one of the brightest poets in Spain.

Expelled from the Academy of Arts, the young artist did not hide his own, which allowed him to organize his own exhibition in his youth, which was visited by the great Pablo Picasso.

Muse of Salvador Dali

Of course, any creator needs a muse. For Dali, it was Gala Eluard, who was on

The moment of meeting the great surrealist is married. A deep, all-consuming passion became the impetus for Gala to leave her husband and to active creativity for Salvador Dali himself. The beloved became for the surrealist not only an inspirer, but also a kind of manager. Thanks to her efforts, the work of Salvador Dali became known in London, New York and Barcelona. The glory of the artist has acquired a completely different scale.

Glory Avalanche

As it should be any creative nature, the artist Dali was constantly developing, striving forward, improving and transforming the technique. Of course, this led to significant changes in his life, the smallest of which was the removal from the list of surrealists. However, this did not affect his career in any way. Thousands, and then multimillion-dollar exhibitions gained momentum. The realization of greatness came to the artist after the publication of his autobiography, which sold out in record time.

Most famous works

A person who does not know a single work of Salvador Dali simply does not exist, but few can name at least a few works of the great artist. All over the world, the creations of the outrageous artist are kept like the apple of an eye and are shown to millions of visitors to museums and exhibitions.

Salvador Dali the most famous paintings almost always painted in a certain outburst of feelings, as a result of a certain emotional outburst. For example, “Self-portrait with a Raphaelian neck” was written after the death of the artist’s mother, which became a real mental trauma for Dali, which he repeatedly admitted.

The Persistence of Memory is one of Dali's most famous works. It is this picture that has several different names that coexist equally in art history circles. In this case, the canvas depicts the place where the artist lived and worked - Port Lligata. Many researchers of creativity claim that the deserted coast reflects in this picture the inner emptiness of the creator himself. Salvador Dali "Time" (as this picture is also called) painted under the impression of the melting of Camembert cheese, from which, perhaps, appeared key images masterpiece. The clock, which takes on completely unthinkable forms on the canvas, symbolizes the human perception of time and memory. The Persistence of Memory is definitely one of the most profound and thoughtful works of Salvador Dali.

Variety of creativity

It's no secret that the paintings of Salvador Dali are very different from each other. A certain period in the artist's life is characterized by one or another manner, style, a certain direction. By the time when the creator publicly declared: "Surrealism is me!" - includes works written from 1929 to 1934. Such paintings as "William Tell", "Evening Ghost", "Bleeding Roses" and many others belong to this period.

The listed works are significantly different from the paintings of the period limited to 1914 and 1926, when Dali Salvador kept his work within certain limits. early works the master of outrageousness is characterized by greater uniformity, regularity, greater calmness, and to some extent greater realism. Among these paintings, one can single out “Feast in Figueres”, “Portrait of my father”, written in 1920-1921, “View of Cadaques from Mount Pani”.

Salvador Dali painted the most famous paintings after 1934. Since that time, the artist's method has become "paranoid-critical." In this vein, the creator worked until 1937. Among the paintings written by Dali at that time, the most famous paintings were the “Pliable structure with boiled beans (Premonition civil war)" and "Atavistic Remains of Rain"

The "paranoid-critical" period was followed by the so-called American. It was at this time that Dali wrote his famous "Dream", "Galarina" and "A dream inspired by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate, a moment before awakening."

The work of Salvador Dali acquires more and more tension over time. The American period is followed by a period of nuclear mysticism. The painting "Sodom self-satisfaction of an innocent maiden" was written at this time. In the same period, in 1963, the "Ecumenical Council" was written.

Dali calms down

The time from 1963 to 1983 is called the period of "last role" by art historians. The works of these years are calmer than the previous ones. They have a clear geometry, very confident graphics, not smooth, melting, but clear and fairly strict lines prevail. Here you can highlight the famous "Warrior", written in 1982, or "The Appearance of a Face in a Landscape".

Lesser known Dali

Few people know, but Salvador Dali created the most not only on canvas and wood, and not only with the help of paints. The artist's acquaintance with Luis Bonuel not only largely determined the further direction of Dali's work, but was also reflected in the painting "The Andalusian Dog", which at one time shocked the audience. It was this film that became a kind of slap in the face of the bourgeoisie.

Soon the paths of Dali and Bonuel diverged, but their joint work went down in history.

Dali and outrageous

Even the appearance of the artist suggests that this nature is deeply creative, unusual and striving for a new, unknown.

Dali was never distinguished by the desire for a calm, traditional appearance. On the contrary, he was proud of his unusual antics and used them in every way to his advantage. About his own mustache, for example, the artist wrote a book, calling them "antennas for the perception of art."

In an impulse to impress Dali, he decided to spend one of his own meetings in a diving suit, as a result of which he almost suffocated.

Dali Salvador put his creativity above all else. The artist won fame in the most unforeseen, strangest ways that one can even imagine. He bought $2 dollar bills, then sold a book about the stock for a huge amount of money. The artist defended the right of his installations to exist by destroying them and bringing them to the police.

Salvador Dali left behind the most famous paintings in huge numbers. However, as well as memories of his strange, incomprehensible character and worldview.

Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) was Spanish artist, who is best known for his work in Surrealism, an influential 20th-century movement primarily in art and literature. The surrealist artist rejected the rational in art; and instead targeted the unconscious to unlock the power of the imagination. Dali used extensive symbolism in his work. Recurring images in his paintings show elephants with fragile legs; ants, which were considered a symbol of decay and death; and the melting of the clock, perhaps symbolic of the non-linear human perception of time. Dali's contribution to surrealism includes the paranoid-critical method. Dali became the most influential Surrealist painter; and perhaps the most famous artist of the twentieth century after Pablo Picasso.

In this article, we are ready to present you the most famous paintings Salvador Dali with their description and photo.

Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate, a second before awakening

Salvador Dalí said that the piece was to "for the first time express in pictures Freud's discovery of the typical dream with a long story, the consequence of a momentary accident that causes the sleeping person to wake up." This is shown by the sleeping figure of the artist's wife, Gala Dali, floating above the rock. Next to her naked body, two drops of water, a pomegranate and a bee are also airborne. Gala's dream is caused by the buzzing of a bee and is depicted in the upper half of the canvas. In the sequence of images, the grenades open to release a giant red fish, from whose mouth two ferocious tigers appear along with a bayonet, which will soon awaken Gala from her peaceful sleep. The elephant, later a recurring image in Dali's work, is a distorted version of the "Elephant and Obelisk", a sculpture of the famous Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

giraffe on fire

The work "Giraffe on Fire" is considered as an expression of Salvador Dali's personal struggle with the civil war taking place in his native country. The canvas depicts two female figures with indefinite phallic forms protruding from their backs. The arms, forearms, and face of the nearest figure are trimmed down to muscle tissue under the skin. On the contrary, drawers protruding from the figure's left leg and chest open. Salvador Dali was a big fan of the famous neurologist Sigmund Freud and some of Dali's paintings were influenced by Freudian theories. These open boxes can be attributed to Freud's psychoanalytic method and refer to the inner, subconscious within a person. The live image of a giraffe in the background was described by Dali as a "male cosmic apocalyptic monster". He considered it a premonition of war.

The paranoid-critical method is a Surrealist technique developed by Salvador Dali in the early 1930s. It was used by the artist to use his subconscious through systematic irrational thought and a self-induced paranoid state. Considered one of the main achievements of surrealism, Dali used it in several of his paintings, especially those associated with optical illusions and other multiple images. According to Greek mythology, Narcissus, known for his beauty, fell in love with his reflection in the water. Dali's interpretation of the Greek myth, this painting shows Narcissus sitting in a pool looking down. The painting "Metamorphoses of Narcissus" was created by Dali during his paranoid-critical period and is one of his most famous works.

Swans reflected in elephants

Double images were important part Dali's paranoid-critical method. Like Narcissus's Metamorphosis, this piece uses a reflection in a lake to create a double image. The three swans in front of the trees are reflected in the lake so that their necks become the elephants of the elephants and the trees become the legs of the elephants. The landscape contrasts with the stillness of the lake, as Dalí painted swirl-like images to depict the background rocks and skies. Swans reflecting elephants are considered an iconic painting in Surrealism as it boosts the popularity of the double image style. This is the most famous double image created by Salvador Dali; his greatest masterpiece using the paranoid-critical method; and one of the most famous works in surrealism.

By the way, speaking of lakes, we recall that on our website there is a very interesting article with photos about the amazing complex.

This painting was created by Salvador Dali at the end of his famous career and is considered his last great masterpiece. He spent two summers to create artwork, in which, in addition to surrealism, he used such styles as action painting, pop art, pointillism, geometric abstraction and psychedelic art. including pictures ancient Greek sculpture in modern cinema, the picture "Catching Tuna" depicts a fierce struggle between men and large fish, as the personification of a limited universe. The painting is dedicated to Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, French artist XIX century, known for his images of battle scenes. According to Dali, the work "Catching Tuna" is his most important work.

In 1929, Salvador Dali met his muse, who later became his wife. This canvas was created in the same year and is believed to reflect the erotic transformation that the artist underwent due to her arrival in his life. The main yellow area in the painting represents the artist's dream. From his mind emerges a vision, probably representing an erotic fantasy, of a naked female figure, reminiscent of his muse, drawn to the genitals of a man, presumably an artist. Like many of the author's works, the bizarre self-portrait also suffers from additives such as a fish hook, bleeding cuts, ants crawling across his face, and a grasshopper tied to his face. This work is a glorification of something that is usually ridiculed and belongs to the most controversial paintings by Dali.

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Salvador Dali was inspired by nuclear physics and theories of the decay of the atom. This was also the time when he renewed his interest in Catholicism. Relegated to his period "Nuclear Mysticism", in which his writings often used the ideas of modern science as a means of rationalizing the Christian religion. Realizing that matter is made up of atoms, Dali forced his works to disintegrate into several atoms. This painting is a portrait of Gala Dali, his wife and muse. Her face is made up of densely populated spheres representing atomic particles, which lend a marvelous three-dimensional effect to the canvas. Galatea in the title refers to a sea nymph in classical mythology named Galatea, who was famous for her virtue. Galatea with spheres is one of the most famous paintings of Dalí's period of nuclear mysticism.

Christ of Saint John of the Cross

This painting is known as Christ of Saint John of the Cross because its design is based on a drawing by the 16th-century Spanish friar John of the Cross. The composition consists of a triangle, which is formed by the hands of Christ and the horizontal of the cross; and the circle, which is formed by the head of Christ. The triangle can be seen as a reference to the Holy Trinity, while the circle can represent unity, that is, all things exist in three. Although the painting is an image of the crucifixion, it is devoid of nails and blood. According to Dali, the inspiration for the painting came to him through a cosmic dream in which he was convinced that the image of nails and blood spoiled his image of Christ. Christ of St John of the Cross was chosen as Scotland's favorite painting in 2006 and is considered by many to be the greatest religious painting of the twentieth century.

Salvador Dali wrote this masterpiece six months before the start of the Spanish Civil War. He claimed to have known about the war because of "the prophetic power of his subconscious". The painting reflects his anxiety at the time and foretells the horror and violence of war. It depicts two bodies, one darker than the other, in a terrible fight where neither is victorious. The monstrous creature is self-destructive, just like the Civil War. Dali made sure that the picture looked very realistic, despite fantasy creature which she depicts. The boiled beans in the painting, which are also mentioned in the title, are possibly an interpretation of the stew that was eaten by the poor citizens living in hard time in Spain. "Soft construction with boiled beans" is considered one of the greatest masterpieces Dali and is famous for his unparalleled use of surrealism depicting the horrors of war.

In The Dream, Dali recreated the appearance of a large, soft head and an almost absent body. However, in this case, the face is not a self-portrait. Sleep and dreams are excellence in the realm of the unconscious. Crutches have always been Dalí's trademark, alluding to the fragility of the supporting sides that support "reality", but here nothing, not even the dog, seems to be inherently stable as it is propped up. Everything that is depicted on the canvas, except for the head, is bathed in a pale bluish light, complementing the feeling of alienation from the world. daylight and rationality. In The Dream, Salvador Dali returned to the classic surrealist motif. Dreams are the essence of many Freudian theories due to their access to the unconscious, a pre-professional topic for surrealists, including Dali.

The Persistence of Memory

This iconic and replicated painting depicts a scene with a clock slowly melting on rocks and a tree branch, with the ocean as the backdrop. Dali used the concept of hard and soft in this painting. This concept can be illustrated in several ways, such as the human mind moving from the softness of a dream to the hardness of reality. In his masterpiece, Dali uses melting clocks and stones to represent the soft and hard aspects of the world respectively. Over the years, the persistence of memory has been analyzed a lot, since Dali never explained his work. The melting clock is considered an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time; as a symbol of mortality with ants surrounding a clock representing decay; and as the irrationality of dreams. The work "The Persistence of Memory" is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of art of the twentieth century. This work is not only included in the list of "The most famous paintings of Dali", but is also the most famous work in surrealism.

And what works of the great master of surrealism do you like? Write about it in the comments.

Date of birth: May 11, 1904.
Date of death: January 23, 1989.
Full name: Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali and Domenech, Marquis de Pubol (Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali "i Dome`nech, Marque" s de Pu "bol).
Spanish artist, painter, sculptor, director.

“The difference between the surrealists and me is that the surrealist is me.” – Salvador Dali

“I go, and scandals run after me in a crowd”

Nothing foreshadowed that a child would be born in the wealthy family of the notary Don Salvador Dali y Cusi, who would subsequently turn the classical concepts of drawing methods upside down, greatest genius era of surrealism. But it happened - a boy was born, who was named Salvador Dali. This event took place near Barcelona in the Spanish town of Figueres in 1904.

At the age of 12, Dali graduated from art school. Having persuaded his parents, at the age of 17 he entered the San Fernando Academy of Arts in Madrid. He will be "asked out" in 1926 for inappropriate attitude towards the academic council and teachers. But by that time, his exhibition had already taken place in Barcelona, ​​​​and the artist’s works attracted close attention in artistic circles. In Paris, where Jean-Leon Gerome himself once worked, he meets Picasso, who had a huge influence on his work. Dali will pay tribute to his newfound friend with the painting "Flesh on the Stones" (1926).

In the works of that period, the influence of cubism is visible - "Young Women" (1923). An example of a completely different style was a painting painted in 1928 and exhibited at International Exhibition Carnegie in Pittsburgh - "Basket of Bread" (1925).

Like all artists of that time, Dali worked in a wide variety of fashion styles. In the works of the period from 1914 to 1927, the influence of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Caravaggio is visible. But gradually, notes of surrealism begin to appear in the paintings.

"Surrealism is me"

Salvador Dali began to realize that the era of cubism was over, and, working in the classical style, he would get lost among the rest of the same artists as himself. Therefore, he chose the most optimal path for the realization of his talent and ambition. The theory of surrealism corresponded very well to this. The first paintings in this style: "Venus and the Sailor" (1925), "A Flying Woman", "Honey is Sweeter than Blood" (1941), etc.

1929 was a turning point for Salvador Dali - two events happened that radically influenced his life and work:

Firstly, the artist met with Gala Eluard, who later became his assistant, mistress, muse, wife. Since then, they have not parted, despite the fact that the woman at that time was married to his friend Paul Eluard. From the very beginning of their acquaintance, Gala became a salvation for the artist from a mental crisis. Dali once said: "I love Gala more than my mother, more than my father, more than Picasso and even more than money." The artist created a magnificent cult of Gala, who has since appeared in many of his works, including in the divine guise.

Secondly, Dali officially joined the Parisian surrealist movement. And in 1929, his exhibition was held at the Herman Gallery in Paris, after which fame came to the artist.

In the same year, Salvador Dali and his friend Luis Buñuel created the script for the film Andalusian Dog. It was Dali who came up with the most shocking scene known so far, where a human eye is cut in half with a razor.

Dali's father, enraged by his relationship with Gala, forbade his son to appear in his house. The artist worked hard to earn some money. It was at this time that the painting "The Persistence of Memory" was created, which became a symbol of the concept of the relativity of time.

Although the artist often expressed the idea that the events in the world did not bother him much, he was still very worried about the fate of Spain. The result was the painting "Pliable Structure with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)" (1935).

In 1940, while in America, the master wrote his the best book"The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, written by himself." The artist's ability to work is amazing, he can work as an artist, decorator, jeweler, portrait painter, illustrator, makes scenery for Alfred Hitchcock's films, for example, Spellbound in 1945. After the explosion over Hiroshima in 1945. Dali expresses his attitude to this with the painting “The Splitting of the Atom”.

In 1965, the artist met Amanda Lear, and their strange relationship would last over 20 years. She will tell her story many years later in the book Gave Through Amanda's Eyes.

Starting in 1970, Salvador Dali's health began to deteriorate rapidly, but his creative energy did not decrease. At this time, the painting "Hallucinogenic Torrero" (1968-1970) was created. Dali's popularity was crazy. He painted pictures based on many masterpieces of world literature: the Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy, Ovid's Art of Love, Freud's God and Monotheism.

"My whole life has been theater"

In 1961 the mayor of Figueres asked the artist to present a painting to Dali's native city. The master decided to develop the idea in 1974. on the site of the old city theater erected his own museum. A giant spherical dome was raised above the stage, and auditorium divided into sectors, each of which represents a certain era in the work of Dali. Intricate interior spaces, nested floors, a courtyard with sculls, where the visitor is dizzy - all this serves as a symbol of the artist's work and invariably attracts tourists from all over the world.

After the death of Gala in 1982, the artist's health deteriorated, and he threw himself into work. Dali paints pictures inspired by the heads of Moses and Adam, Giuliano de Medici. Last work"Dovetail" was completed in 1983, and in 1989, at the age of 84, the artist died of a heart attack. “My whole life was a theater,” and even during his lifetime, he bequeathed to bury himself so that people could walk on his grave. His body is immured in the floor of his theater museum.

Salvador Dali, like a magician, juggled images in his paintings. His works amazed contemporaries with the realism of fictitious images and plots, they were made in a grotesque manner inherent only to him: “ soft watch”,“ Flaming giraffe ”,“ A dream inspired by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate, a moment before awakening ”,“ The Last Supper". His work is controversial, and his artistic heritage is sold at auctions with highly controversial bids.

Dali created a myth about himself with his own hands, his image with a mustache a la Baron Munchausen is recognizable all over the world. Much is known about him, but more will never be known.