All the names of the sculptures of Salvador were given. "Authentic Sculptures" by Salvador Dali? Symbols of the Universe by Salvador Dali
Fears and fetish of a genius - Dali's symbolism
Having created his own, surreal world, Dali filled it with phantasmagoric creatures and mystical symbols. These symbols, reflecting obsessions, fears and objects of the master's fetish, "move" from one of his works to another throughout his creative life.
Dali's symbolism is not accidental (just as everything in life is not accidental, according to the maestro): being interested in Freud's ideas, the surrealist invented and used symbols in order to emphasize hidden meaning their works. Most often - to denote the conflict between the "hard" bodily shell of a person and his soft "fluid" emotional and mental content.
Symbolism of Salvador Dali in sculpture
The ability of these creatures to communicate with God worried Dali. Angels for him are a symbol of a mystical, sublime union. Most often, in the paintings of the master, they appear next to Gala, who for Dali was the embodiment of nobility, purity and connection bestowed by heaven.
ANGEL
the only painting in the world in which there is a still presence, a long-awaited meeting of two creatures against the backdrop of a deserted, gloomy, dead landscape
In every creation of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts (Ralph Emerson)
Salvador Dali " Fallen Angel" 1951
ANTS
Fear of the perishability of life arose in Dali as a child, when he watched with a mixture of horror and disgust how ants devour the remains of dead small animals. Since then, and for the rest of his life, ants have become for the artist a symbol of decay and rot. Although some researchers associate ants in Dali's work with a strong expression of sexual desire.
Salvador Dali “in the language of allusions and symbols, he designated conscious and active memory in the form of a mechanical clock and ants scurrying about in them, and the unconscious in the form of a soft watch that shows an indefinite time. PERMANENCE OF MEMORY thus depicts fluctuations between ups and downs in the state of wakefulness and sleep. His statement that “soft clocks become a metaphor for the flexibility of time” is saturated with uncertainty and lack of intrigue. Time can move in different ways: either flow smoothly or be corroded by corruption, which, according to Dali, meant decay, symbolized here by the bustle of insatiable ants.
BREAD
Perhaps the fact that Salvador Dali depicted bread in many works and used it to create surreal objects testified to his fear of poverty and hunger.
Dali has always been a big "fan" of bread. It is no coincidence that he used rolls to decorate the walls of the theatre-museum in Figueres. Bread combines several symbols at once. The appearance of the loaf reminds El Salvador of a hard phallic object, opposed to "soft" time and mind.
"Retrospective Bust of a Woman" 
In 1933, S. Dali created a bronze bust with a loaf of bread on his head, ants on his face and corn cobs as a necklace. It was sold for 300,000 euros.
Basket with bread
In 1926, Dali wrote "The Bread Basket" - a modest still life filled with reverent reverence for the little Dutch, Vermeer and Velazquez. On a black background, a white crumpled napkin, a wicker straw basket, a couple of pieces of bread. Written with a thin brush, no innovations, fierce school wisdom with an admixture of maniacal diligence.
CRUTCHES
One day, little Salvador found old crutches in the attic, and their purpose young genius strong impression. For a long time, the crutches became for him the embodiment of confidence and an arrogance never seen before. By participating in the creation Concise Dictionary Surrealism" in 1938, Salvador Dali wrote that crutches are a symbol of support, without which some soft structures are not able to keep their shape or vertical position.
One of Dali's frank mockery of the communist love André Breton and his leftist views. Main character according to Dali himself, this is Lenin in a cap with a huge visor. In The Diary of a Genius, Salvador writes that the baby is himself, yelling "He wants to eat me!". There are also crutches here - an indispensable attribute of Dali's work, which has retained its relevance throughout the artist's life. With these two crutches, the artist props up the visor and one of the thighs of the leader. It's not the only one notable work on this topic. Back in 1931, Dali wrote “Partial Hallucination. Six appearances of Lenin on the piano.
DRAWERS
The human bodies in many paintings and objects by Salvador Dali have drawers that open, symbolizing memory, as well as thoughts that you often want to hide. "Secrets of thought" - a concept borrowed from Freud and meaning the secret of hidden desires.
SALVADOR DALI
VENUS De MILO WITH DRAWERS 
Venus de Milo with drawers
,1936 Venus de Milo with Drawers Gypsum. Height: 98 cm Private collection
EGG
This symbol of Dali "found" among Christians and "modified" a little. In Dali's understanding, the egg not only symbolizes purity and perfection (as Christianity teaches), but gives a hint of the former life and rebirth, symbolizes intrauterine development.
“Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man”
Metamorphoses of Narcissus 1937 
You know, Gala (but, of course, you know) it's me. Yes, Narcissus is me.
The essence of metamorphosis is the transformation of the figure of a narcissus into a huge stone hand, and the head into an egg (or onion). Dali uses the Spanish proverb "The bulb in the head has sprouted", which denoted obsessions and complexes. The narcissism of a young man is a similar complex. The golden skin of Narcissus is a reference to the saying of Ovid (whose poem "Metamorphoses", which also told about Narcissus, was inspired by the idea of \u200b\u200bthe picture): "golden wax slowly melts and flows away from the fire ... so love melts and flows away."
ELEPHANTS
Huge and majestic elephants, symbolizing dominance and power, Dali always lean on long thin legs with a large number of kneecaps. So the artist shows the instability and unreliability of what seems unshakable.
IN "The Temptation of Saint Anthony"(1946) Dali placed the saint in the lower corner. A line of elephants, led by a horse, floats above it. Elephants carry temples with naked bodies on their backs. The artist wants to say that temptations are between heaven and earth. For Dali, sex was akin to mysticism.
Another key to understanding the picture lies in the decent appearance on the cloud Spanish El Escorial, a building that for Dali symbolized law and order, achieved through the fusion of the spiritual and the secular.
Swans reflected as elephants
LANDSCAPES
Most often, Dali's landscapes are made in a realistic manner, and their subjects resemble Renaissance paintings. The artist uses landscapes as a backdrop for his surreal collages. This is one of Dali's "signature" features - the ability to combine real and surreal objects on one canvas.
SOFT MELTED WATCH
Dali said that liquid is a material reflection of the indivisibility of space and the flexibility of time. One day after a meal, while looking at a piece of soft Camembert cheese, the artist found the perfect way to express man's changing perception of time - a soft clock. This symbol combines psychological aspect with extraordinary semantic expressiveness.
The Persistence of Memory (soft clocks) 1931 
One of the most famous paintings artist. Gala correctly predicted that no one, having seen The Persistence of Memory once, would forget it. The picture was painted as a result of the associations that arose in Dali at the sight of processed cheese.
SEA URCHIN
According to Dali, the sea urchin symbolizes the contrast that can be observed in human communication and behavior, when after the first unpleasant contact (similar to contact with the prickly surface of a hedgehog), people begin to recognize pleasant features in each other. In the sea urchin, this corresponds to a soft body with tender meat, which Dali loved to feast on.
Snail
Like sea urchin, the snail symbolizes the contrast between the external severity and rigidity and soft internal content. But in addition to this, Dali was delighted with the outlines of the snail, the exquisite geometry of its shell. During one of his bicycle outings from home, Dali saw a snail on the trunk of his bicycle and for a long time remembered the charm of this sight. Being sure that the snail was on a bicycle for a reason, the artist made it one of the key symbols of his work.
In Paris, in the heart of bustling Montmartre, there is the cradle of surrealism, a small but very cozy museum Spanish artist, writer and director, the brilliant Salvador Dali - a haven for tourists, art historians and freelance artists. The museum presents more than three hundred works of the author, mostly engravings, photographs and sculptures. By the way, the Dali Museum contains the most big collection his sculptures in Europe.
The exposition appeared in Montmartre not by chance. Dali often visited Paris both in student and in more mature years already having world fame behind them. Parisian meetings and acquaintances played a huge role in shaping the author's worldview and his further work. It was here, in Montmartre, that Dali met Picasso and, impressed by his work, was carried away by the “cubic whims” of the new direction in painting. After this acquaintance in his works, the author often turned to the style of "cubism".
Museum design
The Salvador Dali Museum welcomes not only local residents but also foreign visitors. For them, a printed guide or audio guide is offered in several languages, including Russian, annotations to many exhibits not only in French but also translated into English. You can start the tour by watching an introductory film about Dali, his life and work. Even a person who is not familiar with the work of the author, after watching the film, much will become clear.
The mystical halls of the museum are decorated in the style of surrealism in such a way that they perfectly convey outstanding personality the author himself. The exposition is accompanied by a sound design that reproduces the voice of Salvador Dali and very strange, to match his work, music.
"The Universe of Dali"
Salvador Dali had a particular weakness for sculpture, because only with the help of a three-dimensional image can one recreate his vision of the topic as clearly as possible. The museum, under the general name "Dali's Universe", consonant with the name of the author's permanent exhibition in London, presents such famous voluminous works by Salvador Dali as "Profile of Time", "The Snail and the Angel", "Alice in Wonderland", "Terpsichore's Homage ”,“ Cosmic Venus ”,“ St. George and the Dragon ”,“ Vision of an Angel ”,“ space elephant and even a sofa in the shape of the lips of actress Mae West. All sculptures are expressive and amazing, filled with philosophical sense and the essence of the author's worldview.
"Time Profile"
One of greatest works Dali - Profile of Time. What did the author want to tell us by creating this masterpiece? A person is subject to time, time is not subject to anyone and nothing, it flows inexorably, and everyone must go his own way.
"Vision of an Angel"
A man with branches instead of arms that aspire upwards towards the creator, and the legs-roots are firmly connected to the earth. And there is nothing we can do about our dual nature. The angel mourns, sitting aside and contemplating our hopelessness.
"Cosmic Venus"
The body of Venus is divided into parts - this is its all-encompassing essence, it is the universe, carrying on its broad shoulders the whole burden of being.
And again on the sculpture there is a clock as a symbol of passing time and aging, and right there an egg is a symbol of endlessly reborn life.
"Snail and Angel"
In the sculpture “Snail and Angel”, the snail is represented as a symbol of the slow passage of time, the course of which even an angel cannot speed up; in his hands is a crutch - a symbol of impotence. The spiral snail shell symbolizes the infinity of time.
The image of a snail was Dali's favorite, the author conveyed not only time with its help. First of all, it was for him an image of the ideal harmony of male and female. feminine, love and perfection. In the Parisian museum, many of the author's works carry this significant element, for example, fancy cutlery.
Engravings by Dali
The museum houses a complete collection of Dali's lithographs and engravings. Of particular interest are lithographs to famous literary works. For example, the series "Romeo and Juliet" - emotional illustrations for work of the same name Shakespeare, each of which is personally signed by the author; or engravings for Don Quixote, created by the author in an endless experiment; images from "Tristan and Isolde", from "Alice in Wonderland" and from other works that once interested Dali.
At the end of the exhibition you can see amazing photos of Salvador Dali and some interesting answers of the author to the interview.
Dali's work is very peculiar. Paradoxical combinations of incongruous forms, bizarre images, sometimes even chaotic, and "allusory" allusions to his own vision of the world and life are reflected in almost all of the author's works.
Each work of Salvador Dali is individual and requires internal reflection, so the Parisian exposition will be of interest to any visitor. And at the exit from the museum, you can look into the souvenir gallery and buy a piece of the “Dali Universe” as a keepsake.
How to get there
Address: 11 Rue Poulbot, Paris 75018Telephone: +33 1 42 64 40 10
Website: daliparis.com
Metro: Abbesses
Working hours: 10:00-18:00
Ticket price
- Adult: 11.50 €
- Discounted: 7.50 €
- Child: 6.50 €
The fact is that Dali himself did not cast sculptures at all: there is evidence that in 1969 - 1972 he embodied surrealistic images in ... wax. In his home in Port Ligat (as Dali's biographer Robert Descharnes wrote), the artist sometimes went to the pool and devoted several hours to modeling. Well, and then the old, like the world, story begins about the thirst for money and Dali's unscrupulousness in means: at first, in 1973, Dali entered into an agreement with the Spanish collector Isidro Clot, who bought wax figures and made four series of bronze castings. Actually, these are the most “genuine Dali sculptures”. The collector kept the first series for himself, the rest went to travel the world, along the way ... multiplying. Already at an advanced age, Dali sold the rights to reproduce sculptures, they were cast many times, sometimes in an increased size, and that is why sometimes a “Dali sculpture” appears on the market at a relatively affordable price. Auctions Sotheby's and Christie's for two whole years generally refused to accept the "Dali sculpture" for sale. Needless to say about the exhibitions of Dali's sculptures - the images, of course, are genuine, but all these are copies of copies. That is what miscalculated in 2013 the robbers, who, perhaps, thought to gain millions for the work stolen from the Paris exhibition - the famous "spreading clock"!
More or less originals can be considered, for example, such objects as the "Venus de Milo with boxes" (1936), from which the artist Marcel Duchamp, at the request of Dali, made a casting. Plaster Venus is real. But her twin sisters of the same form - again, "went into circulation."
The "Retrospective bust of a woman" created by Salvador Dali in 1933 for the Surrealist exhibition at the Pierre Colle Gallery (Paris) is also original. On the porcelain bust of a woman is placed a loaf of bread (a hat - sur!) And a bronze inkwell - the image of the painting "Angelus" by Jean-Francois Millet. Plus ants on the face, a paper "scarf", corn cobs on the shoulders. Just a parody of fashion! The original was ruined by... Picasso's dog. The exhibition was visited by an artist with a pet, and the dog ate a loaf! The whole idea, literally, down the drain ... Now the "reconstruction" of the work, but with a "fake" long loaf, is located in the Theater-Museum of Salvador Dali in Figueres.
Erarta Museum presents an exhibition of sculptures by Salvador Dali, the most famous surrealist artist in the world. In addition to painting, Dali made contributions in various fields of art. He is widely recognized as a writer, illustrator, jewelry designer, filmmaker and sculptor. An in-depth study of Dali's work with sculpture was the goal of this exhibition.
The founders and artists-adepts of surrealism as an art movement sought to challenge the idea of rationality and push the boundaries of their imagination. André Breton coined the term in his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto. According to him, surrealism should connect conscious and unconscious experiences, the spheres of sleep, fantasy and reality, and thus create some kind of “absolute reality, surreality” (from the French sur - over, i.e. “over-realism”, “over -realism").
Despite the fact that Dali is best known for his drawings and paintings, an important direction of the artist's work was the creation of a collection bronze sculptures.
In an effort to go beyond the boundaries of the two-dimensional space of the canvas, Dali turned to sculpture, which allowed him to most fully embody his surrealist vision and art forms in space. Dali himself created original models and designs cast in bronze during the artist's lifetime. All sculptures were cast in renowned international foundries in Europe using the wax model technique. This method, also known as cire perdue” (French for “with lost wax”), involves pouring molten metal into a mold made using a wax model. After the mold is made, the wax model is melted and drained.
This summer, the Erarta Museum will showcase sculptures that reimagine some of Dali's most iconic works. In particular, the three-meter bronze "Space Elephant" presented here echoes the 1946 painting "The Temptation of St. Anthony". Dali's elephants stand on filamentous multi-jointed legs and are usually depicted carrying objects on their backs. According to Dali, elephants represent strength and the future, especially when they are loaded with obelisks symbolizing power and superiority. At the same time, there is something supernatural in them, some kind of metaphysical imbalance, because they are fragile, long legs should not bear the weight of the obelisk.
To your own famous image, soft hours, Dali returned in several works, among them The Persistence of Memory in 1931 and soft watch» 1954. "Nobility of Time" is their sculptural equivalent. At the exhibition, it will be presented in its monumental form measuring 4.9 meters. The "melting" clock becomes a symbol of the omnipresence of time and its power over people, the inevitability of its movement in only one direction. Time dominates both art and reality.
This exhibition is part of the Dali collection, assembled by the president of the Dali Universe company, Beniamino Levy, an avid collector and connoisseur of Dali's work. The monumental sculptures exhibited at Erarta have been shown around the world, including at Place Vendôme in Paris (1995), Piazza dell'Accademia in Florence (2013), Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (2016) and Time Warner- Center in New York (2010-2011). Each work of Salvador Dali in the exhibition has a certificate of authenticity and is presented in the reasoning catalog of sculptures by Salvador Dali “Le Dur et Le Mou”, written by the famous Dalí scholars Robert and Nicolas Descharnes.
Beniamino Levi was the first to introduce to the Italian public such world famous artists as Miro, Magritte, Masson, Kandinsky, de Chirico, Picasso and Dali. During the Surrealist exhibition at the Levy Gallery in 1960, the collector met Dali, and since then he often met with the artist in Paris, New York, and visited his house in Spain. Levy was fascinated by Dali's early sculptures brought from the Paris Gallery and supported the Surrealist master's desire to return to sculptural form. He ordered the artist a series of bronze sculptures based on scenes from the most famous paintings of the surrealist. Levy lectures and is the author of papers on the subject. In addition, he published a comprehensive book on the Dali Sculpture Collection.
Biography of Salvador Dali:
Salvador Dali was born in Spain on May 11, 1904 in the city of Figueres. WITH early years Dali was considered artistically gifted, and his pursuit of art was encouraged. In 1922, Dali went to study at the Royal Academy fine arts San Fernando in Madrid, where he gained notoriety for his eccentricity and dandyism. He was influenced by several different artistic directions including cubism. Shortly before his final exams in 1926, Dali was accused of organizing riots and expelled from the academy. In the 1920s, Dali visited and worked in Paris, where he interacted with such artists as Picasso, Magritte and Miro, which was the impetus for the first phase of Dali's surrealism. In August 1929, Dali met his main muse, source of inspiration and future wife Galu, who was a Russian immigrant, is ten years older than the artist. They got married in 1934. After the fascist leader Francisco Franco came to power in Spain, the artist was expelled from the Surrealist group, but this did not stop him from continuing his artistic work. Salvador Dali died in Figueres of heart failure in 1989 at the age of 84.
Surrealism has always had a hard time in the two dimensions of painting. Dali is undoubtedly a painter. But from time to time, he also needed to create three-dimensional models of his complex images in order to better understand his own idea and the way it was embodied on canvas.
The master worked exclusively with wax, since he himself never considered his sculptures as independent works. The world learned about Dali the sculptor only thanks to the collector Isidre Klot, who bought his wax models from the master and ordered bronze castings from them. The sculptures presented to the public created a sensation in the art world. Many sculptures were subsequently enlarged many times and adorned not only museum collections, but also the area of many cities.
In terms of content, absolutely all of Dali's sculptures are a plastic embodiment of images that are well known from his paintings. Due to the volume, many images have acquired additional expressiveness and aesthetic sound.
Adam and Eve
The work is a composition of the figures of the Ancestors, as well as the Serpent, curved in the form of a heart. In this figured loop, Eve gives an apple to Adam. The author interprets biblical history as the knowledge of the joys of carnal love through criminal sin, attractive and desirable.
The figures of people look somewhat generalized, they are devoid of individual features, which is undoubtedly done consciously. The serpent, on the contrary, is made carefully and precisely. The center of the composition is clearly marked with an apple from the tree of Knowledge. Bronze made it possible to designate accents, highlighting them with color. The serpent is done in golden colors, and the apple - a perfect sphere - is mirror polished and looks almost mother-of-pearl.
Time Profile
One of the artist's favorite images is a plastic, flowing watch. Dali has several similar sculptures. The time profile is the most famous of all. The phenomenon of time is especially important for surrealist artists who perceive time as an indispensable attribute of all their subjects, mysterious, complex and obscure. Transience, illusory and elusiveness of time - the subject close attention author.
Saint George and the Dragon
The classic plot in the interpretation of the author looks a little different than we are used to seeing it. The iconic symbol of the Saint on horseback slaying the Dragon is complemented by a small figure of a woman, standing somewhat at a distance, who raised her hand, welcoming the feat of George. The author thus reminds of those for whom the feat was accomplished, of the lady in whose name the knights perform all their feats, of love and protection of the weak. The artist pushes the boundaries of the classical plot, makes the viewer reconsider their attitude to the classics.
Space Venus
The world-famous forms of ancient Venus in Dali's work are somewhat changed, modernized, eroticized. The sculpture is complemented by details that embody the idea of the author. The first detail is the "current clock", designed to remind the viewer of the variability of people's tastes and aesthetic ideas. Second detail - golden egg- a symbol of the great destiny of a woman - to give life. The symbols of the eternal and the passing are united in the work. The author ironically over the variability of human tastes, contrasting them with the eternal and constant wisdom of nature.
Perseus
In this case, the author turns to mythology, moreover, he uses the famous statue of Cellini as a model. In the sculpture of the great surrealist, Perseus is depicted schematically, the details are not worked out. The face is completely missing. The head of the Gorgon is also very schematic. In its content, the work is an interpretation of the content of the myth. The hero killed the Gorgon, destroying with a glance, only because he himself managed to get rid of the face, the most vulnerable place.
Today in Europe there are more than three hundred sculptures. Most of them are the third and fourth copies, cast in the original molds of the collector Klot. The original sculptures are kept in his private collection.
