Exploring the Works of Salvador Dali

What is one of the very first things that visitors see on the sixth floor when they go to see the “Dali: Painting and Film Exhibition” at the Museum of Modern Art? There is this enormous painting on the wall of a man. It is not any normal man, but one with a normal eye on one side of the face and multiple eyes enlarged through a magnifying glass on the other. Hence is the beginning of the world of illusions. Now one may think, “This is such an unusual painting; it is painted in a style that I would not normally encounter with works from other artists!” This is just an inkling of what visitors would encounter beyond the entrance to Dali’s art galleries.

Dali gives even the most ordinary inanimate objects unique qualities which he uses in a practical manner in his oil paintings – that it is hard to determine where he gets his bizarre ideas from. Other artists, for example, would paint a human face with eyes, a nose, and a mouth. But that is not Dali. Born in Barcelona, Spain, Salvador Dali was part of the Surrealist movement. Surrealist artists tried to replicate images from dreams and the unconscious mind. In one of his paintings, Dali uses an airplane as a substitute for those familiar facial features; however, it is still obvious that it is a human face. It is the randomness, the disparate combination of objects that are not normally associated into one central piece, the mysteries behind the subjects, and the mechanical manner in which he paints that make his artwork the ever more intriguing. While Dali sheds light on a new style, his paintings convey different moods. Some are dismal and dark; others are bright and cheerful. There is no better phrase to describe Dali’s paintings than his own: “hand-painted photographs.”

Take for example “Melancholy Atomic Uranic Idyll,” an oil on canvas painted in 1945. This is an unlikely amalgamation of the most random objects combined together. A colorful explosion in the lower right corner emits sparks of bright yellow, flaming jets of orange, and thick, heavy black smoke. What major connection is there between the year 1945 and the atomic explosion? The answer is World War II- a war of mass destruction with the introduction of the atomic bomb. Death and depression are two major themes prevalent throughout the painting; two human faces are painted bluish-gray (which indicates human decay). Dali’s choice of color for this particular painting successfully conveys this dismal feel. Black- a color that represents hopelessness and depression-dominates most of the painting. Dali juxtaposes the black with a few specks of bright blue and white to show that there exist hope and a new reality outside of the hellish darkness. A child plays in a golden brown field under a clear blue sky. Ironically enough it is next to the bluish-gray human face. Here is where the randomness comes in. Dali cleverly uses an airplane to produce the eyes, nose, and mouth of a human face. It gives the face a grim outlook in keeping with the theme of depression; the airplane wings are the eyes, the airplane body is the nose, and the airplane tail is the firm, expressionless grimace. The baseball player figures on the sides are depicted horrifically with wide, open-mouthed smiles that resemble Jack-O-Lanterns on Halloween.

The mystery in “Apparatus and Hand” lies behind the white central figure referred to as the apparatus. What exactly is it? It is drawn so precisely in a mechanical manner that the overall painting replicates a postcard. The white figure can be interpreted as a spaceship on the ground. It shoots off jets of orange flames in the shape of a human hand on top, while the spaceship itself consists of two parts: an upper part that resembles a block of white cheese with a hole in it and the lower part – a pointed cylindrical object that is painted black and white similarly to the ancient yin and yang symbol. Compared to the previous painting, this one contains brighter, lighter colors and it is more peaceful. It appears that the presence of the spaceship does not threaten other forms of life; the seal continues to play with its ball complacently while a dragon peers out from the clear blue sky.

Clocks and ants have no relation to each other; however, Dali brings these unlikely subjects together in “The Persistence of Memory.” The warped clocks symbolize that once time (an ongoing process) passes it cannot be revisited. It becomes part of the past and is locked in memory. Time and aging go hand in hand. Again there is this idea of depression: the presence of ants on the table is a sign that human decay is inevitable. About the weird looking creature on the ground, some say that its face resembles Dali’s. But how does it portray that? To me it is just Dali at work again with all his weird ideas that he possesses.

Dali is a unique artist. He chooses not to focus on people and scenery mainly as his subjects; instead his works depict the impossible. While I was at the exhibition I sometimes wondered if a child could have drawn some of the mechanical paintings because they appeared so childish to me at first glance. Something I never thought about before is how challenging it is to bring together ordinary objects and combine them together and still get the desired end results. If you are looking for true art, be sure to check this exhibition out. Each of his paintings allows for many shocking, new discoveries.