SURREALISM A Dream within A Dream

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself.

Salvador Dali was perhaps the best known Surrealist Painter.

Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904, in Spain Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904, in Spain. From a young age, Dalí’s parent’s encouraged him practice his art. He would eventually go on to study at an academy in Madrid. In the 1920s, he went to Paris where he met other soon to be famous painters of his genre.

Picasso, Magritte and Miró, led to Dalí's first Surrealist phase Picasso, Magritte and Miró, led to Dalí's first Surrealist phase. He is perhaps best known for his 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory, showing melting clocks in a landscape setting. The rise of fascist leader Francisco Franco in Spain led to the artist's expulsion from the Surrealist movement, but that didn't stop him from painting. Dalí died in Figueres in 1989.

Never take for granted how free you are to create and express yourself through Art. During War times or in Fascist countries, artists were stifled due to being viewed as having the ability to cause upheaval in society by producing symbolic messages in their Art. Artists have always been the rebellious, cultural view point influencers of their generations. This can be found true even today in graffiti Art (Bansky).

Interpretation:Persistence of Memory There is a fine line between a dream and a memory. Dreams are memories that are distorted by fantasy. Both dream and memory reveal the state of the human’s subconscious mind. Dali’s goal was to depict coded messages that are hidden in the subconscious world. Salvador Dali, challenged himself to portray “hand painted dream photographs”. In order to paint these images, Dali subjected himself into self-inducing hallucinations, which is a process called paranoiac- critical method.

The melting and distorted clocks represent the frozen time where dreams take place. Dali mocks the human society’s view on keeping track of time by painting the powerless distorted clocks melting away in the dream world. In “reality”, time is powerful and it rules and limits the humans in their daily routine. Dali also painted his hometown in the horizon of the image, which reveals Dali’s attempt of recollecting his childhood memories. The distorted face implanted in the middle represents the artist’s self-portrait. Dali represents the malleability of memories and dreams by painting the solids into liquid (watches) and the liquids into solids (water).

Humans are wired to think in one dimension. Our perception of what is right or wrong is based on how our brain is wired. Surrealist artists are known for humor, sarcasm, and wordplay. The word “persistent” contradicts with the image depicted- melting clocks, red ants, distorted faces, and desert symbolize desolation and decay. The combination of a sarcastic title and the strategic placement of concepts reveal Dali’s attack on the rationale.

THE FACE OF WAR

This painting was done in California at the end of year 1940; the horrible face of war, its eyes filled with infinite death, was much more a reminiscence of the Spanish Civil War than of the Second World War. The horror of this painting is further increased by the brown tonalities which dominate its atmosphere.

The elephant is a recurring theme in the works of Dalí . The Elephants Elephants in the work of Dalí: The elephant is a recurring theme in the works of Dalí . The Elephants differs from the other paintings in that the animals are the primary focus of the work, with a barren graduated background and lack of other content. The stork-legged elephant is one of the best-known icons of Dalí's work and adorns the walls of the Dalí Museum in Spain.[3]

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