On May 25, an exhibition of bronze sculptures by the most famous surrealist Salvador Dali opens in Erarta. The gallery brought a collection of Benjamino Levi, friend and patron of Dali. It was he who suggested that the artist cast fantasy images from his paintings in bronze. We will tell you what to look at in the exhibition and how to understand the artist's work.

"Adam and Eve"

One of the earliest (among the presented) works. The original was made on paper in gouache in 1968, and the sculpture was cast in 1984. Dali portrays the most dramatic moment in Eden: Eve invites Adam to taste the forbidden fruit. He, not yet knowing what his fall will turn into for mankind, raises his hand in amazement and indecision. The one who knows about the impending expulsion from paradise of snakes tries to console the doomed (and soon mortals) people and folds into a heart shape, reminding Adam and Eve that they still have love. And it is something whole, which is always greater than the sum of its individual parts.

"The nobility of time"

One of the most replicated images invented by Dali: the clock is thrown over the branch of a dead tree. For a surrelist, time is not linear - it merges with space. The softness of the watch also hints at the psychological perception of time: when we are bored or uncomfortable, it goes slower. The weak-willed clock no longer shows time, does not measure its course. This means that the speed of our time depends only on us.

The clock falls on a dead tree, the branches of which have already given birth to new life, and the roots have covered the stone. The trunk of the tree at the same time serves as a support for the clock. The term "watch crown" in English also means a mechanical device that allows you to set the hands and wind the watch. But according to Dali's clock, it is invariable - it is impossible to establish it. Without movement, the "crown" becomes royal, which adorns the watch and indicates that time does not serve people, but dominates them. It is accompanied by two recurring fantastic symbols: a contemplating angel and a woman wrapped in a shawl. Time reigns over both art and reality.

"Alice in Wonderland"

Like Carroll's heroine, Dali, armed with creative imagination, traveled along a difficult and long road in the land of dreams. The artist was attracted by the incredible plot and extravagant characters of the fairy tale. Alice is an eternal child, able to comprehend the absurd logic of both Wonderland and Zazrekalia. In sculpture, her rope has been transformed into a braided cord, symbolizing everyday life. On her hands and in her hair, roses bloomed, personifying female beauty and eternal youth. And the peplum dress reminds of ancient examples of perfection of form.

"Tribute to fashion"

Dali's relationship with haute couture began in the 1930s through his work with Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Vogue magazine and continued throughout his life. The head of Venus, frozen in the pose of a supermodel, is decorated with roses - a symbol of innocence. Her face is devoid of features, which allows the admirer to imagine the face he wishes. He is a "dandy" and stands on one knee in front of her.

"Adoration of Terpsichore"

Dali's interpretation of the muse of dance creates two mirror images: a soft figure is contrasted with a hard and frozen one. The absence of facial features emphasizes the symbolic sound of the composition. The dancer with flowing classical forms represents Grace and the unconscious, while the angular, cubist second figure speaks of the ever-growing and chaotic rhythm of life.

"Snail and Angel"

The sculpture refers to the artist's meeting with Sigmund Freud, whom he considered his spiritual father. The psychoanalytic ideas that influenced Dali in the early stages of the development of surrealism are reflected in many works. A snail perched on the seat of a bicycle not far from Freud's house struck Dali's imagination. He saw in her a human head - the very founder of psychoanalysis.

Dali was obsessed with the image of a snail, since it contains a paradoxical combination of softness (animal body) with hardness (its shell). Therefore, the generally accepted symbol of idle pastime gets wings from him and easily moves along the waves. And the messenger of the gods, capable of developing unlimited speed, for a short moment sat down on the back of the snail, endowing it with the gift of movement.

"Vision of an Angel"

Salvador Dali comprehends the classic religious image. The thumb, from which life (tree branches) arises, symbolizes the power and dominance of the Absolute. On the right side of the deity is humanity: a man in his prime. On the left side is an angel, symbolizing the spirit of contemplation; his wings rest on a crutch. Despite the fact that man is united with God, divine knowledge surpasses his own.

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 genius 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. Suicide of grandfather

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 to the balcony of his apartment on the third floor and began to shout that he had been robbed and tried to kill. 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 still threw himself upside down from the balcony and died suddenly.

The Dali family, for obvious reasons, tried to avoid widespread publicity, so the suicide was hushed up. In the conclusion about the death there was not a word about suicide, only a note that Gal died "from a head injury", so the suicide was buried according to the Catholic rite. For a long time, relatives hid the truth about the death of his grandfather from Gal's grandchildren, but the artist eventually learned 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 most of all he was struck by the episode where the main character boasted that "he can make a woman squeak like a watermelon." The young man was so impressed by the power of the artistic image that, remembering this, he reproached himself for his inability to do the same with women.

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

3. Sex in Dali was associated with decay

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 genitals disfigured by gangrene and other diseases. Having studied the pictures that fascinated and at the same time horrified him, Dali Jr. for a long time lost interest in contacts with the opposite sex, and sex, as he later admitted, began to be associated with decay, decay and decay.

Of course, the artist's attitude to sex is noticeably reflected in his canvases: fears and motives of 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 human face looking down, from which a woman "grows", most likely written off from the wife and muse of Dali Gala. A locust sits on his face (the genius felt an inexplicable horror of this insect), on the belly of which ants crawl - a symbol of decay. The woman's mouth is pressed against the groin of the man standing next to him, which hints at oral sex, while the cuts bleed on the man's legs, indicating the artist's fear of castration that 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. It was rumored 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 - allegedly the poet was convinced that the genius of surrealism can 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 outstanding men.

Many researchers of the artist's life agree that before meeting Gala, Dali remained a virgin, and although Gala was married to someone else at that time, had an extensive collection of lovers, in the end she was ten years older than him, the artist was fascinated by this woman. Art critic John Richardson wrote about her: “One of the most disgusting wives that a modern successful artist could choose. It is 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 this Dali immediately fell in love with her, finally and irrevocably.

Dali's father could not stand his son's passion, mistakenly believing that she uses drugs and makes the artist 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. Genius voyeur

It is believed that Salvador Dali received sexual gratification by watching others make love or masturbate. The genius Spaniard even spied on his own wife when she was taking a bath, confessed to the "exciting experience of a voyeur" and called one of his paintings "Voyeur".

Contemporaries whispered that the artist arranges orgies every week at his home, 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 the 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 one day 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 that interested her in her hands, the genius solemnly informed her that it was a vibrator.

6. George Orwell: "He is sick, and his paintings are disgusting"

In 1944, the 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: “Come back to Shakespeare's land tomorrow and find out that his favorite pastime in his spare time is raping little girls in train cars, we shouldn't tell him to keep up the good work just because he is able to write another“ King Lear. " You need the ability to keep both facts in your head 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 paintings. One of the most famous works of this kind is considered the "Dark Game", written in 1929 - at the bottom of the masterpiece is depicted 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 a society in which they can flourish has some flaws." We can say that the writer himself admitted his unjustified idealism: after all, the human world has never been and will never be perfect, and Dali's impeccable canvases are one of the clearest evidences of this.

7. "Hidden faces"

Salvador Dali wrote his only novel in 1943, when he and his wife were in the United States. Among other things, in the literary work that came out from the hands of the painter, there are descriptions of the antics of eccentric aristocrats in the fire and blood-drenched Old World, while the artist himself called the novel "an epitaph of 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. There is an episode in the sensational book at the time - Adolf Hitler, who won the war, in his residence "Eagle's Nest" is trying to brighten up his loneliness with priceless masterpieces of art from all over the world spread around, Wagner's music is playing, and the Fuhrer makes half-delusional speeches about Jews and Jesus Christ.

In general, reviews of the novel were favorable, although the literary columnist for The Times criticized the novel's whimsical style, excessive adjectives and a messy plot. At the same time, for example, a critic from the magazine "The Spectator" wrote about Dali's literary experience: "This is a psychotic mess, but I liked it."

8. Beats, then ... a genius?

1980 was a turning point for the elderly Dali - the artist was paralyzed and, being 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 and without, besides, he was greatly annoyed by Gala's behavior, who spent the money received from the sale of paintings by her genius husband 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 spouse, Gala gave him Valium and other sedatives, and once gave Dali a large dose of a stimulant, which caused irreparable damage to the genius's psyche.
Friends of the painter organized the so-called "Rescue Committee" and assigned 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 sake of actor Geoffrey Fenholt, the leading actor in Broadway staging 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 another man - the 87-year-old muse of the genius died in a hospital in Barcelona. According to her will, Dali was going to bury his beloved in his castle Pubol in Catalonia, but for this her body had to be taken out without legal red tape and without attracting unnecessary attention from the press and the public.

The artist found a way out, eerie, but witty - he ordered Gala to be dressed, "put" the corpse in the back seat of her Cadillac, and a nurse was stationed nearby, supporting the body. 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 said 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 slept caught fire. The cause of the fire was a short circuit in the wiring of the castle, presumably caused by the old man constantly fiddling with the bell button to call the servant attached to his pajamas.

When a nurse came running to the sound of the fire, she found the paralyzed genius lying at the door in a semi-faint state and immediately rushed to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, although he tried to fight back and called her "bitch" and "killer". The genius survived, but received second-degree burns.

After the fire, Dali became completely unbearable, although he had not previously been distinguished by an easy character. A publicist from Vanity Fair noted that the artist had become a "disabled person from hell": he deliberately stained bedding, scratched the faces of nurses and refused to eat or take medicine.

After recovery, 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, so he wants his body to be frozen after death, but instead, according to his will, he was embalmed and walled up in the floor of one of the rooms of the theater-museum, where it is located to this day.

May 11, 1904 at 8 hours 45 minutes in Spain in Catalonia (north-east of Spain), Figueres, little Dali was born. Full name is Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali-i-Domenech. His parents are Don Salvador Dali-i-Cusi and Dona Felipa Domenech. Salvador means "Savior" in Spanish. El Salvador was named after his deceased brother. He died of meningitis a year before Dali was born in 1903. Dali also had a younger sister, Anna Maria, who in the future will be the image of many of his paintings. Little Dali's parents were brought up in different ways. Since from childhood he was distinguished by an impulsive and eccentric character, his father literally went into a rage at his antics. Mom, on the contrary, allowed him absolutely everything.

I pi went to bed until almost eight years old - just for the sake of his own pleasure. In the house I reigned and commanded. Nothing was impossible for me. Father and mother only prayed for me (The secret life of Salvador Dali, told by himself)

Dali's desire for creativity manifested itself from early childhood. From the age of 4, he already began to draw with a diligence unheard of for a child. At the age of six, Dali attracted the image of Napoleon and identifying with him, he felt the need for power. Having put on the fancy dress of the king, he got great pleasure from his appearance. He painted his first painting when he was 10 years old, a small landscape in the impressionist style, painted with oil paints on a wooden board. Then Salvador began to take drawing lessons from Professor João Nunez. Thus, at the age of 14, one could confidently see the talent of Salvador Dali in embodiment.

When he was almost 15 years old, Dali was kicked out of the monastic school for bad behavior. But for him it was not a failure, he passed the exams perfectly and entered the institute. In Spain schools of secondary education were called institutes. And in 1921 he graduated from the institute with excellent grades.
After that he entered the Madrid Academy of Arts. When Dali was 16 years old, he began to get carried away along with painting and literature, he began to write. He publishes his essays in the self-made publication "Studium". And in general, he leads a fairly active life. He managed to serve a day in prison for participating in student unrest.

Salvador Dali dreamed of creating his own style in painting. In the early 1920s, he admired the work of the futurists. At the same time, he makes acquaintances with famous poets of that time (García Lorca, Luis Bonuel). The relationship between Dali and Lorca was very close. In 1926, Lorca's poem "Ode to Salvador Dali" was published, and in 1927 Dali designed the scenery and costumes for the production of Lorca's "Mariana P Neda".
In 1921, Dali's mother dies. The father would later marry another woman. For Dali, this looks like a betrayal. Later in his works, he displays the image of a father who wants to destroy his son. This event left its mark on the artist's work.

In 1923, Dali became very interested in the work of Pablo Picasso. At the same time, problems began in the academy. He was suspended from school for a year for disciplinary violations.

In 1925, Dali held his first solo exhibition at the Dalmau Gallery. He presented 27 paintings and 5 drawings.

In 1926, Dali completely stopped making efforts to study, because disillusioned with school. And they kicked him out after the incident. He did not agree with the decision of the teachers regarding one of the painting teachers, then got up and left the hall. A scuffle began immediately in the hall. Of course, Dali was considered guilty, although he did not even know what had happened, in the end he ends up in prison, though not for long. But he soon returned to the academy. In the end, his behavior led to expulsion from the academy for his refusal to take the oral exam. As soon as he learns that his last question is a question about Raphael, Dali said: "... I do not know less than three professors combined, and I refuse to answer them, because I am better informed on this issue."

In 1927, Dali went to Italy to get acquainted with the painting of the Renaissance. He was not yet in the surrealist group led by André Breton and Max Ernst, but he later joined them in 1929. Breton deeply studied the work of Freud. He said that by discovering unexpressed thoughts and desires hidden in the subconscious, surrealism could create a new way of life and a way of perceiving it.

In 1928 he left for Paris in search of himself.

At the beginning of 1929, Dali tried himself as a director. The first film was released based on his script by Luis Bonuel. The film was called "Andalusian Dog". Surprisingly, the script for the film was written in 6 days! The premiere was sensational, as the film itself was very extravagant. Considered a classic of surrealism. Consisted of a set of frames and scenes. It was a short, short film, conceived to offend the bourgeoisie and ridicule the principles of the avant-garde.

Until 1929, Dali did not have anything bright and significant in his personal life. Of course, he walked, there were numerous connections with girls, but they never went far. And just in 1929, Dali really fell in love. Her name was Elena Dyakonova or Gala. Russian by birth, she was 10 years older than him. She was married to the writer Paul Eluard, but their relationship was already heading for disintegration. Her fleeting movements, gestures, her expressiveness are like the second New Symphony: it gives out the architectonic contours of a perfect soul, crystallizing in the grace of the body itself, in the scent of skin, in the sparkling sea foam of her life. Expressing an exquisite breath of feelings, plasticity and expressiveness materialize in an immaculate architecture of flesh and blood . (The Secret Life of Salvador Dali)

They met when Dali returned to Cadaques to work on an exhibition of his paintings. Among the guests of the exhibition was Paul Éluard with his then-wife Gala, who inspired Dali in many of his works. He painted all kinds of portraits of her, as well as different images based on their relationship and passion. " First kiss, - Dali wrote later, - when our teeth collided and our tongues intertwined, was only the beginning of that hunger that made us bite and gnaw each other to the very essence of our being. ”Such images often appeared in Dali's subsequent works: chops on a human body, fried eggs, cannibalism - all these images are reminiscent of the violent sexual liberation of the young man.

Dali wrote in an absolutely unique style. It seems that he drew images known to everyone: animals, objects. But he arranged them and connected them in a completely unthinkable way. Could connect a woman's torso to a rhino, for example, or a molten watch. Dali himself calls it the "paranoid-critical method."

1929 Dali had his first personal exhibition in Paris at the Geman Gallery, after which he began his journey to the pinnacle of fame.

In 1930, Dali's paintings began to bring him fame. His work was influenced by the work of Freud. In his paintings, he reflected the sexual experiences of a person, as well as destruction, death. Created such his masterpieces as "The Persistence of Memory". Dali also creates numerous models from various objects.

In 1932 the premiere of the second film based on the script by Dali "The Golden Age" took place in London.

In Gala, she divorces her husband in 1934 and marries Dali. This woman was throughout Dali's life his muse, a deity.

Between 1936 and 1937, Dali worked on one of his most famous paintings, "The Metamarphosis of Narcissus", and a book of the same name appeared immediately.
In 1939, Dali had a serious quarrel with his father. The father was unhappy with his son's relationship with Gala and forbade Dali to appear in the house.

After the occupation in 1940 from France, Dali moved to the USA in California. There he opens his workshop. There he also writes his most famous book "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali". After marrying Gala, Dali leaves the group of surrealists, tk. his and the group's views begin to diverge. "I absolutely do not give a damn about the gossip that Andre Breton can dissolve on my account, he simply does not want to forgive me for being the last and only surrealist, but all the same, one day the whole world, having read these lines , I learned how everything really happened. "(" The Diary of a Genius ").

In 1948, Dali returned to his homeland. Begins to get involved in religious and fantastic themes.

In 1953, a large-scale exhibition was held in Rome. He exhibits 24 paintings, 27 drawings, 102 watercolors.

In 1956, Dali began a period when the idea of ​​an Angel was the inspiration for his reinvention. For him, God is an elusive concept that does not lend itself to any concretization. For him, God is not a cosmic concept either, because this would impose certain restrictions on him. Dali sees God in a set of conflicting thoughts that cannot be reduced to any structured idea. But Dali really believed in the existence of angels. He spoke of this as follows: “Whatever dreams fall on my lot, they can please me only if they have complete certainty. Therefore, if I really experience such pleasure when the angelic images approach, then I have every reason believe that angels really exist. "

Meanwhile, in 1959, since his father no longer wanted to let Dali in, he and Gala settled down to live in Port Lligat. Dali's paintings were already very popular, sold for a lot of money, and he himself was famous. He often communicates with Wilhelm Tell. Under the impression, he creates such works as "The Riddle of Wilhelm Tell" and "Wilhelm Tell".

Basically, Dali worked on several topics: the paranoid-critical method, the Freudian-sexual theme, the theory of modern physics and sometimes religious motives.

In the 60s, the relationship between Gala and Dali cracked. Gala asked to buy another house in order to move out. After that, their relationship was already only the remnants of a past bright life, but the image of Gala never left Dali and continued to be an inspiration.
In 1973, the "Dali Museum" was opened in Figueras, incredible in its content. Until now, he amazes the audience with his surreal appearance.
In 1980, Dali began to have health problems. The death of Franco, the head of state of Spain, shocked and frightened Dali. Doctors suspect he has Parkinson's disease. Dali's father died of this disease.

In 1982, Gala died on June 10. For Dali, this was a terrible blow; he did not participate in the funeral. They say that Dali entered the crypt only a few hours later. “Look, I’m not crying,” was all he said. The death of Gala for Dali was a huge blow to his life. What the artist lost with the departure of Gala was known only to him. He walked alone through the rooms of their house, saying something about the happiness and beauty of Gala. He stopped painting and sat for hours in the dining room, where all the shutters were closed.
The last work "Dovetail" was completed in 1983.

In 1983, Dali's health seemed to have risen, he began to go out for a walk. But these changes were short-lived.

On August 30, 1984, a fire broke out in Dali's house. Burns on his body covered 18% of the skin surface.
By February 1985, Dali's health was on the mend again and he even gave interviews to the newspaper.
But in November 1988, Dali was admitted to the hospital. The diagnosis is heart failure. On January 23, 1989, Salvador Dali died. He was 84 years old.

At his request, the body was embalmed and was kept in his museum for a week. Dali was buried in the very center of his own museum under a simple slab without inscriptions. The life of Salvador Dali has always been bright and eventful, he himself was distinguished by his extraordinary and extravagant behavior. He changed unusual costumes, the style of his mustache, constantly praised his talent in the books he wrote ("The Diary of a Genius", "Dali by Dali", "Dali's Golden Book", "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali"). There was such a case when in 1936 he lectured at the London Group Rums. Held as part of the International Surrealist Exhibition, Dali appeared in a deep sea diver's suit.

Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso - two great Spaniards - have left in the shadow of their world fame many masters of art of the twentieth century. They did not write so much about anyone, did not speak, did not argue 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 in the early works of the young Salvador foreshadowed the appearance of a grandiose talent, eclipsing everything that could be imagined with his shocking, explosive, miraculous art. There is no such force that even now could be opposed to his phantasmagorias.

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

So much has already been written about him that hardly anyone will dare to add something new to the tens of thousands of pages of already printed texts, but still Dali's work is inexhaustible, it remains a mystery, a mystery of "one" genius. For a sensitive heart and an inquiring 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 seek his 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 at the same time hope and disappointment.

Let us take some liberty in answering the infinite 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. With her appearance in the life of Dali, she, Gala, as her first husband, the poet Paul Eluard called her, which literally translated from French into Russian means "holiday", awakened and sharpened in him a supersensible intuition, multiplied by complexes, instilled faith in his unique consistency and messianic destiny. Most likely, she introduced him to the literary heritage of 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 mistress, but also his Alter Ego, a full-fledged co-author, as evidenced by the double signature Gala Dali, that appeared in his paintings. Elena Dyakonova developed in him the miraculous gift of a virtuoso draftsman, master of composition and color; it is possible that many of the motives, plots and scripts of his canvases were suggested by her. But this is only a guess.

The religious spirit and the rational, materialistic consciousness organically coexisted in him; he was a unique improviser and calculating 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 an ironic storyline into a grotesque. The incomparable colorist and draftsman constantly amazed the audience with his irrepressible imagination and virtuosity of implementation of an always intriguing idea. He flattered no one, except for that Muse, the Madonna, whom he idolized all his life, although he was surrounded by the most worthy people of the whole era, such as Pablo Picasso, Luis Bunuel, Garcia Lorca, Guillaume Appoliner, Rene Magritte, André Breton ...

In the microcosm of early, small, and sometimes miniature in format, Dali's works contain an immense, universal abyss of feelings and thoughts of the author, stirring up 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 brightest characteristic features of the artist's unsurpassed, filigree professional skill is the ability for us not only mentally, but also to actually increase to almost incredible limits both miniature images of the painter and draftsman, and the smallest details of his fantastic compositions.

Brutality and fragility, shocking 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 all-knowing servility of immoral moralists and infallible sinners. His apparent audacity knew no bounds, he challenged everything that was alien to him, while remaining a person easily vulnerable. His Spanish temperament helped him fight both with the world around him and with his inner complexes.

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

Let me cite literally one quote from her little letter received from Vienna, where Lydia Dmitrievna lived: "Now there are many articles and brochures full of incredible stories, taking advantage of the fact that he was an unusually strange person and provoking a wide variety of reactions." In her memoirs about Dali, sister Gala noted his modesty, shyness and amazing responsiveness, which he showed in a family environment in relation to the few people who were closest to his heart. "At our meetings in Paris and in Italy, he could be the sweetest and simplest person." In these sincere words of not a stranger, as in her other statements, she shared with me her life impressions of the unknown majority, the inner world of Salvador Dali, closed from prying eyes, which coincided with my speculations 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 have appeared about the creative heritage of Dali, including books by his closest assistant, who worked with him for many years, the main biographer of the great maestro - Robert Descharne, as well as the artist's literary works in excellent translations of Natalia Malinovskaya, which can fully to satisfy the interest of a multi-million audience of Russian connoisseurs and art lovers.

The spiritual, philosophical, symbolic meaning of Salvador Dali's work has a magical appeal, goes beyond the conditional boundaries of a specific time, not only because the world of images created by him is due to the historical scale of artistic thinking, in which the vices and dignities of humanity, good and evil, beauty and ugliness are combined, generating an incredible, all-consuming energy of providence. Being a true creator, a genius, he possessed the ability to anticipate 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 delude 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 epostases of holiness and the Fall, in painting, graphics, sculpture, cinema and literature, in decorative arts and design, he became an all-encompassing dramatic figure in the artistic culture of the twentieth century. His work was, is and will be unpredictable, not subject to formal, dispassionate retelling. Time will show what is the secret of the phenomenon of Dali's art doctrine.

"Historical surrealism" has become one of the most notable phenomena of the artistic culture of the past century. It captures 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 the evolutionary transformations in art, anticipated the emergence of transavant-garde and the latest tendencies of postmodernism. The official chronology of the movement is limited to 1924-1968: from the opening of the Bureau of Surrealist Studies and the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by André Breton to the Prague Spring - in any case, this is how Alain and Odette Virmo define these time boundaries.

In their encyclopedic study “Masters of World Surrealism” they wrote: “Surrealism, undoubtedly, like no other trend, left the deepest mark in the history of the twentieth century. It was absorbed, sometimes unwittingly, by several generations that replaced each other, having crossed the line of May 1968, on our entire planet. " This is evidenced by the work of Russian 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 inappropriate to speak of any direct influence of the concepts of “pure mental automatism,” “paranoid-critical doctrines,” or other conventional attributes characteristic of assessments of this movement. Of course, we find certain overlaps with the legacy of Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Victor Brauner, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Juan Miro in the works of a number of Russian artists of the post-war generation, which does not mean 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 audience associations and art criticism comparisons, are individual works of our masters such 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 detached from the general, collective tendencies. At the same time, we know many interesting and original authors who continue to develop surrealistic ideas, asserting their roles, following the well-known principles and canons, which does not detract from the merits of their art. This is Eugene Shef (Scheffer), now living in Berlin; Viktor Krotov working in Moscow and Paris; Sergei Chaikun, Sergei Potapov, Oleg Safronov, Alla Bedina, Mikhail Gorshunov, Yuri Yakovenko, Alexander Kalugin.

A predisposition to phantasmagorias, mysteries, buffoonery, the playful basis of creativity allows us to speak of a certain surrealist vision of the world by Alexander Sitnikov, the mediated perception of reality in the works of Valery Vradia by other threads connects the artist with this phenomenon in art, as, incidentally, with Vladimir Lobanov, but in a completely different foreshortening.

In the artistic culture of Russia, you can find many brilliant examples of surrealistic imaginative 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 interpretive pluralism, which was one of the motivating reasons for the emergence of surrealism as a historical phenomenon on Russian soil.

Unlike foreign authors who cultivate various aspects, themes and techniques of "historical surrealism", Russian ones are dominated by other emotional and semantic dominants and associative series. Brutality, aggression - indispensable components of metaphysical, occult imagery in the work of Western representatives of this movement - have actually been reduced to naught by our masters. In the works of Russian carriers of surrealistic thinking, other subconscious motivations, sensations and premonitions prevail. Their sacred metapsychosis is associated with a special romantic sensitivity, a special intuitionism. In the works of domestic followers of surrealism, of course, there are dramatic metamorphoses, which are rather a confirmation of sacrifice not in the name of, but in spite of 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 kind of super-task.

The culture of play, the metaphorical and grotesque nature of Russian art also add to the surrealist strategy a flavor of failed sensual expectations and desires, a kind of passive, otherworldly contemplation, although it does not exclude spontaneous devilry and courage.

French literary critic, semioticist, philosopher J. Derrida argued: "There is no literal meaning, its" appearance "is a necessary function - and it should be analyzed as such in the system of differences and metaphors." Of course, to a greater extent these words relate to the study of 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 20th century art wrote: “... when the Renaissance wanted to imitate the Immortal Greece, Raphael came out of it. Ingres wanted to imitate Raphael, from which Ingres turned out. Cezanne wanted to imitate Poussin - it turned out Cezanne. Dali wanted to imitate Meyssonnier. THIS GOT DALI. Of those who do not want to imitate anything, nothing comes of it.

And I want to know about it. After Pop Art and Op Art, Art Pompier will appear, but such art will multiply by all that is valuable, and by all, even the most insane, experiences of this grandiose tragedy, called "Contemporary Art".

Surrealism as a new phenomenon of artistic culture has become a logical continuation of Dadaism, the search for a special metalanguage, with the help of which one could find an explanation or give an analysis of another language - objective. One of the main historical merits of surrealism is that it united around the declared ideas of outstanding poets and artists, filmmakers and musicians who personify the great era of "storm and onslaught". These are Tristan Tzara and Antonin Artaud, Philippe Soupot 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 Éluard and Suzalier Takvadigushi, Dali and Rene Magritte, Max Ernst and Man Ray, Wilfredo Lam and Paul Klee, Pavel Chelishchev and Fritz Van den Berge, whose names are perceived as synonyms of the brightest luminaries in the sky of art of the past century, shining on the horizons of the selfish globalization of their own individualism. Among them we include our compatriots, according to the art history classification, they, however, were far from surrealistic sermons), such as Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Pavel Filonov. "What is not born internally," wrote Kandinsky, "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 an intellectual game without rules.

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

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

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

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

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

Salvador Dali said that this work was "for the first time to express in images Freud's discoveries of a typical dream with a long story, the consequence of an instantaneous accident that makes a sleeping person wake up." This is shown by the sleeping figure of the artist's wife Gala Dali, floating above the rock. Two drops of water next to her naked body, a pomegranate and a bee are also carried in the air. 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 emerge along with a bayonet, which will soon awaken Gala from her peaceful sleep. The elephant, a later recurring figure in Dali's work, is a distorted version of The Elephant and the Obelisk, a sculpture by the renowned Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Giraffe on fire

Giraffe on Fire is seen as an expression of Salvador Dali's personal struggle against the civil war in his home country. The canvas depicts two female figures with indeterminate phallic forms protruding from their backs. The arms, forearms and face of the nearest figure are trimmed down to the muscle tissue under the skin. In contrast, drawers open protruding from the figure's left leg and chest. 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 the psychoanalytic method of Freud and refer to the inner, subconscious within a person. The live image of the giraffe in the background has been 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 mind through systematic irrational thought and self-induced paranoid states. Considering 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 interprets a Greek myth, this painting shows Narcissus sitting in a pool and 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 an important part of Dali's paranoid-critical method. Like Metamorphosis of Narcissus, this piece uses reflection in the lake to create a double image. The three swans in front of the trees are reflected in the lake, so that their necks become elephants, and the trees become elephants' feet. The landscape contrasts with the stillness of the lake, as Dali 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 painting 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 about the lakes, let us remind you that on our website there is a very interesting article with photographs 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 styles such as action painting, pop art, pointillism, geometric abstraction and psychedelic art. Including depictions of ancient Greek sculpture in contemporary cinema, Catching Tuna depicts the fierce struggle between men and large fish as the epitome of a limited universe. The painting is dedicated to Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier, a 19th century French painter known for his depictions of battle scenes. According to Dali, Fishing for Tuna is his most important work.

In 1929, Salvador Dali met his muse, who later became his wife. This painting was created in the same year and is believed to reflect the erotic transformation that the artist underwent thanks to her coming into his life. The main yellow area in the painting represents the artist's dream. A vision emerges from his head, 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 other works, the bizarre self-portrait also suffers from additives such as a fish hook, bleeding cuts, ants crawling across his face, and a grasshopper strapped 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 atomic decay. This was also the time when he renewed his interest in Catholicism. Taken back to his period is "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 of atoms, Dali made his works disintegrate into several atoms. This painting is a portrait of Gala Dali, his wife and muse. Her face is composed of densely populated spheres representing atomic particles that give a stunning three-dimensional effect to the canvas. The name Galatea 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 the period of Dali's nuclear mysticism.

Christ of Saint John of the Cross

This painting is known as the Christ of Saint John of the Cross because its design is based on a drawing by the 16th century Spanish monk 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 that 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 a 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. The Christ of Saint John of the Cross was chosen Scotland's Favorite Painting in 2006 and is considered by many to be the greatest religious painting of the twentieth century.

Salvador Dali painted this masterpiece six months before the start of the Spanish Civil War. He claimed that he knew about the war because of the "prophetic power of his subconscious." The painting reflects his concern at the time and predicts horror and violence in the war. It depicts two bodies, one darker than the other, in a terrible battle, where neither is the winner. The monstrous creature is self-destructive, just like the Civil War. Dali made sure that the painting looked very realistic despite the fantastic creature it 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 poor citizens living in difficult times in Spain. Boiled Bean Soft Construction is considered one of Dali's greatest masterpieces and is renowned for its unparalleled use of surrealism to depict the horrors of war.

In the work "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 superiority in the realm of the unconscious. Crutches have always been Dali's trademark, hinting at the fragility of the supporters who support "reality," but here nothing, not even a dog, seems 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 of daylight and rationality. In the work "Dream" Salvador Dali returned to the classic surrealistic motive. 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 repeated painting depicts a scene with a clock slowly melting on rocks and a tree branch, with the ocean as a 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 sleep 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 stubbornness of memory has been analyzed a lot, as 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 how the irrationality of dreams. 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.

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