Invisible Sleeping Woman, 1930, Salvador Dali, oil on canvas, 19 5/8 x 23 5/8, private collection, Paris
Invisible Sleeping Woman, Horse, Lion, 1930
This analytical work is one of the first painted in the new house in Port Lligat during the summer of 1930. In his numerous written works Dalí has given us much information about this picture. "A month after my return from Paris," he writes, "I signed a contract with George Keller and Pierre Colle. Shortly after in the latter's gallery I exhibited my Invisible Sleeping Woman, Horse, Lion, fruit of my contemplation at Cape Creus." The Viscount of Noailles bought this oil. Invisible Sleeping Woman, Horse, Lion must be considered the most important painting after The Invisible Man among Dalí's early experiments with double images. The permanent theme which predominates over all the others is that of the persistence of desires.
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Salvador Dali, oil on canvas, 410 x 284 cm, Morse Charitable Trust on loan to the Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus was painted in 1958 and 1959. This oil antedated Santiago el Grande, which depicts Saint James of Compostela, patron saint of Spain. Dalí says that in this canvas he painted for the first time with an existentialist shiver: the shiver for the unity of the fatherland. Everything in it springs from the four petals of a jasmine flower exploding in an atomic cloud of creative genius. Two years after finishing his Discovery of America. The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus was a major step of Dali
Matenite aux Oiseaux (motherhood of birds), 1942, Salvador Dali, Watercolor on paper, dimensions unknown, private collection
Maternite aux Oiseaux is one Dalí's many interpretations of the Virgin Mary. Here he has chosen to paint her in probably the most common scene, with her holding the infant Jesus. Throughout history, artists have painted the Virgin Mary as they imagined her; the success of their paintings was dependent on how close their image of her was to the public's imagination. In later years Dalí was to use Gala's face or a face after Raphael. In Maternite aux Oiseaux, Dalí has chosen to use a double image to form Mary's face.
Family of Marsupial Centaurs, 1940, Salvador Dali, Ink and pencil on unknown material, 40.6 x 33 cm, private collection
Family of Marsupial Centaurs, 1940
Dalí believed that Family of Marsupial Centaurs evinced his return to a Classical style, with a more precise technique and greater balance. He attributed the painting to Dr. Otto Rank, a psychoanalyst who theorized that neurosis could be traced back to birth trauma. Believing that he had pre-birth memories, Dalí was greatly interested in Dr. Rank's work. The configuration of a horse's rear is a shape that Dalí used in many paintings, often as a visual illusion. He saw a similarity of form between the horse's rear and a bunch of grapes, and to emphasize this he gives one centaur grapes to hold up.
Interpretation of Goya’s “Los Caprichos,” circa 1985, Salvador Dali, drawing, Dimensions unknown, private collection
Interpretation of Goya's "Los Caprichos,” 1985
Goya was a Spanish artist of the eighteenth century. He had initially painted in the style of Velasquez, a painter who Dalí also admired, but after an illness which left him deaf, Goya began to use more personal and social themes in his works. Los Caprichos (1798) was a series of etchings. They were banned in Spain because of their anti-clerical stance, but they were popular elsewhere. The donkeys in this drawing are characterized as human.
The Madonna of Port Lligat (detail), 1950 Salvador Dali, Oil on Canvas, 144 x 96 cm, private collection, Tokyo
The Madonna of Port Lligat, 1950
"Gala Madonna embodies all the geological virtues of Port Lligat," the painter wrote in 1956; "for example, the nurse, from whose back the night stand was taken, has this time been sublimated into the tabernacle of living flesh though which the celestial sky may be seen, and in turn another tabernacle cut from the chest of the infant Jesus, containing Eucharistic bread in suspension." There are two oils of the same subject; that reproduced here is the second one. The first, which is smaller in size, was submitted by Dalí to Pope Pius XII for approval and is now at Marquette University.
Asummpta Corpuscularia Lapislazulina, 1952, Salvador Dali, Oil on canvas, 230 x 144cm, private collection
Lapis-lazuli Corpuscular Assumption, 1952
Lapis-lazuli Corpuscular Assumption repeats several of the images seen in Raphaelesque Head Exploding (1951). The outline of the Pantheon can be seen, the top of which acts as a halo to Gala's head. Like the Madonna, Gala is exploding, her body delineated by the rhinoceros horns that swirl about the painting. Above an altar is the figure of the crucified Christ. The model for Christ was a boy from Cadaqués called Juan whom the Dalí’s were very close to, treating him like an adopted son. The boy's body forms a triangle, a shape repeated by Gala's arms and head above. Dalí had a glass floor put in his studio so that he could look up or down on his models in order to recreate this perspective.
The music:
Yiruma - Destiny of Love,
Yiruma - Dream,
Vivaldi - The Season: Winter
Extended Information: The Persistence of Memory
- What are the factual and historical details of this artwork? (Describe)
The Persistence of Memory was made in 1931 by Salvador Dali. He made this painting in Cape Creus.
- How has the artist created meaning in this artwork? (Analyse)
Dali felt that time had little, perhaps no significance for him. His days were spent eating, painting, making love, and anything else he wanted to do. One hot August afternoon, in 1931, as Dali sat at his work bench nibbling at his lunch, he came upon one of his most stunning paranoiac-critical hallucinations. During a hot summer, he was inspired with the idea for the melting watches.
- What is the artwork about? (Interpret)
It is one of the most famous paintings by Dali. This painting epitomises his theory of softness and hardness which was central to his thinking at the time. It is possible to recognise a human figure in the middle of the composition in the strange monster that Dali used in several period pieces to represent himself.
- Why is this artwork important? (Judge)
This artwork is very important because Dali created this with great imagination and this is why ‘The Persistence of Memory’ is the most famous painting.
Extended Information: The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
- What are the factual and historical details of this artwork? (Describe)
It is a painting by Salvador Dali. It was created from 1952 to 1954. It is an oil on canvas re-creation of the his famous 1931 work ‘The Persistence of Memory’, and measures a diminutive 25.4 x 33cm
- How has the artist created meaning in this artwork? (Analyse)
In ‘The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory’, the background from the original work has been filled with water. Disintegration depicts what occurs both above and below of surface. The soft watches float above their dials with several cone shaped objects. Also Dali described the fish was a symbol of life.
- What is the artwork about? (Interpret)
This painting is revolution of ‘The Persistence of Memory’. Also it can be read as a representation of Einstein’s Theory because this image was symbolic of the new physics. It symbolised kind of space time by power of gravity.
- Why is this artwork important? (Judge)
This painting is another famous painting by Salvador Dali. It is very important because Dali showed another important theory, the theory of Relativity by Einstein with his famous painting. In this new work, quantum mechanics was symbolised by digitising the old image.
Exhibition:
* Entrance must be with the title of the exhibition!
Bibliography:
Salvador Dali Painting Galleries. All Drawings of Salvador Dali. . (Accessed 2nd November, 2008)
Wikipedia. 5th November 2008 20:35. Salvador Dali, . (Accessed 4th November 2008)
Music:
Yiruma - Dream, Yiruma - Destiny of Love. Music of Yiruma. (Accessed 29th October 2008)
Café Daum, Music of Vivaldi, Vivaldi - The Season: Winter. (Accessed 29th October 2008)
