Thursday, August 19, 2010

Artist 24: Salvador Dali

I know that Dali is a very popular artist, but he's most well known for his paintings. Personally, i like his sculptures. i saw a few of his smaller works in Greece at the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum.

By trade, Dali was a draftsman, but his main mediums were painting, sculpting, and film. He was well known for his odd behavior and grandiose personality. This often was more popular than his actual artwork. He studied in Madrid and Paris during his early adult life, where he experimented with the Dada movement.

He was expelled from his studies in 1926 due to a comment he made right before his final exams, in which he stated that none of the faculty were good enough to examine him. This move took a lot of guts, but his technical skills were proficient enough to make this claim.

Dali used a lot of symbolism in his work. The melting or "soft watches" that appear in several of his paintings represent Einstein's theory of relativity. The best part about these clocks is that he got the idea from looking at a pieces of runny cheese. The elephants came from the base of a Gian Lorenzo Bernini sculpture portraying elephants carrying an ancient obelisk. The egg symbolizes prenatal fetuses and symbolizes hope and love. Dali collaborated with several well known artists of his time, including Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock.

I'm an odd person, but nowhere near as odd as Dali. I think I'll be able to turn heads like some of his work does and make people ask questions, or have their brain functions cease all together.

Geopolitical Child Watches Birth of New Human
Salvador Dali Pictures, Images and Photos

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