Painter
Salvador Domingo
Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Pubol, known as Salvador
Dalí, was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia,
Spain.
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Lived: May 11, 1904 - Jan 23, 1989 (age 84)
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Height: 5' 8" (1.72 m)
What can one possibly add to above? The few lines above are
the barest synopsis of a life lived so far removed from my life that I have come
to realize how unimportant I have been and will be. Dali was just a man, yet he
showed us in visual ways how mentally puny most of us are. His mind was
different. His artistic abilities were way above the norm and he was unique. Do
I admire him? In a way, yes! I am not sure I would want a life that seems so ‘tortured’.
I feel sure his life, as strange is it looks to me, was not an easy life. In a
way he was very lonely. How could he not be, living above the rest, on the
pinnacle of mental existence? Years back I went to visit his museum in
Figueres, Spain. I liked what I saw then.
So when I had to have my bike serviced (new rear tire, oil
change, incl. final drive) I chose the BMW dealership in Tampa, FL to do the
work.
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| Camera's Everywhere |
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| Stairs full of People |
St. Petersburg is close by and is also
a town that loved Dali. St. Pete’s is where the Americans (Morse Family, made
their money in early plastic) built a
Museum just to show Dali’s works. It is a
very modern building, and has the latest of the latest gizmo’s to watch Dali’s
paintings, sketches, busts, films, and whatever else he dabbled with. The lines
to get in to the museum are long. Only a limited number of people are allowed
in. Go early to be admitted quickly, I am not kidding, this is a sold out show,
almost every day.
Dali was a true artist. He was extraordinarily flamboyant,
self-assured and just plain weird. He knew it, played it up, too. Yet, he was
good, a genius.
I have no idea how high is IQ was, but I am sure it was up there.
His wife,
Gala, was a perfect match for him. Having looked at photographs,
listened to how he was enamored with her, I believe it was a good marriage.
I am not sure if Dali made fun of the viewer of his
paintings by using his far out descriptions that are hideous and sound insane.
The picture named “Anthropomorphic Echo“, for example.
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| Anthropomorphic Echo |
Full Definition of anthropomorphic
1. 1: described or
thought of as having a human form or human attributes <anthropomorphic
deities>
2. 2: ascribing human
characteristics to nonhuman things <anthropomorphic supernaturalism
 |
| is this a Vermeer ? Hardly ! |
I don’t use the word Anthropomorphic in my daily use. I had
to look up the meaning of the word. I am still having trouble thinking in terms
of words like that. I wonder why he named pictures “Portrait of my Dead
Brother” or the name “Ghost of Vermeer of Delft”. Was Dali’s thinking into the supernatural?
Dali painted in 1969/70 a painting called “
HallucinogenicToreador” reminds me of the Hippy Drug Culture. Some of it anyway.
Was Dali under the influence?
After he was introduced in 1929 to
Joan Miro and the idea of
Surrealism, Dali’s thinking sure took a very different turn.
Because when I look at the painting of his sister (1923) I
can still see ‘reality’ in her face.
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| Dali's Sister |
One
can clearly see what his sister looked like. Yet already, on the upside down
image, things start to change.
Dali’s subject matter to me was: The Irrational -
the world of dreams.
Dali loved Vermeer, I read that someplace. Yet when I look
at the picture titled GHOST OF VERMEER (1934) I do
not see any comparable ideas. I don’t
even see any ‘Vermeer’ in the picture at all. Was Dali sane? Did he just ramble
when he chose titles for his works?
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| The Ghost of Vermeer which can be Used as a Table |
Then the idea of the picture: “THE GHOST OF VERMEER OF DELFT
WHICH CAN BE USED AS A TABLE”? Strange!
I am not sure how you would see his exhibitions, his artwork
if you were to go. I cannot tell what would impress you, what would get to you,
but for me I am impressed with a lot of his works.
Many things Dali worked on or showed are way above my head.
The Lobster Telephone, as an example, I do not understand at all. I find it
ugly and useless.
And yet, I see Dali as an artist with mostly great ideas. He
shows me a reality that is not like mine. His pictures make me curious, I want
to see and explore them. I am amazed how another human being sees the world and
looking at the pictures depicted leaves me puzzled, sometime even a bit
upset. Mainly, however I see
strangeness, unexplained lands, motifs, partial visions that I have never had.
While sitting in the Gallery I watched some of the people
and took some photographs.
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| Ordinary Shoes |
I wanted to just watch them, see how they responded
to the visual impacts Dali created. As
you can see by the shoes, they were ordinary people.
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| The Baby is Excused |
And I excuse the fat baby,
because he/she has not yet developed an eye for the fine arts; but all the
other people?
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| Look at That ! |
What do you think of my comments below the pictures?
Dali left Spain in 1940, after only one year of him deciding
he was no longer a Surrealist. Yes, he just decided that in 1939.
Dali lived in the U.S. between 1940 and 1947. I would have
thought that Spain had little to offer him after having lived in the States.
But…….no, Dali went back to his Catalan roots.
His work, his paintings changed in his older years.
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| Columbus Discovers America |
One day, in 1939 he woke up and no longer painted his dream
world but now painted visions like “THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS” 1958/59. He became a very Catholic believer and painted Modern
looking pictures.Dali called this period of his painting Nuclear Mysticism.
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| Made in America |
Dali is a mystery to me, but I respect him as a great
artist. He was one of the few who truly was different from society and who
could translate his world into a visual presentation. He had visions, had a
different brain and St. Pete’s Museum is a great place to get to know him.
After the museum, with a new tire on the bike and the oils
changed, the world was, at least for a little while, a different place to ride
in. A bit Dali like!
St. Petersburg is close by and is also
a town that loved Dali. St. Pete’s is where the Americans (Morse Family, made
their money in early plastic) built a Museum just to show Dali’s works. It is a
very modern building, and has the latest of the latest gizmo’s to watch Dali’s
paintings, sketches, busts, films, and whatever else he dabbled with. The lines
to get in to the museum are long. Only a limited number of people are allowed
in. Go early to be admitted quickly, I am not kidding, this is a sold out show,
almost every day.
Many things Dali worked on or showed are way above my head.
The Lobster Telephone, as an example, I do not understand at all. I find it
ugly and useless.
