Salvador Dali
"The Father of Surrealism"
BY NURSEDA DEMİR (POLS/II)
These days, one of my biggest obsessions is painters. I've been researching, trying to learn more about them.To be honest, I had no knowledge of painters or paintings up to this year. However, after I went to the Salvador Dali exhibition at CerModern Art Center in Ankara last year (unfortunately, the exhibition is no longer on display), I literally fell in love with his works. I'm even considering taking a painting class.
To begin with, Dali has an unusual style in his paintings - actually, it's very unusual, unexpected and different. We can't really compare him with other painters because his works are so different. But before talking about his works, I would like to relate, briefly, the story of this cultural icon's life.
Salvador Dali was a Spanish (actually Catalan) surrealist artist. He was born in Figueres, Spain in 1904. At the age of 10, he began attending art classes, and at the age of 15 had his first exhibition at the Figueres Municipal Theater. In his late teens, he moved to Madrid to study at the fine arts academy there. During this time, his work started to show the influence of Cubism, the avant-garde art movement of which Pablo Picasso was a pioneer. Later, Dadaism, another avant-garde movement of the early 20th century, also became an important influence. In the years 1926-1929 Dali visited Paris several times, where he met Picasso and also the poet Paul Eluard, one of the pioneers of surrealism. Most importantly, while in Paris he met Gala, his future wife. After meeting Gala his life completely changed, with her becoming his source of inspiration.
In the 1930s his fame extended beyond the borders of Spain to the rest of Europe and the US as well. In the years after Franco won the Spanish Civil War, Dali declared that he was a supporter of the fascist regime. Ironically, a number of years before that, he had participated in some anarchist actions, and in my estimation, it's very remarkable that although he was a Catalan, he said he was a supporter of Franco. Of course there were many rumors about his behavior. Even the Surrealist group expelled him. Its head, Andre Breton, accused him of defending the "Hitler phenomenon," to which Dali responded with his very famous line, "Le Surréalisme c'est moi": "I myself am surrealism." Clearly, we can say that he was a very self-confident and fearless person.
During his lifetime he produced more than 1,500 works. If we were to say that Salvador Dali was only a painter, it would be untrue, because of his works in other fields of art. He created sculptures and lithographic works. In addition, he shot the famous silent surrealist short film "An Andalusian Dog" with Spanish director Luis Bunuel.
After the death of his wife Gala in 1982, Dali grew embittered and stopped working. He died of heart failure on January 23, 1989. His life had been very unpredictable and interesting, and had included many successes.
Going back to the subject of his paintings, it may be helpful to divide his works into three categories. The first is "Divine Comedy," because these works show the influence of Dante's spectacular masterpiece. Dante's work is also divided into three parts: "inferno," "purgatoria" and "paradiso," meaning hell, purgatory and paradise. Dali's most famous paintings are "The Persistence of Memory" and "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans." However, I would like to mention some of his other works. For instance, in terms of works relating to hell, my favorite is "The Black Devil," while 'The Ship of Souls" is a very mysterious painting having to do with purgatory. As for heaven, in "The Joy of the Blessed," Dali depicts angels in a very spiritual way.
The other two thematic categories of the artist's works are "Traces of Surrealism" and "Dinner with Gala." In "Traces of Surrealism," he provides an unreal universe, and it is very hard to figure out what is dream and what is reality. So, we can say that these are typical Dali works.
In the "Dinner with Gala" series, we come face-to-face with Dali's childhood dream: he had wanted to become a chef, and in these works we see foods, recipes and some gastro-aesthetic stories. Catalans are regarded as a people who only believe in what they eat, hear, touch and see. As a Catalan, Dali said, "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."
If you didn't know anything or hadn't read anything about Salvador Dali, hopefully this column has served as an introduction. And even if you didn't attend the exhibition at the CerModern, you can find pictures of all the works named here on the internet. Additionally, keep in mind that his works can be seen at the Dali Theatre and Museum in Figueres, in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and at the Dali Gallery in Los Angelas.
We must accept the fact that he is found excessive and different (even weird) by some people, but he's very intriguing and his works are incredible -- as I said above, he's the man who made me love paintings. A few years ago when I went to Belgium, there was a Dali exhibition, but I couldn't see it and was so sorry. Now I feel very privileged to know his works. I am sure that many more people will come to love art and painting thanks to him. Let me finish with a Dali quote:
"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad."