Author: Citra Nilakresna Dewi

Surrealist Artists Salvador Dalí Salvador Dalí [ 1904 – 1989 ] Surrealist artists – such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy and many others – seek to explore the unconscious mind and dreams as a way of creating art that asserted the value of it’s both. The artists found magic and beauty beyond world in the unexpected, the unconventional, and the uncanny of their deepest thoughts by illustrating it into something that is indescribable-yet-very-fascinating collection of artworks. However, for some artists – Surrealism is also used as a way to depict dream worlds or hidden psychological tensions. The following image is one of the most famous Surrealist artist in the world. Anyone who admires and loves painting probably know the man in the picture below. Scroll down to read more! Who is Salvador Dalí? About the artist Portrait of Salvador Dalí at age 4 He is, for sure, one of the man, the master of arts, Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, known as Salvador Dalí. Certainly, he is one of the most symbolic, and most celebrated artist of the Surrealist movement of all time. He is also one of the most influential figures in modern art. Dalí was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, near the Pyrenees Mountains, Spain. Growing up being surrounded by natures and cultures, he found many inspiration that later on it became his key paintings as he often included the scenery that he sees around into his artworks. Dalí has laid his heart in art and found love in it. His father and his mother greatly nurtured his interest in art since he was young. Both his parents built an art studio in Cadaqués, their summer home. Landscape Near Figueras (1910) is one of the earliest known artwork by Salvador Dalí. It was painted when he was six years old.  At the age of 10, he had his first drawing lesssons that soon he took an art school at the San Fernando Academy of Art in Madrid, where he experienced with impressionist and pointillist styles. However, in 1926, when he was in his year-end at the academy, he refused to be examined in the theory of art and balked at his professors during the examanation. He announced, “I am very sorry. But I am infinitely more intelligent than these three professors, and I therefore refuse to be examined by them. I know this subject much too well”. As a result of this, he got expelled before graduation. Landscape Near Figueras [ 1910 ] After leaving art school, he soon went on trip to Paris where everything started and this, is where his life-changing, his journey began. Dalí visited Pablo Picasso in his studio and found a new inspiration and ideas which is called Cubism. Cubism is an art movement that was created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1907. The style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface that can be viewed from multiple angles simultaneously. Later on, he has a great interest in Futurism, where he re-created motion and show objects from multiple angles. Dalí also had an interest in Psychoanalytic concepts of Sigmund Freud. After some time, he studied the theory and consequently began using Psychoanalytic methods of mining the subconscious to generate imagery. Joan Miró, a fellow from Catalan allied to some of the French Surrealist artists – such as Jean Arp, René Magritte, and Max Ernst. They found Dalí’s artwork very captivating and also very fond of his idea, especially in Psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud. They tried to apply this methods into painting and writing. At that time, the Surrealists artists – knew that Dalí was well acquainted with Freud and his great ideas about sexual repression taking the form of dreams and delusions. As soon as Dalí found out about this, he was amazed with the Surrealists attempt to capture these dreams in paint. Dalí’s first serious work in Psychoanalytic concept was Apparatus and Hand (1927), which became his inimitable painting signature. Here take a look at the artwork! Apparatus and Hand [ 1927 ] In 1928, Dalí worked with Luis Buñuel on movie industry Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog). Due to the conflicts and remarks about the context of this film, Dalí’s popularity starts to fell and causing quite a stir with the Parisian Surrealists. However in 1929, The Surrealists sent Paul Éluard and his wife Gala, along with René Magritte and his wife Georgette to visit Dalí in Cadaques. Dalí met and fell in love with Gala. The two were drawn to each other and shortly after Gala decided to left Éluard for Dalí. The fact that she was ten years older than him, he didn’t mind it and even decided to marry her in 1934 and renewed their vows in 1958. Gala became Dalí’s lifelong, soulmate, and most important muse, as well as being his wife, his greatest passion and love, also business manager. Years later, Dalí moved to Paris and was invited by ‘The Surrealist Pops’, André Breton to join the movement. Salvador Dali and his wife, Gala In the early 1930s, Dalí took Breton’s theory of ‘automatism’ concept a step further by creating his own perspective called ‘Paranoiac-critical method’, which means an artist could use their subconscious through systematic irrational thought, hallucinations, and a self-induced paranoid state to facilitate and create a work of art. It is also known as a ‘second phase’ of Surrealism. Dalí would create ‘hand-painted dream photographs’ based on what he had witnessed. Most of his artwork shows an unusual-yet-very-unique painting. Although the objects were sometimes unrelated, rather confusing, but it still painted realistically. He believed that the viewers would find a deep connection and meaning with his artwork because after all, the subconscious language is universal, and “it speaks with the vocabulary of the great vital constants that is universally echoed in every human”. Dalí used this method for almost his entire life, and his most popular, well-known artwork was The Persistence of Memory… Continue reading Surrealist Artist