MoMA | Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931 See this work in MoMA’s Online Collection Salvador Dalí frequently described his paintings as “hand painted dream photographs.” He based this seaside landscape on the cliffs in his home region of Catalonia, Spain. The ants and melting clocks are recognizable images that Dalí placed in an unfamiliar context or rendered in an unfamiliar way. The large central creature comprised of a deformed nose and eye was drawn from Dalí’s imagination, although it has frequently been interpreted as a self-portrait . Its long eyelashes seem insect-like; what may or may not be a tongue oozes from its nose like a fat snail from its shell. Time is the theme here, from the melting watches to the decay implied by the swarming ants. Mastering what he called “the usual paralyzing tricks of eye-fooling,” Dalí painted this work with “the most imperialist fury of precision,” but only, he said, “to systematize confusion and thus to help discredit completely the world of reality.” There is, however, a nod to the real: the distant golden cliffs are those on the coast of Catalonia, Dalí’s home.

A work of art made from paint applied to canvas, wood, paper, or another support (noun). Glossary What’s Freud Got to Do with It? Salvador Dalí was very interested in Sigmund Freud’s writings on psychology. An Austrian psychologist writing in the late-19th and early-20th century, Freud revolutionized the way people think about the mind with his theory of the subconscious. The subconscious is the part of the psyche that thinks and feels without the person being aware of those thoughts and feelings. According to Freud, dreams are coded messages from the subconscious, and Surrealist artists like Dalí were interested in what could be revealed by their dreams. Madness to His Method? Dalí self-induced hallucinations in order to access his subconscious while creating art, a process he called the paranoiac-critical method . On the results of this process, he wrote, “I am the first to be surprised and often terrified by the images I see appear upon my canvas. I register without choice and with all possible exactitude the dictates of my subconscious, my dreams….” Although he claimed to be surprised by the images, Dalí rendered them with meticulous precision, creating the illusion that these places could exist in the real world.

Dalí, in his typically ironic way, once proclaimed, “The only difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad.” Salvador Dali, Persistence of Memory. 1931. Surrealism | Marina's Gallery Salvador Dali, Persistence of Memory. 1931. Surrealism Dali sometimes referred to his paintings as "hand-painted dream photographs" and The Persistence of Memory can certainly be characterized as such. The drooping pocketwatches possibly suggest the irrelevance of time during sleep. In other words, when we are asleep, or not conscious, the time does not persist, only memories do. This distortion of time can be easily observed by just about anyone who ever attempted to think about their own dreams. Some art historians theorize that the painting may be a visual depiction of the idea behind the Einstein's theory of relativity: that time itself is relative and not fixed. But that's quite possibly a shot in the dark. The painting's meaning strongly suggests psychoanalytical values, those to do with the research of Sigmund Freud. The Persistence of Memory is a painting by the famous Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

The original title of this painting is "La persistencia de la memoria" and it depicts a fetus-like head lying on the ground. There are four watches in this painting, three of which appear to be molten, as if made out of cheese. The ants seem to have found a point of interest in the center of the orange watch. The Persistence of Memory Meaning More than often Dali uses sandy beaches, corrupted by age sail boats, and other imagery he had been exposed to as a child in his home town. While the contents of this painting are enigmatic and open to interpretation, let's not forget that Dali was also a philosopher, beside being an artist, as most people know him. We also know that Dali had significant interests in science and psychology (He studied the works of Freud and Nietzsche, for example). The painting is nothing more than a collection of ideas, that are to do with the interpretation of dreams, perception of reality, time, birth, death and sexual desire. The ants, seemingly attacking the orange clock positioned on the rectangular table-like object perhaps indicate the anxiety associated with time. This psychology and understanding of the reality of death may configure our behavior. The Persistence of Memory may have many interpretations.

Some are more meaningful, others remain elusive. Perhaps the images of the melting clocks are nothing more than ideas influenced by the Camembert cheese left for too long of a period of time on the table on a warm sunny day (as Dali had previously described his inspiration for this painting, this is noted by Dali himself in his book, conveniently titled Diary of a Genius. According to Dali, he was a self-proclaimed genius). But remember that Dali would often make up ridiculous explanations for his paintings to purposely mislead people. The Camembert is an example of just that. By doing this Dali not only opened the doors for discussion of multiple interpretations of his art, but also made criticizing his work nearly impossible for people he thought who possessed lesser intellect than that of himself. In a similar way, for example, and with the same intentions, Leonardo DaVinci wrote backwards and upside down in his journals, so that the meaning of his work could only be interpreted when looked at in a mirror's reflection by those who were clever enough to understand it. Another peculiar detail that perhaps is not easy to spot at first glance is the way Dali uses light to communicate ideas of this painting.

There are two tiny rocks sitting in the sand on the beach in the background. The rock to the left is in the shadow, and the one to the right is lit. Note that the ants, the three melted clocks and a fetus-like object all reside in the shade as well. Whereas, the mountains and the water are lit by sunlight. Here we can see the difference between soft (uncertain) and hard (certain) objects. You can draw a diagonal line between the shadowed place and the lit areas of this painting. Perhaps the distorted (soft) images that are in the shade are representing subconscious images, and the sun-lit mountain (hard) and water represent consciousness. The painting almost makes the viewer look at consciousness as "the light at the end of the tunnel" from this angle. Posted 8th May 2013 by Marina Kumskova Art Beyond Sight: Art History Through Touch and Sound Insights and analysis Background on Surrealism and Salvador Dali In 1924, the French write Andre Breton announced the birth of Surrealism, a movement in painting that emphasized the unconscious. Surrealists were interested in presenting a more profound reality revealed by the unconscious mind.

They wished to produce images that went beyond mere painting to reach a new level of reality. In their experiments, dreams became important sources of inspiration, and enigma or mystery played a major role. The Spanish artist Salvador Dali was one of the best known Surrealist painters. He lived from 1904 to 1989. In 1929, Dali joined the Surrealist movement. He was an outrageous and eccentric personality. For example, at the opening of a Surrealist exhibition in London in 1936, Dali appeared in a diving suit. Throughout his lifetime, Dali's extravagant and humorous behavior generated wide publicity, eventually securing him celebrity status. However in 1942 André Breton officially expelled Dali from the Surrealist movement because of this self-promoting activity. The titles of Dali's two autobiographies tell us much about his personality. They are called The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, published in 1942, and Diary of a Genius, published in 1965. Although Dali garnered attention through his provocative exploits and theatrical behavior, his paintings were central to the development of the Surrealist aesthetic.

Dali's ambition was to "materialize images of concrete irrationality with the most imperialist fury of precision." Dali painted images from a dream world in such exacting clarity and meticulous detail that viewers feel they are entering a hallucinatory landscape. He called these paintings hand-painted dream photographs. They contain strange and bizarre juxtapositions of objects, and the transformation of one form into another form. For example, objects we know as hard and solid appear soft and malleable. Or inanimate objects appear alive and conscious. It's as though the normal laws of physics no longer apply to the people and objects in Dali's created world, much like the irrational and unpredictable world of the dream. We'll see many of these strange transformations in Dali's painting The Persistence of Memory, but first, we suggest listening to a short interpretive sound composition that evokes the essence of Surrealism. Verbal description of The Persistence of Memory This painting is a horizontal rectangle and is only slightly larger than a piece printer paper. The setting for this painting is a rather bleak landscape. We see a sandy beach in the foreground and middle ground that appears dark, like it's in shadow.

The beach stretches toward the background, where it eventually reaches a body of still water, probably a lake or ocean. This body of water meets the horizon line. The sky above the horizon is featureless, with no clouds, sun, birds, or anything. On the painting's upper-right side, there are jagged, rocky cliffs extending down into the water. In the left foreground, there is a large rectangular form, like a solid box, serving as a table. In the middle ground, directly in front of us, there is a strange organic form, which at first glance appears to be an animal lying on its side. Then we realize the form doesn't look like anything we've ever seen before. Four pocket watches are placed in this strange scene, three of them appearing to melt into soft, malleable shapes. The natural illumination in the painting tells us the time of day is either late afternoon around dusk or early morning around dawn. We know this because the band of yellowish light near the horizon line tells us the sun is just below the horizon line. The foreground is relatively dark compared to the distant horizon line.

The colors in the painting are dark brown in the foreground sand, yellow in the rocky cliffs and horizon line, and aqua blue in the sky, the thin sliver of water in the background, and three of the four watches. There are very few objects in this painting. Most of them are quite strange. This strangeness contributes to the mystery of the landscape. Let's consider these objects. First, there's a box-like rectangular form in the lower-left portion of the painting. On top of it are two watches and a dark, dead tree trunk standing straight up. One of the watches drapes over the edge of the box. Part of the watch rests on the top surface of it, and part of it drapes down over the right side. The watch looks as though it's made of melting wax and is beginning to lose its solid form. Another way to describe it is to think of the round pocket watch as a limp pancake hanging over the side of a table. Another watch is placed on the top of the box with its face down. This means we cannot see the numbers or the hands of the face. Instead, we see the gold casing of the back of the watch.

This watch is orange, and black ants are crawling over the surface of it. The ants appear to be feeding on the watch as though it's organic and edible. A third watch is draped over a limb of the dead tree. Like the melting watch on the box, this hanging watch is also pliable and limp. Imagine it as a pancake folded over the limb and hanging down. The watch's face is toward us and its back is to the limb. We can see the numbers three through nine. We can see the hand on the watch and it points to the number six. But we cannot tell whether it's the minute or hour hand. Behind the tree and near the water's edge is a flat board. It's not clear why the board is there or what it means. In the center of the painting is a large, fleshy, animal-like creature with the fourth watch draped over it. The creature is grayish and seems to be lying on top of a rock. This creature is stretched horizontally across the sand. It's a soft, pliable form. The creature's head is on our left, and its tail is on our right. We see its profile, which faces the painting's lower edge.

The head has a human-like nose and long eyelashes. The head appears to be a distorted human profile. We can recognize a tongue, which hangs out of its mouth, eyelashes, and a closed eyelid. The body of the creature appears smooth and featureless, as though it's a cross between a fish, a dolphin, and a human. This animal-like form shows no signs of life. This figure is an example of metamorphosis, a device Dali and other Surrealists used to merge human, vegetal, and animal forms into a single unit. It occurs often in Dali's work. Back to top Insights and analysis Each object in The Persistence of Memory is painted with exactitude and is very recognizable. But this scene would not be found in real life. Such a combination of objects comes from the dream world. Everything looks real in the painting. Yet we know that it cannot be real. This deliberate confusion of real and imagined is central to the premise of Surrealism. In earlier periods of western art it is possible to find isolated examples of this kind of imagery. But Surrealism is the first time these ideas are cogently expressed as an attempt to represent the unconscious mind.

As in a dream, these strange combinations of elements have the power to evoke feelings and psychological states not normally available to us in everyday experience. Consider the experience of this painting. The viewer must pass through the more sinister foreground and middle ground to reach the serene background of this painting. In the background, the cliffs in the water are very beautiful, but they show no form of life. There is no movement on these cliffs. The water is also absolutely still. There are no waves in the water, and the image of the cliffs is clearly reflected on the water's surface. It's serene and peaceful in the background, and there is no evidence of human presence. The foreground and middle ground, however, do show evidence of humans. The large rectangular box-like form. The flat board at the edge of the water. And the clocks of course. But why is the tree dead? Why are there no plants or grasses growing in this barren place? Why has measured time, signaled by the watches, stopped and melted? Why do the ants seem to be feeding on one of the watches? Why are insects the only active creatures in this landscape? And what is the animal-like or humanoid form in the center of the painting?

Why are the watches so large in comparison to the dead tree and the animal-like, humanoid form? There are no answers to these questions. The world of this painting is ruled by an irrational order. It is disquieting and haunting. We return to the painting again and again to try to figure out the puzzle. But, as in a dream, no solution is offered. - Salvador Dali Famous Artists My Kids Art Salvador Dali was born in 1909 in a place called Catalonia, Spain. He was one of the greatest of the Surrealist group of Artists. He was best known for his ability to translate dreams into artwork. He described his work as ' hand-painted dream photographs '. Salvador was also a sculptor, filmmaker, writer, jewellery designer, book illustrator and worked in theatre. Salvador always acted strangely and some people thought he was insane but he might have just wanted them to believe that he was. Perhaps his best known painting is The Persistence of Memory (see below) done in 1931 and shows melting clocks. In 1936 he returned to a more traditional style of painting.

From 1939 to 1948 he lived in the United States and became well known for being eccentric. Romeria - Pilgrimage Figure at a Window The Persistence of Memory Sleep Head Exploding Still Life - Fast Moving 1921 1925 1931 1937 1951 1956 Unusual Facts about Salvador Dali He had an intense fear of Grasshoppers. He didn't know how to count money. When he was in public he would jump up and down to get attention. He was afraid to expose his feet. He liked his wife because she changed her clothes three times a day. ______________________________________ " I'll be a genius....... Perhaps I'll be despised and misunderstood, but I'll be a genius, a great genius. " Quote from Salvador Dali. Salvador Dali died in 1989 aged 85.

Visit the Dali Museum for Surreal News and Links ( and other ridicuoulous things you should know ) Surrealism Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story Web Services & Hosting by The Computer Studio | Designed by DesArtLab Karl Marx Karl Marx Karl Marx was a German philosopher, historian, economist, and revolutionary who along with Frederick Engels founded modern Communism. Although Marx's belief that socialism would one day replace capitalism did not come true, he is considered one of the modern era's most influential thinkers. Romanticism Romanticism Romanticism was a nineteenth-century movement that celebrated the powers of emotion and intuition over rational analysis or classical ideals. Romantic artists emphasized awe, beauty, and the sublime in their works, which frequently charted the darker or chaotic sides of human life. André Breton André Breton André Breton, author of the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, was an influential theorizer of both Dada and Surrealism. Born in France, he emigrated to New York during World War II, where he greatly influenced the Abstract Expressionists.

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who in the early twentieth century founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. His theories on the human unconscious, arhcetypal forms and free association were very influential on many forms of modern art, including Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. Max Ernst Max Ernst Max Ernst was a German Dadaist and Surrealist whose paintings and collages combine dream-like realism, automatic techniques, and eerie subject matter. Salvador Dalí Salvador Dalí Salvador Dalí was a Spanish Surrealist painter who combined a hyperrealist style with dream-like, sexualized subject matter. His collaborations with Hollywood and commercial ventures, alongside his notoriously dramatic personality, earned him scorn from some Surrealist colleagues. Joan Miró Joan Miró Active in Paris from the 1920s onward, and influenced by Surrealism, Miró developed a style of biomorphic abstraction which blended abstract figurative motifs, large fields of color, and primitivist symbols. This style would be an important inspiration for many Abstract Expressionists. Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau was a French Symbolist painter who depicted narrative moments and figures from classical mythology and biblical history.

Arnold Bocklin Arnold Bocklin Arnold Bocklin was a symbolist Swiss painter. Influenced by Romanticism, his paintings overlapped with the Pre-Raphaelites. His pictures portray mythological, fantastical figures set in classical constructions. His paintings often reveal an obsession with death. Odilon Redon Odilon Redon Odilon Redon was a French Symbolist artist whose paintings, prints, and pastel works frequently include elements like cyclopses, centaurs, and abstract floral designs in atmospheric settings. Henri Rousseau Henri Rousseau Henri Rousseau was a French self-taught painter. His most famous works, done in his characteristic flat figurative style, show surreal and dream-like scenes in primitive or natural settings. Dada Dada Dada was an artistic and literary movement that emerged in 1916. It arose in reaction to World War I, and the nationalism and rationalism that many thought had led to the War. Influenced by several avant-gardes - Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism - its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting and collage.

Emerging first in Zurich, it spread to cities including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York and Cologne. Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso Picasso dominated European painting in the first half of the last century, and remains perhaps the century's most important, prolifically inventive, and versatile artist. Alongside Georges Braque, he pioneered Cubism. He also made significant contributions to Surrealist painting and media such as collage, welded sculpture, and ceramics. Jean Cocteau Jean Cocteau Jean Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist, and filmmaker. Along with other avant-garde artists of his generation Cocteau grappled to define the paradox of classical avant-garde. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, and Coco Chanel. Francis Picabia Francis Picabia Francis Picabia was a French artist who worked in Dada, Surrealist, and abstract modes, often employing language and mechanical imagery. He published the Dada journal 391 in Barcelona and America. Luis Bunuel Luis Bunuel Luis Bunuel Portoles was a Spanish-born Mexican filmmaker and avant-garde auteur.

Heavily influenced by Surrealism, Dada and religious lore, Bunuel's films were famous for their disturbing imagery and dreamlike sensibility. In addition to his adopted Mexico, he filmed in France and the United States. Joseph Cornell Joseph Cornell Joseph Cornell was an American artist, best known for his collage work and "shadow boxes," which were highly complex diorama-like constructions. Cornell incorporated found objects, old photos, newspaper clippings and other objects into these boxes, resulting in uniquely surreal, three-dimensional worlds. Cornell was one of the few American artists associated with Surrealism. Existentialism in Modern Art Existentialism in Modern Art Existentialism deals largely with the complexities of individual human emotions, thoughts and responsibilities and the philosophy was widely used by various artist in the arena of modern art. Abstract Expressionism Abstract Expressionism A tendency among New York painters of the late 1940s and '50s, all of whom were committed to an expressive art of profound emotion and universal themes. The movement embraced the gestural abstraction of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, and the color field painting of Mark Rothko and others.

It blended elements of Surrealism and abstract art in an effort to create a new style fitted to the postwar mood of anxiety and trauma. Roberto Matta Roberto Matta Roberto Matta was a Chilean-born artist who lived and worked in New York in the 1940s. His interest in automatism and painterly effects helped forge a crucial link between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. Museum of Modern Art Museum of Modern Art The Museum has become the home for some of the greatest works of avant-garde painting, sculpture, film and multi-media art in the world. While MoMA remains true to its roots as a place where new styles of art can circulate, its permanent collection is widely considered the most impressive and diverse assortment of Modern art to ever exist, ranging from late-nineteenth-century van Goghs, Monets and Gauguins to works produced in the present day. Jackson Pollock Jackson Pollock Jackson Pollock was the most well-known Abstract Expressionist and the key example of Action Painting. His work ranges from Jungian scenes of primitive rites to the purely abstract "drip paintings" of his later career.

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell was a first-generation Abstract Expressionist whose paintings use hulking shapes, large-scale strokes and calligraphy, and wide expanses of muted color. Eloquent and well-educated, he wrote extensively on theories of art. Giorgio de Chirico Giorgio de Chirico Giorgio de Chirico was a Greek-Italian painter and sculptor commonly associated with Surrealism. Initially discovered by Picasso and Apollinaire in France, de Chirico's best known Surrealist paintings incorporated metaphysical subject matter and sculptural still-life. Instead of land- or cityscapes, de Chirico's art is more emblematic of a dreamscape. Paranoid Critical Method: Salvador Paranoid-Critical Method Created in the early 1930’s by Dali himself, the “Paranoid-Critical” method is a Surrealist method used to help an artist tap into their subconscious through systematic irrational thought and a self-induced paranoid state. By inducing this paranoid state one can forego one’s previous notions, concepts, and understanding of the world and reality in order to view the world in new, different and more unique ways.

[2] [3] After his self-induced paranoid state, Dali would then paint what he had witnessed, creating what he referred to as, “hand painted dream photographs.” [3] . Dali used his “Paranoid Critical” method to relate objects that were otherwise unrelated. He did this through the use of optical illusions and juxtaposing images. While using these techniques, it was very important to Dali to maintain his artistic integrity by painting realistically, Dali said, “My whole ambition in the pictorial domain is to materialize the images of my concrete irrationality with the most imperialist fury of precision...”[1]. Dali believed that when people viewed his work, there was a subjective understanding of his work as the subconscious has a symbolic universal language. Simply viewing his work would evoke the mind of the viewer to experience unconscious acts. “The subconscious has a symbolic language that is truly a universal language, for it speaks with the vocabulary of the great vital constants, sexual instinct, feeling of death, physical notion of the enigma of space—these vital constants are universally echoed in every human. To understand an aesthetic picture, training in the appreciation is necessary, cultural and intellectual preparation.

For Surrealism the only re requisite is a receptive and intuitive human being.” [2]. --Salvador Dali Dali’s used his “Paranoid-Critical” method throughout his entire career. He used it in his most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory which includes dreamscapes, melting clocks and an interesting self-portrait. It can be seen in Swans Reflecting Elephants , in which swan’s reflections on a lake are elephants, two otherwise unalike animals. The Burning Giraffe , which has a woman made out of a drawers and a giraffe on fire in the background, also very diverse imagery. Soft Construction with Boiled Beans consists of two large masses, but if you look closely you can see two feet, two hands, collar bones and a head. My personal favorite is Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening .

In this painting a large gold fish is coming out of an open pomegranate, the fish is eating a tiger, that tiger is about to eat another tiger’s tail and that tiger is in mid air in attack pose, in front of him is a rifle and in front of the rifle is a nude woman levitating just above the ground that is also floating above a body of water. In the background is one of Dali’s elephants with obscenely long legs. The painting may make no sense whatsoever, but is incredibly beautiful. It is clear from Dali’s artwork that he is trying to create a place for his viewers to look at the world in a different light. The juxtaposition of images and the optical illusions in his work forces one to abandon any preconceived notions one might have about reality and the world. Even if these notions are only abandoned for a second, he still has been successful. As Dali once said, “Paranoiac-critical activity organizes and objectivizes in an exclusivist manner the limitless and unknown possibilities of the systematic association of subjective and objective 'significance' in the irrational...” [1].

Salvador Dali: Surrealist Artist Soft Construction with Boiled Beans Premonition of Civil War (1936). Philadelphia Museum of Art. Salvador Dali. Biography Salvador Dali, the most eccentric and imaginative figure in Spanish painting , explored Cubism as well as Futurism and Metaphysical Painting, before finally turning to Surrealism . Academy-trained as an artist, with an extraordinary talent for self-publicity, and a huge waxed moustache, he quickly became one of the best known surrealist artists , being renowned for the vivid and bizarre content of his paintings. These are characterized by meticulous attention to detail, virtuoso technique, and highly creative content, along with symbolic Freudian dream imagery. He himself referred to them as "hand-painted dream photographs." In addition to his painting skills, which were strongly influenced by the Old Masters of the Italian Renaissance, his creative talents extended to film-making and photography , as well as jewellery art and theatrical design. He is regarded by most art critics as one of the top 20th century painters of the inter-war period, and many of his paintings are available as prints in the form of poster art .

The word 'dali-esque' is now synonymous with the absurd. Dali's greatest paintings include: Seated Girl Seen from the Rear (1925, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid); The Persistence of Memory (1931, Museum of Modern Art, New York); Giraffe in Flames (1935, Kunstmuseum, Basel); Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (1936, Philadelphia Museum of Art); The Temptation of St Anthony (1946, Musee Royaux des Beaux Arts, Brussels); Christ of Saint John the Cross (1951, Glasgow Art Gallery, Scotland); The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-4, Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida). Dali was also responsible for some innovative surrealist sculpture . His best known works of plastic art include: Mae West Lips Sofa (1937, private collection), and found objects like Lobster Telephone (1936, Tate Collection, London). The Persistence of Memory (1931) Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Detail showing the 'soft watch', It's a visual representation of Einstein's theory of Relativity, Best Artists of All Time . Early Life Salvador Dali was a versatile genius, from the same Catalan mould as Picasso (1881-1973) and Joan Miro (1893-1983). He learned his drawing skills at the Madrid Academy of Fine Arts where he studied (1921-4), and again (1925-6). By the time of he left he had already enjoyed a successful solo exhibition at the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona in November 1925, which Picasso himself had admired. At that time he was painting works that already showed his obsession with the seashore scenes of his childhood, an obsession which he was never to give up (Woman in Front of Rocks, 1926, Milan, private collection). During this early phase he was intent on exploring several different styles of modern art , including analytical Cubism, Metaphysical Painting (pittura metafisica) and Futurism, as well as classical styles from the Spanish nd Dutch Baroque.

He was also influenced by Max Klinger (1857-1920), the Leipzig-born symbolist/fantasy painter. During this early period Dali also produced designs for the Ballets Russes run by Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929). Surrealist Painting: Dali's "Critical Paranoia" His reading of Freud, however, inclined him towards an art of the unconscious, (see Automatism in Art ) and he began to gravitate towards Surrealism. On his second visit to Paris in 1927 (he had met Picasso on his first trip, in 1926) and again in 1928, he met Picasso as well as the leading theorist of the Surrealism movement Andre Breton (1896-1966), previously a Dada activist. It was through them he met Gala Eluard who was to become his companion and a continuing source of inspiration. He actually joined the Surrealist movement in 1929, and later the same year enjoyed a sell-out one-man show at the Galerie Camille Goemans in Paris, for which Andre Breton wrote the catalogue introduction.

Works shown included The Enigma of Desire (1929, Zurich, private collection) which illustrated his theory of 'critical paranoia', set out in his book La Femme Visible (1930). Dali's Surrealism involved inducing a hallucinatory state in himself in order to produce images from his subconscious mind, in a form of automatic painting. This process he called "critical paranoia". Surrealist Films Dali also collaborated with the avant-garde film-maker Luis Bunuel in the production of Un Chien Andalou (1929), whose notoriously sensational imagery made both men into icons of the surrealist absurd. This film along with his paintings, his eccentricity and his flamboyant exhibitionism, transformed Dali into the public face of Surrealism and one of the most famous modern artists of the 20th century. A second film, L' Age d'Or, was made in 1930.

Despite the promotional hype, Dali's automatic painting was not especially innovative: he was following in the footsteps of numerous artists including Leonardo da Vinci (who had formulated the idea in his Treatise on Painting), and Max Ernst (1891-1976) (who founded the techniques of frottage and decalcomania). Other influences on Dali included works by Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) - see, for example, his Song of Love (1914, Museum of Modern Art, New York), and The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914, Private Collection) - and Yves Tanguy (1900-55). Bizarre Dream-like Images Even so, once Dali hit upon his signature figurative style of surrealism, his art matured with extraordinary rapidity, and from 1929 to 1937 he produced his greatest 20th century paintings - the ones that made him the world's best known Surrealist. His pictures portray a dream world in which commonplace objects are juxtaposed, deformed or otherwise metamorphosed in a bizarre and irrational fashion.

Dali portrayed these images in meticulous detail and usually placed them within bleak sunlit landscapes that were reminiscent of his Catalonian homeland. His powerful oil painting Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War (1936) depicts a grimacing dismembered figure (symbolic of war-torn humanity) grasping upward at itself while holding itself down underfoot. The monstrous face recalls the mythological painting of Saturn devouring one of his children, as previously depicted by Goya . The boiled beans may represent the ancient Catalan offering to the gods. Dali described it as a 'premonition of civil war' and began painting it six months before the Spanish Civil War started. Expelled From Surrealism Movement In the late 1930s Dali switched to a more academic style of painting, under the influence of the Renaissance master Raphael, and as a result was heavily criticized (1934) and finally expelled from the Surrealistic movement by Andre Breton, in 1939. From 1940 to 1948 he lived in the United States, where he devoted himself to exhibitionism and making money.

On his return to Spain he settled at Port Lligat, in Catalonia, dividing his time between there, Paris and New York, and in 1958 married Gala in a church ceremony. For another great Catalan modernist, see: Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) the Art Nouveau architect, noted for La Sagrada Familia. Mature Works During the period 1950 to 1970, Salvador Dali painted many works with scientific, religious and mythological themes. In the process he experimented with numerous different painting styles - including Dutch Baroque , Surrealism (The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, 1952-4), Italian Baroque (Christ of St John of the Cross, 1951, Glasgow, Art Gallery), as well as Action Painting - in order to maintain his image as "Mr Surrealism". But these artworks are not as highly regarded as his earlier paintings. This negative reaction by art critics may have been influenced by political considerations (Dali returned to Spain to live under Franco) and also by the increasingly eccentric behaviour of Dali himself.

Nevertheless, some paintings remain important, such as The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-4) which was Dalí's way of acknowledging the impact of the the new science of atomic physics. The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory is a re-creation of his famous 1931 work The Persistence of Memory, and measures a mere 9 inches by 13 inches. It shows his earlier image fragmented into smaller component elements - mainly blocks - with gaps between them, implying something beneath the surface of the first work. The new imagery represents the uncertain effects of the new atomic bomb on science and humanity. Reputation As an Artist Through flirtations with fashionable society, compromises with the powerful in religion and politics, and other forms of attention-seeking, Dali finally made the general public believe in him as the authentic representative of Surrealism (Tuna-Fishing, 1966-7, Marseilles, Paul Ricard Foundation). Thus, Dali's life and work became mingled in a general imposture that might well be considered in itself a work of art. Despite the critics, Salvador Dali had a huge influence on avant-garde art of the 1930s.

In his later years, young painters like Andy Warhol proclaimed Dalí an important influence on Pop art . While remaining a bizarre, elusive individual, Salvador Dali's paintings and sculptures continue to fascinate. He was a unique artist and remains a significant figure in the history of art . Retrospectives, Collections A large retrospective of his work was held at the Boymans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam in 1970-1, and another in Paris and London in 1981. A Dali museum, promoted by Dali himself, was set up in 1974 in Figueras. He is represented in many of the best art museums in America and Europe, notably the Reina Sofia, Madrid , as well as those in Basel, London, Glasgow, Paris, Chicago, Cleveland, Hartford, New York (Metropolitan Museum and MoMA), Philadelphia and Washington. Other Surrealist Painters For biographies of other artists involved in the Surrealism school, please see: Rene Magritte (1888-1978), and Paul Delvaux (1897-1994).  For more biographies of great Surrealist artists, see: Famous painters .

 For more about Spanish painting, see: Homepage . ENCYCLOPEDIA OF VISUAL ARTISTS

Question: Who described his paintings as "hand-painted dream photographs?"
Answer: Salvador Dali