Salvador Dali overcame scandal to become (after Picasso) the second best-known, most influential, important artist of the 20th century. Score two for Spain!
Those of you who have met me know that I sport a Dali-type moustache (most of the time). Although I met Dali several times when I lived in Spain (once he asked me if I could help him fix his phone) and I curated the Homage to Dali exhibition in 1999 and I am a great, unapologizing fan of the great Catalan, my moustache is not because of Dali - if you want to know, next time you see me, buy me a beer and I'll tell you about the Druze.
Anyway, Alan Riding has a terrific article in the New York Times that discusses Dali's powerful impact as perhaps the 20th century's second most important artist (Picasso being the first) and two ongoing exhibitions on the centenary of his birth: "Dalí and Mass Culture" which tracks his impact on today's visual language, were shown in Barcelona this spring and Madrid this summer and will be at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., from Oct. 1, 2004 through Jan. 30, 2005. And "Dalí," which focuses on his paintings, is at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice through Jan. 16 and will be presented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from Feb. 16 through May 15, 2005.
Article comments
1 - Lono
Dali is second to NO ONE in the art world... especially Picasso. I was in Spain for my honeymoon last summer and traveled to both the Dali museum where he grew up (Figueras) and the Picasso museum in Barcelona too. Dali's museum was WAY better, because Dali was very involved in the process. Also, though Picasso was great... his later stuff looks to me like it should be titled "holy shit, I have half an hour left to deliver an original Picasso. No problem, I can knock three out in that time period".
plus, Dali was more interesting as a person to me. Of course, to be fair... I am somewhat obsessed with Dali, and he is my team mascott at work.
2 - Lono
The difference between Dali and a madman is that Dali is not mad!
- salvador dali
3 - Bob A. Booey
Impressive topic. It's good to see actual intellectuals and artists writing about things they're familiar with.
My weak spot (among many) in cultural knowledge is definitely visual art, where I'm even more of an illiterate and a novice. I'm not qualified to judge the Dali vs. Picasso comparison, but I do like both. I think people tend to regard Picasso as more "mature" because of his engagement with classical motifs and because some of his work is more readily interpreted as political while Dali's is often more playful or shocking (but in some ways more direct). They're clearly very different sensibilities toward common themes -- compare "Guernica" to "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of the Civil War." Even Dali's title for the piece is whimsical, despite the serious topic. I also enjoy Dada and Duchamp, so I don't mind the more playful, ironic approach to deconstructing society and politics.
I'm not sure I'm fully mature enough to understand Picasso yet.
I'm not as familiar with his biography, but I've recently discovered a liking for Magritte. Any of you who are far more expert than I when it comes to Magritte who would like to write a piece detailing your views on his work would gain my inestimable esteem :) One of my more pretentious friends refers to him as "the philosopher's artist," which I don't fully understand beyond the obvious connection Foucault made in his work.
I find Tanguy's apocalyptic geography thing kind of cool too, but I know even less about his work and biography. I could not even begin to interpret the kind of art he produced, however. I don't know if there's anything you can interpret out of some sort of landscape of the sublime. Anyone who wants to educate me, feel free.
For what it's worth, I think perhaps the most impressive intellectual task is watching a skilled art critic dissect visual space and technique while making highly suggestive intepretive readings of the psychological, social, and political themes of a work of art. Literature isn't open to interpretation and creative criticism in the same way -- it's far, far easier to find a stable foundation for analysis in literary text than in a work of visual art. I don't think I have the capacity to analyze visual art in that way -- my brain just doesn't work with the spatial and visual as much as it does with abstract theory, language, and data. I do envy those of you who can innately appreciate and SENSE art in a way most of us can't, though.
The best I can do is to read something like Breton's manifesto and enjoy the feel of modern art in a more intuitive way by associating it with theory, event or words or just gut emotional reaction. I think the main reason I'm not more schooled in art is laziness, though. It's harder to educate yourself in art and not rely on bullshit :)
That is all.
4 - Shark
Thanks for the heads-up on the NY Times article, Lenny!
And now, for no particular reason other than I want to, here's...
Shark's List:
1) Duchamp (He created and anticipated ALL that was to come! No one else even comes close.)
2) Dali - quantum physics + Freud, done by the ultimate skillful painter: what's not to like?
3) Picasso - A creative monster who enters the Pantheon based on volume alone! Ratio of masterpieces to shit is pretty bad, but with Pablo -- it's a numbers game, eh?
4) Rauschenberg - Like Duchamp, anticipated image saturation in contemporary media, computer images, CNN's crawl, optical Attention Deficit Disorder, etc. -- and he's a fellow Texan.
5) Joseph Cornell - some of the most spiritual and surreal art of the 20th century: every box reminds me of Maldoror's, "...chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting table..." (um, and that's a good thing!)
6) Warhol - We get the art we deserve: pop stars and logos as religious icons
* Two Demi-Gods MISSING IN ACTION:
-- Matisse - I love the guy, but...
-- Monet - belongs more in the 19th century, although he was pushing the boundaries of abstraction toward the end there...
Booey, re. Magritte's impact: see parenthesis at #6.
Later, babes.
xxoo
S
5 - Shark
Sorry, I wasn't intentionally being coy:
that's "...parenthesis at #5"!
mea gulpa
6 - Dan
When Dali was asked who his favorite artist was, by Mike Wallace, Dali replied, "Picasso, and then Dali and then sounded like he changed his mind and decided Dali was Dali's favorite artist.
Pretty cool interview.
Dan
7 - Ali
We often hear a discussion on the topic "Dali - Genious or maniac? "Me, I think Dali was a genious. Don't get me wrong, I admire the work of Picasso, but I just think Dali had that special touch. Surrealism is usually seen as some swirly colours and imaginary creatures or something, but Dali made it look so much like realism, so realistic, even though it was still surrealism, like in that one called..... i can't remember the name.. but it was something like "Flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening" or something like that.. the images look so realistic, but the situation cannot be further from realism. That is something which I think is a great skill to achieve.
[By the way, I'm only 16, so like Booey I still feel as if I am a bit too immature for this discussion.. but I just think Dali is great.. or maybe it's because he came up in my art coursework research.. but still :)]
8 - zou
check out Barbara Klein if you like Dali! she has one piece with zebra-cows that if i hadn't known better i would have said was Dali's.