Surrealism & Salvador Dalí

Dalí, The Elephants, 1948

Surrealism

Starting in the 1920s, a group of artists called Surrealists were making strange and unusual paintings influenced by dreams and their imaginations.

Dalí, The Three Sphinxes of Bikini, 1947

Have you ever woken upfrom a dream wondering what in the world it meant?

Magritte, Fair Captive, 1945

Like dreams, these paintings mixed pieces of the real world with bizarre, fantastic elements that could only come from a person’s mind.

Magritte, Human Condition, 1935

Ernst, Oedipus Rex, 1922

These artistic works often did not make logical sense and left viewers wondering what in the world they meant.

Salvador Dalí

“The only difference between the Surrealists and me is that I am a Surrealist.”

– Salvador Dalí

• Salvador Dalí was the most famous of the Surrealist artists.

• Dalí was born May 11th, 1904, in Figueras, Catalonia, Spain. He died in 1989.

• Best known for his paintings, Dalí was also a sculptor, book illustrator, movie and theater set designer.

• He was an excellent self-promoter with his signature waxed mustache.

• He loved to surprise and shock to make people think about more than what they could see with their eyes.

Dali was influenced by many artists from different periods in art including classical painters like the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.

• Precise realism and the ominous, swirling light in many of Dalí’s paintingswere strongly influenced by the works of Vermeer.

• How does Dalí’s sky make you feel?

Dalí, Average Pagan Landscape, 1937 Vermeer, View of Delft, circa 1660 - 1661

Dalí, Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition, 1934

What makes it Surreal?

PRECISE REALISM a launching point into fantasy.

LAWS OF NATURE REVERSED objects are living & living things become objects.

JUXTOPOSITION objects placed side by side for striking comparison or contrast.

DISLOCATION objects are placed where they aren’t usually placed.

SYMBOLISM reoccurring objects represent Dalí’s ideas, memories or dreams.

Dalí, Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition, 1934

What makes it Surreal?

PRECISE REALISM almost photo-realistic painting of objects and landscape.

LAWS OF NATURE REVERSED the woman is an object. A shadow of a bottle on a dresser is

a hole.

JUXTAPOSITION woman and objects are bigger than the boats. Tiny dresser next to the big

dresser.

DISLOCATION why is there furniture on the shoreline?

SYMBOLISM the crutch (be on the lookout for egg shapes, clocks, pianos, ants, crickets)

What makes it Surreal?

Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931

One of Dalí’s most popular SYMBOLS was the melting watch. He was inspired one hot day when he noticed some runny Camembert cheese. To Dalí, the oozing cheese resembled a melting watch, so immediately he painted three melting watches on his canvas.

TRANSFORMATION objects become unusual / strange

INFLUENCE OF DREAMS + DAYDREAMING images of the mind are captured on

canvas

What makes it Surreal?

Dalí, The Dream, 1931

Have you ever seen what looked sort of like objects or faces in clouds? Dalí saw faces and forms in the rocks and landscapes he lived near. Like the melting clocks, Dalí wanted to capture what his imagination saw.

What other Surreal elements can you find in this painting?

What makes it Surreal?

HIDDEN + DOUBLE IMAGES Dalí used hidden and double images (images that exist as two different things at the same time) to challenge his viewers sense of reality, creating feelings of danger and delight.

What do you see?

Dalí, Old Age, Adolescence, Infancy (The Three Ages),1940

Creating a Sense of Space

Dalí, Sun Table, 1936

When placing objects in a painting, Dalí used several classic techniques to make his landscapes or settings have depth.1.  SIZE  -- Larger sized objects in front, middle sized objects in the mid-ground, and smaller sized objects in the far distance.

2.  COLOR  -- Brighter purer colors in the foreground, more neutral colors in the far ground.  Warm colors up front, cooler hues in the distance.

3.  TEXTURES  -- Textures in the foreground, few or no details in the background areas.  

4.  EDGE QUALITY  --  Hard edges in front, softer edges in the distance.

5.  PERSPECTIVE  -- Lines that recede to the vanishing point (where there is nothing left to see). Also - use of a horizon line to show where the earth and sky meet.

With a few cut-out objects from real life, pastel chalk and colored pencils, we’ll make our own dream worlds inspired by the surreal paintings of Salvador Dalí’.

Can you find the hidden objects?

Get Surreal!

Sample, Loch Ness Boot, 2012

Dali Museum / Video “Get Surreal with Salvador Dali” video by the Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Floridahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ST52WsmUIM

Dali Museum / Educational Resources / Key Workshttp://www.thedali.org/education/docz/KeyWorks.pdf

Dali Museum / Educational Resources / Teacher Guidehttp://www.thedali.org/education/docz/TeacherGuide.pdf

Dali Museum / Educational Resources / “The Surreal Deal” Lesson Plan 2http://thedali.org/education/docz/LessonPlan2-TheSurrealDeal.pdf

Publication (available in the Duniway Library / Teacher Resources ) Dali, Gilles Néret, Thunder Bay Press, 1997

Carol Jensen’s Water Color Worldhttp://caroljessen.blogspot.com/2012/01/receding-space.html

Instructional Resources + Credits

“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”

– Salvador Dalí