Salvador Dali’s

3 Pages 832 Words

Salvador Dali, who lived from 1904 to 1989, is a well known twentieth century artist. To say Dali was a great painter would not give him the justice he deserves. Dali was a painter, sculpture, film maker, and also dabbled in jewelry and furniture making. He lived a life of adventure through his art. He started his art as a Surrealist and changed his views to a more Classical art during 1949. Dali joined the Surrealist group along with Andre Breton in 1928 and helped with the Surrealist Movement. Surrealism had more influence on twentieth century art than any other movement except Cubism. Dali's importance for Surrealism was that he invented his own 'psycho technique', a method he called 'critical paranoia'(1). The method has been described as “irrational knowledge based on a delirium of interpretation” (2). In 1934 he was expelled from the surrealism group. Then in 1949 Dali became known as a Classical Painter and turned his art into a more traditional artwork. The painting I enjoyed most while looking though Dali’s surreal time artwork was an oil painting named Swans Reflecting Elephants, 1937. When first looking through Dali’s artwork I was not sure if his art work was right for me. Then this painting came up and it was wonderful and made sense.
The technique of critical paranoia is used to express hallucinatory forms, double images and visual illusions. Using this technique to paint Swans Reflecting Elephants Dali used the reflection in a lake to create the double image seen in the painting. “The three swans in front of bleak, leafless trees are reflected in the lake so that the swans' heads become the elephants' heads and the trees become the bodies of the elephants.” (1) In the background of the painting a landscape of fall colors helps to develop a contrast with the cool stillness of the water. The swirls of the cliff are made with a brush stroke technique to give depth to the picture.
Swan’s Re...