When it came to surrealism, painter,
artist and self-promoter Salvador Dali was the undisputed personification of it. Dali considered
himself to be something of a genius. And frankly, I think that was a pretty
darn good assessment of his talent.
To me, Dali was brilliant.
Here was an artist with the imagination and chutzpah to not only
think outside of the box but to also act upon it. With
his melting clocks, double images, levitating objects and loads of symbolism, Dali ingeniously proved over and over and over again, that art could consistently be intriguing, delightfully otherworldly, mysteriously surreal, uber-imaginative and always fun!
The Persistence of Memory
It can be said that if he managed to accomplished
nothing more in the eyes of his critics, they must at least
admit that Dali demonstrated that when it comes to art, it is okay to think outside of the box. In an interview with Mike Wallace, when asked what are
artist's contributions to the world? Dali responded with, “Every
painter paints the cosmogony of himself”—the
origins, the evolution of themselves. Dali would be happy to know that someone was paying attention. The Dalian method--his surrealist approach to art has had a profound and far-reaching influence in art, fashion, media and more. Surrealism shows up in some incarnation or another in many places.
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I was first introduced to the art world of Salvador Dali through
the movie Spellbound with its famous “Dream Sequence”.
To Dali's credit, these images he created for this part of the movie remain intriguingly seductive. It's unorthodox imagery immediately grabbed my attention and pulled me in. It is the type of creative imagery that one does not often see in film, but I personally would like to see more of. I will also add that this scene
is enough to give a person a real thing
for eyes. And story-wise, what could be more compelling than a helpless character who is suspended in a mystery he can't understand or remember, haunted by a shadowy faceless villain, in love with woman he admires, sexually repressed and all caught up in psychoanalytical intrigue? Now, add to that,
Dali! The result is wonderful...Hollywood at its best. Spellbound is an unforgettable film immortalized in large part (let's be honest here) by the indisputable genius of Salvador Dali (Shhhh! Don't tell Hitchcock).
Thank you Dali (wherever you are) for your bold-as-you-please imaginations; for your unconventional daring; for your surrealist approach to art...to life, your delightful self-promoting showmanship and for showing anyone who happened to be paying attention, that when it comes to art and to life, it is in fact, a very good thing to think outside of the
box!
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