surrealism – Veronica Winters Painting

Tag: surrealism

Talent & Art: Dali Theater Museum in Figueres, Spain

Posted on May 20, 2018October 27, 2023 by veronica

Dali museum in Figueres, Spain | One of Dali’ melting clocks jewelry pieces shown at the Spanish museum

Review of the Dali Museum in Spain

There’s no doubt that Salvador Dali is one of the greatest 20th-century surrealist artists. Up to this day the artist defines every exhibition and art review dedicated to the surrealist movement. Although, the artist was bold to exit the group to develop his vision further, Dali was the leading figure in the surrealism movement. His surreal paintings are in numerous art collections and museums today, however if you look at his humble artistic beginnings, they were truly humble.

In the art museum located in Figueres, Spain I saw a number of his early paintings that closely resembled Picasso, Signac, Matisse and even some abstract painters. Dali’ early paintings were imitations of the modernists that showed no obvious “talent” or ability to become the famous artist. I dare to say that he made a bunch of bad paintings in his early career!

Salvador Dali early paintings look like copies of the contemporaries and modernists…

In his next period his work became quite consistent in theme and style but his paintings still lacked contrast, color, strong composition, and his unique subject matter he eventually developed and became famous for. His paintings of figures made of stones expressed his search for his voice as well as his desire to learn classical oil painting technique working from life. He made set ups of stones to paint from them like any realist artist would do. In the pictures below you can see Dali’s attempts to paint his unique ideas from life.

Dali-theater museum in Figueres, Spain | Salvador Dali paintings of stones

dali museum spain_lithography and sculpture_web — This lithography prints and a sculpture illustrate Salvador Dali’s unique voice and expression that were getting close to his most famous paintings in the surrealism style, exploring the subconscious mind or dreams such as the Persistence of Memory in 1931…

Inside the museum you find both paintings and installations. This is one of them. The top image shows a big prism/mirror through which you can see a display of objects below – they become a female face, which is a form of op art.

The art museum doesn't have many famous paintings inside. I think most of them are in private art collections and art museums in the US and Europe. However, it gives a good overview of his early career and experimentation before arriving at his famous surrealist art style.

dali museum spain_various painting styles — It’s quite amazing to face the Dali’s progression from bad art to beautiful surrealism. Here we can see Dali’s various painting styles before arriving at his signature surreal paintings of dreams and subconscious mind….

Salvador Dali surrealist jewelry in Spain

dali museum figueres spain dali jewelry-veronica winters art blog — Dali museum in Figueres, Spain | One of Dali’ jewelry pieces shown at the Spanish museum

While the Dali Theater-museum in Figueres doesn’t display top art collection of Salvador Dali painting, a surprising gem is a separate building of the museum filled with surreal jewelry pieces! Dali’s talent and vision manifests itself in his original, animated jewelry. It combines the use of painting, metals, precious stones and built-in mechanisms to animate jewelry pieces, creating a surreal feeling. In his surreal jewelry we see emotion of the beating Ruby heart. We can watch an icon-like piece with an opening and closing door. There is a revolving, sparkling cornstalk with flapping angel’s wings.

dali museum figueres spain-- surreal jewelry by dali--ruby heart-veronica winters art blog — Ruby Heart at the Dali museum in Spain. The red part of the heart has the movement imitating the heart beat!

It’s not enough to have a talent. Over the years I had a chance to teach art to numerous wonderful students, including several super-talented high school students who could have become skillful artists someday. None of them went to an art college after graduation for various reasons. Talent itself isn’t a prerequisite to have a successful artistic career. Talent doesn’t equal to an obsessive desire to succeed as an artist. There are lots of people with artistic talents who are not strong enough to push themselves forward when it gets really tough. There is not enough introspection and drive. Those artists can create to the point of meeting requirements only, and leave the profession way before they can develop fully to succeed. While it looks like a negative statement, obsessiveness becomes a necessity in creative profession to overcome daily challenges. It also enforces perseverance, develops social skills and builds goals along the way. Artists become artists when they understand that they can’t live without the very process of art creation.

By looking at the Dali’s career trajectory we must consider our own impatience with ourselves and what talent means in short term and in the long run. If he gave up in the beginning of his career, he wouldn’t be famous surrealist painter making history today. When I browse through my files of old artwork, I can’t believe the fact that I can paint so much better today. Improvement is not instant. There is no magic dust in the process of learning. It’s all about steady work and commitment to the art form. We all want to have quick results, but to get there patience with yourself is a requirement. When students call me to study art, I don’t look at their “talent.” While Talent will be developed and cultivated, I teach art because people need art education. Art, theater and music are about introspective work and emotion. Society values merchandise over experiences. Public school is largely about cranking formulas and testing. There are not enough classes to feed the soul. I simply wish to expend my students’ worldview with art because talented kids is the future.

dali museum figueres spain-jewelry of medusa-blog — Jewelry piece by Salvador Dali

Dali museum in Spain: https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/museums/dali-theatre-museum-in-figueres/ (If you decide to visit this museum, be aware that the tickets are sold by day and time due to great popularity and a constant influx of people. Plan ahead and buy them online to ensure your visit.)

Dali museum in Figueres, Spain | One of Dali' jewelry pieces shown at the Spanish museum

Dali museum in St.Pete, Florida:

Further reading: https://veronicasart.com/dali-art-surrealism-symbolism-at-the-museum-in-st-petersburg/

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Salvador Dali paintings: perfect mix of surrealism & symbolism at St. Pete museum

Posted on March 1, 2017February 4, 2024 by veronica

Salvador Dali paintings & surrealism

Art is not created in vacuum. It forms as a product of cultural, economic and emotional baggage of the artist. Salvador Dali’ inner world is vast and complex, and his surreal symbols are hints to unpacking his creative mind and soul. Every artist starts his journey in the beginning.

The Dali museum in St. Petersburg divides its art collection into several sections – his early paintings of anti-art, surrealism, nuclear mysticism, and op art pieces. Housed in a sunlit, modern building, the show introduces us to Salvador Dali’ mind with his early paintings he completes at the 13 years of age. Early Dali art may shatter your perception of someone’s talent. It doesn’t look great. Dali early paintings show different styles and influences, mainly borrowing from the French impressionism and Fauvism movements. This is useful for artists to understand because we all create silly and unskillful art in the beginning.

dali artwork basket of bread — Salvador Dali, the basket of bread. | Here we can see that the artist masters the classical painting techniques that opens him up to the development of his own, surrealist art style and subject matter.

Salvador Dali art style evolution: from surrealism to symbolism to op art

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) is the most famous surrealist artist. His surreal paintings were my major influence in the past. I was fascinated with his skillful ability to express his psyche visually, painting the melting life inside him that went far beyond his dream state. With a remarkable skill, he renders tiny details on small panels and huge canvases alike. In his surreal art, Dali elongates the natural forms and de-personifies people with sightless, stretched or egg-like faces. He scatters the symbols throughout his paintings of complex stories and turns the rational world upside down in his vivid, barren landscapes.

Why Dali left the surrealism movement

Deeply influenced by Sigmund Freud’s work “The Interpretation of Dreams,” Spanish artist explores the irrational and his dreams in the beginning of his career. Horrified by the rootlessness of the World War I, the surrealists rejected the rational mind and explored the irrational one instead. Although Dali is the most famous surrealist artist in the group, not many of us know that he broke away from the surrealist movement due to irreconcilable differences steeped in social and political views. The museum in St.Pete explains that Dali didn’t like the surrealists’ ideas of commune living and sharing, and his desire for self-promotion and individuality led him to part with the movement in a decade after he first joined the group in 1929. The artist gets fascinated with the optical illusions in art, creating his double image paintings still challenging our perception of the rational and irrational.

Dali Nuclear Mysticism & Op Art

Dali becomes a notorious artist who redefines himself and his mission after leaving the surrealists and entering the times of abstraction and subjectivity. He brands himself as a classical artist who loves Renaissance and aims to infuse his art with spirituality and classical ideals, unlike the abstract painters of his generation. He comes up with a new term the “nuclear mysticism,” and begins to paint huge canvases filled with the universal subjects, religious and historical themes. Influenced by the advances in science and technology, Salvador Dali’s late works (1949-1989) transform the surrealism style into monumental optical illusions, historical symbolism and the reverence for the universal. Besides having a number of solo shows in Spain and America, in 1974 he opens up his own museum in Figueres, Spain to house his art.

dali artwork — **“Slave market with the disappearing bust of Voltaire,” 1940** shows us two images. In this double painting we see a bust of Voltaire as the symbol of reason hiding within the two female figures in the slave market. Here Dali argues that we’re enslaved to rationality, while the artist tries to open up a different channel for our perception, painting the irrational dreams and the unconscious. Dali suggests that the rational mind can’t always lead us to the truth. What do you see?

Dali artwork Lincoln — **Dali, the portrait of Abraham Lincoln** at the Dali art museum in St.Pete.

dali artwork nuclear mysticism — In his late works, Dali paints optical illusions in art on a monumental scale.
#1 the double image painting shows **“Gala contemplating the Mediterranean sea which at twenty meters becomes the portrait of Abraham Lincoln.”** Gala is a symbol of perfection and the Lincoln’s head with the crucifix give references to death and the fleeting nature of beauty.
#2 **“The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus”** shows the vast discoveries of humanity as well as Dali as an explorer. He paints Columbus as a young man stepping out to a new world.
#3 **“The Hallucinogenic Toreador”** depicts Venus 33 times. The goddess of love and beauty, the second figure hides a Toreador face within her body. The toreador represents masculinity, a boy represents and artist, and a dying bull shows death. The bust of Voltaire symbolizes reason, and at the top left we see Gala’s face again. This painting represents Desire and Death.

Dali symbolism in surrealism as an expression of his fears

Fear of women

Art is not created in a vacuum. It arises as an emotional product of cultural, economic and psychic world of the artist. Dali’s inner mind and heart is vast and complex, and his symbols become the hints to discovering and understanding the artist’s soul. Through his art, Salvador Dali reveals many of his fears. He often paints his sexual fear of women. Numerous surrealist paintings project the artist’s sexual anxieties in his self-portraits with soft, stretched heads and figures. He depicts women deformed, stretched or as the cut-outs during the surrealist period. He depicts his nanny as an old figure with a cut out body supported by the crutches. Women often turn their faces away from the viewer to conceal the artist’s emotions and insecurity towards the sex. It’s interesting to note that in his late works women become Venuses, saints and symbols of the female beauty for the artist.

Dali horse sculpture at **The Museo Soumaya i**n Mexico City

Fear of his father

In his surrealism paintings, Salvador Dali often explores the authoritarian rule of his father, depicting his father faceless and indifferent. He reveals his intense relationship with his short-tempered father in many surreal paintings. For example, he paints small, father-and-son figures in art representing his former closeness with the parent. These small and distant figures give a feeling of warm memories the artist longs for. These surrealist landscapes often have the airless, orange-yellow glow that contrast the dark blue sky sky and the mountains.

**“Archaeological reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus”** is an important surrealist painting for Dali. Inspired by the Millet painting, Dali saw this artwork (right) as a reproduction during his childhood and its figures haunted the artist for life. Dali paints his version of Angelus (left) depicting two primordial people – male and female. We also see Dali twice in this painting as a boy with his father in the center and with his nanny at the bottom of the figure. The primordial couple symbolizes human relationship and destruction, showing the deforming, anguished figures set in a melancholic, colorful landscape. His painting projects an intense feeling of loneliness, loss, grief, longing and inevitability.

Moreover, Dali shares his family’s tragedy in his surreal paintings. The artist had a brother. Also named Salvador, he died as a toddler less than a year before Dali’s birth. This family tragedy was deeply embedded within his psychic and affected his perception of himself for good.

Dali other symbols & meaning

Dali’s art is full of symbols, and some of them are explored in the museum. They include:

Dali crutches meaning: During the surrealist period, Dali paints extremely elongated figures supported by the crutches. The crutches represent his fear of impotence, death. In his paintings, rotting, limping bodies suggest the horrors of wars.

Dali melting clocks and The Persistence of Time meaning: melting clocks represents the fluidity of time. The “Persistence of memory” is influenced by the discovery of the atomic energy and the sub-atomic world. Dali breaks the word into rational sub elements where Time stops limiting us. The image of the melting clock came to the artist after seeing a piece of cheese melting under the sun. Dali saw time as a fluid and relative thing, and his melting clocks represent the passing of time and the relativity of our perception of it.

While I don’t have the image of the Persistence of Memory,1931 located at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I can show you some variations on the theme I found in other art museums.

**Dali museum in Figueres**, Spain | One of Dali’ original jewelry pieces shown at the Spanish museum

Dali melting clocks sculpture shown at **The Museo Soumaya** in Mexico City

Dali melting clocks sculpture, The Museo Soumaya, Mexico City, Mexico

Dali Elephants symbolism: Elephants are often associated with strength and wisdom, but Dali also saw them as symbols of the unconscious mind.

Dali museum, Figueres, Spain | Dali elephant and melting clocks jewelry

Dali Lobster symbolism: Lobsters are another symbol of the unconscious mind, and they are also associated with sexuality and transformation.

Dali Ants meaning: Ants are often seen as a symbol of industry and cooperation, but Dali also saw them as symbols of death and decay and decomposing prey.

Dali Burning giraffes meaning: Burning giraffes are a symbol of Dali’s own personal fears and insecurities. They are also a symbol of the fragility of life and the inevitability of death.

Dali Piano symbolism: Piano represents a fond memory of summer concerts at the beach, and a scary memory of books his father placed on the piano that had the illustrations of the sexually transmitted diseases.

Dali Roses symbolism: roses represent female beauty and sexuality for the artist.

Dali Venus meaning: Venus represents female love and beauty.

Dali Melting, broken eggs symbolism: these are symbols of memories in the mother’s womb.

Dali Keys meaning: keys represent unlocking the unconscious mind.

Dali sculpture at miami art context 2023 — Dali sculpture at Miami art context 2023

Gala: artist’s muse, wife & promoter

Salvador Dali was a tireless self-promoter. Together with his Russian-born wife and manager – Gala (Elena Ivanovna Diakonova) they worked on connections, marketing, and new job opportunities for the artist. Dali might not have achieved his fame during his lifetime, if he and his wife didn’t pursue those relationships and connections. The couple lived between the U.S. and Europe, while Dali not only painted and exhibited his work in galleries, but also worked on his jewelry, opera sets and costume design. He also contributed to the art scene with his book writing, numerous illustrations, holograms production, and the creation of the dream-like sequences for the Hitchcock’s film Spellbound.

While exploring the art museum, it’s interesting to see how close Dali and Gala were, how she influenced the artist, and how strong their partnership was despite their open marriage arrangement. Considerably older and not a striking beauty, Gala captured Dali’s heart at once when they first met in 1929. She had an affair with Dali and later became his life-long muse. Gala divorced her husband, French poet and one of the founders of the surrealists, Paul Eluard to marry Dali.

We can recognize Gala’s face in many of his paintings where she models for the artist both clothed and nude. Gala becomes a symbol of the female perfection for the artist. In the Dali museum at St. Pete you see Gala in a double painting of “Lincoln” and as virgin Mary in “Columbus.”

Dali dies in 1989 after receiving the international acclaim with his retrospective shows in Germany, Spain, U.S.A, Holland, England, and Japan. Every artist begins his journey in the begging but not every artist reaches the end with fame. As artists, we go through many stages and only the persistent and social ones seem to win. Dali succeeds threefold.

Dali late artworks — Late works: **“The Ecumenical Council”** shows Dali in the left corner and Gala as St.Helena. She connects the artist with the spiritual world above. Influenced by Velasquez, the artist paints on a huge scale with the monumental themes of science, history and religion.

The Dali museum houses a very good, once private art collection of A. Reynolds and Eleanor Morse. They started their Dali collection in 1943. In 1982 the Dali museum in St. Pete was inaugurated. The art collectors ran out of wall space and decided to build this museum and gift their art collection to the public. What’s amazing to see here is how many paintings they acquired from one artist that included both huge canvases and tiny pieces, all of which hung in their house in Cleveland.

I recommend to sign up for the virtual tour of one of the Dali’s paintings on the 3d floor (free with admission). It’s really fun. Also, download the museum’s app that guides you through the collection. Check out their special events schedule and evenings at the museum. Official websites: St.Petersburg http://thedali.org/ and Spain https://www.salvador-dali.org/

To read about the artist’s museum in Spain: https://veronicasart.com/talent-art-dali-theater-museum-in-figueres-spain/

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Frida Kahlo Art show at Dali Museum in St. Petersburg in 2017

Posted on February 20, 2017November 4, 2023 by veronica

Frida Kahlo endured 34 surgeries in her 47 years. She lived a life haunted by tragedy, painting her pain. Sometimes I ask myself what if she didn’t go through a horrific accident at 18, would she become the most famous female artist after all? Would she paint some other pain in her life? This museum show is small but well-presented. It summarizes Frida’s relationship with her art, her husband Diego Rivera, and her pain.

Every aspect of Frida’s life is set against her both physical and emotional pain. And lots of it. Surreal paintings and drawings focus on the breaking point in her life – the car-train accident. A broken metal handrail pierced through her pelvis that led Frida into a dark place of endless suffering, surgeries and miscarriages for many years to come. She documents her suffering on small canvases, often painting in bed.

After many surgeries, Frida spent a lot of her time in bed. She refused to eat food and became very weak. Frida was forced to eat food through a funnel to recover that she illustrates as torture in this painting.

Frida Kahlo symbolism

Despite the obvious lack of technical skills, Frida’s art is highly symbolic and powerful. It’s one of the reasons why most US museums keep showing her art in rotation. Similar to French surrealists, Frida explores the symbols of her dreams in art. Frida also saves herself from endless suffering by painting symbolic pictures that represent her thoughts. We often see her husband Diego Rivera, blood, fetuses, bed, and animals as symbols in her paintings.

For example, in this painting the artist documents the pain of her miscarriage with 6 symbols: the lifeless fetus, her pelvis, the snail pace of recovery, the fragile tulip, the medical machine, and some anatomical structure, illustrating the nature of her problem.

In the art show we can also study a number of pages taken from her childhood journal. Tight sentences fill the pages with stories and doodles, in which we can see Frida’s desire to travel across time and space creatively.

Below you see a sketch of her accident.

Frida’s art is her self-portraits. By comparing her paintings to the black-and-white pictures, I think she paints herself too masculine with a hint for dark mustache and her signature arching eyebrow that looks like a wing. While nude or semi-nude artist appears serious, or even cries in her self-portraits, Frida’s photographs show the artist dressed colorfully, and even with some noticeable flare. She wears long skirts, shawls, jewelry, and the real flowers put in her hair that all point at her girly, untouched by the inner sorrow cheerful personality.

The electric train with two cars approached the bus slowly. It hit the bus in the middle. Slowly the train pushed the bus. The bus had a strange elasticity. It bent more and more, but for a time it did not break. It was a bus with long benches on either side. I remember at one moment my knees touch the knees of the person sitting opposite me. I was sitting next to Frida. When the bus reached it maximal flexibility it burst into a thousand pieces, and the train kept moving. It ran over many people.
I remained under the train. Not Frida. But among the iron rods of the train, the handrail broke and went through Frida from one side to the other at the level of the pelvis. When I was able to stand up, I got out from under the train. I had no lesions, only contusions. Naturally the first thing I did was to look for Frida.
Something strange had happened. Frida was totally nude. The collision had unfastened her clothes. Someone in the bus, probably a house painter, had been carrying a packet of powdered gold. This package broke, and the gold fell all over the bleeding body of Frida.
When people saw her they cried, “La bailarina, la bailarina! With the gold on her red, bloody body they thought she was a dancer.
-The testimony of Alejandro Gómez Arias

“A few small nips,” 1935.” When Diego had slept with her younger sister, Frida began to have her own affairs. Inspired or perhaps traumatized by the newspaper’s crime report, the artist paints a horrific crime scene showing blood and stabbing of a woman. The blood spills on the frame as well. The museum interprets the artwork’s symbolism as stabbing infidelities of Diego.

We tend to idealize people once they pass away, give them heroic qualities and subdue their pitfalls. In this show I wished to see the subtle layers of her personality that I couldn’t pick up from her art. Did she feel like a victim who suffered and longed for pity from people around her? Or did she consider herself a hero who overcame her physical and emotional struggles? Did she have any close friends who supported her artistic purpose besides Diego? Why did she stay with Rivera despite his countless infidelities? Was it love or weakness? In her art and photographs we see Diego almost too often, and not enough of her surroundings or people who may have helped her heal.

The art show is up at the Dali museum in St.Pete till mid. April. I recommend downloading the museum’s app that guides you through the exhibition. http://thedali.org/

Veronica Winters Painting

Connect to your light with visionary art. Experience beauty to bring you into unity with the divine.