Salvador Dali
Dec. 19th, 2006 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteETA (2/18/07): This post was formerly a paid post, sponsored by PayPerPost. However, because such posts are against LiveJournal's TOS, I've removed the sponsor note and link. However, the website WAS a good resource, so I recommend you Google it anyway; Art In the Picture is the name of the site. Check out Dali's most famous works there: "Persistence of Memory," and my favorite, "Meditative Rose."
That said,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
baine and I (and possibly others?) are going to the Ueno Royal Museum at some point while we're in Tokyo, because there's a Salvador Dali exhibit going on there. I've had several people go "Salvador Who?" (and there was someone who thought I was talking about countries... who was that? ^_~) among other things, so I'm here to educate you a bit on who Salvador Dali is, and why I like him so much.
Most people probably know of Salvador Dali from his famous painting of some melting clocks. But the name of the painting isn't "Melting Clocks," it's "The Persistence of Memory," and was painted in 1931.
It is probably the most well-known example of Dali's work. Nothing is really what it seems in any of his paintings; many things appear surreal and strange-- but that's at least part of the reason why I like him so much.
It's hard to pick just ONE of Dali's paintings to be my favorite, but I really like "Meditative Rose" a lot. It's much simpler and to most people, a lot less strange than some of his other things. It's quite simple- just a rose floating in the wide open sky. But then you notice that the rose is about the size of an airplane, and two people standing far below are looking up at it. Nonetheless, I really like the beauty and simplicity of this painting, and I feel calm whenever I look at it. Alas, it won't be in the exhibitbaine and I are going to; it's part of a private collection.
When I went to the Academy of Art College several years ago for the Summer Art Experience, I took a fashion design class where we had to make "mood boards" that included art and color schemes that inspired us. I chose some of Salvador Dali's works for inspiration, including the "Meditative Rose" and a few other paintings that really exhibited Dali's use of bright colors. But in many of Dali's works, there's either only ONE bright color that stands out, or the whole painting has a single color scheme, where everything seems to stand out in its own way, but there's no "one" distinct color.
The best examples of this are "The Ghost of Vermeer" (brown/yellow-gold) and "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" (green).
By the way, the site I'm referencing includes some pretty interesting information about Dali on his biography page, and while the gallery doesn't include all of his paintings, it does include some of the most famous and interesting ones. They also include where the paintings are exhibited, in what year they were completed, and even some interesting information about the paintings. Plus, they have some quotes, which I always find interesting (I'm a quote-lover, too!).
And if you've ever wanted to know what "Salvador Dali the man" looks like, just picture one of those classic villains from Rocky and Bullwinkle. Dali probably made the "wide eyes, curved mustache" look popular or something. Maybe people saw him and thought he was crazy, but even if he was crazy, he was a genius with an incredibly artistic eye.
Actually, he has a quote that suits this train of thought quite well: "The only difference between myself and a madman is that I am not mad." Oh, and this is another favorite of mine: "I don't do drugs - I am drugs."
He's got a whole plethora of quotes I've never heard before, and they're quite amusing and/or insightful. I'm looking forward to rediscovering Dali again at a museum, and I think prepping by studying the material at Art In the Picture will be worth my while.
That said,
baine and I (and possibly others?) are going to the Ueno Royal Museum at some point while we're in Tokyo, because there's a Salvador Dali exhibit going on there. I've had several people go "Salvador Who?" (and there was someone who thought I was talking about countries... who was that? ^_~) among other things, so I'm here to educate you a bit on who Salvador Dali is, and why I like him so much.Most people probably know of Salvador Dali from his famous painting of some melting clocks. But the name of the painting isn't "Melting Clocks," it's "The Persistence of Memory," and was painted in 1931.
It is probably the most well-known example of Dali's work. Nothing is really what it seems in any of his paintings; many things appear surreal and strange-- but that's at least part of the reason why I like him so much.
It's hard to pick just ONE of Dali's paintings to be my favorite, but I really like "Meditative Rose" a lot. It's much simpler and to most people, a lot less strange than some of his other things. It's quite simple- just a rose floating in the wide open sky. But then you notice that the rose is about the size of an airplane, and two people standing far below are looking up at it. Nonetheless, I really like the beauty and simplicity of this painting, and I feel calm whenever I look at it. Alas, it won't be in the exhibit
baine and I are going to; it's part of a private collection.When I went to the Academy of Art College several years ago for the Summer Art Experience, I took a fashion design class where we had to make "mood boards" that included art and color schemes that inspired us. I chose some of Salvador Dali's works for inspiration, including the "Meditative Rose" and a few other paintings that really exhibited Dali's use of bright colors. But in many of Dali's works, there's either only ONE bright color that stands out, or the whole painting has a single color scheme, where everything seems to stand out in its own way, but there's no "one" distinct color.
The best examples of this are "The Ghost of Vermeer" (brown/yellow-gold) and "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" (green).
By the way, the site I'm referencing includes some pretty interesting information about Dali on his biography page, and while the gallery doesn't include all of his paintings, it does include some of the most famous and interesting ones. They also include where the paintings are exhibited, in what year they were completed, and even some interesting information about the paintings. Plus, they have some quotes, which I always find interesting (I'm a quote-lover, too!).
And if you've ever wanted to know what "Salvador Dali the man" looks like, just picture one of those classic villains from Rocky and Bullwinkle. Dali probably made the "wide eyes, curved mustache" look popular or something. Maybe people saw him and thought he was crazy, but even if he was crazy, he was a genius with an incredibly artistic eye.
Actually, he has a quote that suits this train of thought quite well: "The only difference between myself and a madman is that I am not mad." Oh, and this is another favorite of mine: "I don't do drugs - I am drugs."
He's got a whole plethora of quotes I've never heard before, and they're quite amusing and/or insightful. I'm looking forward to rediscovering Dali again at a museum, and I think prepping by studying the material at Art In the Picture will be worth my while.
