Salvador Dali, who was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueras, Spain, opened his eyes in the middle of the tragedy. He will be born after his brother, who died at the age of 3 from meningitis; her family named her brother: Salvador. In addition to being similar to her brother as a twin, her parents’ constant mention of this sudden death put Dali in a crisis of identity at a young age.
For this reason, he has had unlimited efforts to enter the hysteria crises to attract his family’s attention. For his brother, who had a namesake in 1973, he says: “As soon as I was born, I started to walk in the footsteps of a worshiped dead. In fact, they still loved him when he loved me. Maybe it’s more than me. These limits of my father’s love have been a huge injury since the first days of my life.” Even his love and devotion to his younger sister, Ana Maria, was not enough to change this situation.
When he lost the person who directed him to painting, his mother, from breast cancer: “It was the biggest blow I have ever received in my life. I worshiped him. I could not accept the loss of an entity I always trust in making my soul’s inevitable flaws invisible.” he wrote.
Picasso, which he met in Paris in 1926, was one of the most important turning points for Dali’s art. In 1938, he met Freud, who was a big fan and followed his writings and research. Freud, who is concerned with the expression of the subconscious like other surrealist; He described it as “sincere and fanatic,” and said, “His eyes discovered a fascinating world.” he mentioned.
The most important person in the background of Dali’s artist personality is the love and inspiration fairy of his life, Gala. The wife of Paul Éluard, Gala (his real name, Helena Ivanovna Diakonova), caught the attention of Dali and changed her attitude to women when they met. This “extraordinary” love story, which will be discussed for years, has become a compass for the spirit and hence of Dali.
Surely the most memorable work of Salvador Dali, one of the most important representatives of surrealism, the surrealism movement, is The Persistence of Memory, or other Melting Clocks. Although the first noticeable figure in the painting is the melting clocks; The formless shape in the middle, one of the most remarkable elements, refers to an unreal world. Besides, the background beach view is the connection of the picture with the real world. While painting the landscape, Dali was inspired by Port Lligat in the Catalonia region of his home country. The reality of the landscape and other unreal figures represent the “dream and reality” transition that we are accustomed to in Dali’s works. In this case, the clocks that melt with the reality of the background show an opposite view.
The most fundamental difference that distinguishes the work from Classical Art begins exactly at this point. In Classical Art, the content is clear and understandable, whereas Modern Art is based on a more open interpretation basis. One of the comments and explanations suggested for Melting Watches; Based on Einstein’s Theory Of Relativity. Accordingly, time and space in the table are not in unity. The objects are depicted to be reshaped, changing their form. Comments were made that the “clock” object chosen by Dali also refers to the relativity of time.
Besides the comments made, Salvador Dali never actually explained his work in full. In the face of the questions, he stated that he painted only with inspiration from a melted Camembert cheese. In fact, the main starting point of the painting is the part that Dali works on, the view of Port Lligat. The artist, who had a hard time completing the painting, realized that Camambert cheese melted while sitting outside one day and started to focus on this image. The image of the cheese melting in the summer heat, combined with the distressed moods of Dali, provided him with the environment to create his unique painting.
The ants on the pocket watch in the lower left corner of the picture and the flies on the melted watch symbolize the concept of “extinction”, and the dried tree symbolizes “death”. This decay, which dominates the whole picture, is the theme of extinction, death; Since it is integrated with the concept of time symbolized by melting clocks, it supports concepts such as sleep-dream-subconscious, which Dali emphasizes.
Salvador Dali, one of the most important names of modern culture with his extraordinary life and art; It is one of the most impressive artists of the current of surrealism in history. The artist, who has succeeded to sit on the throne of the most magnificent “different” for years, which suits his precisely, has managed to be unforgettable with both his private life and his works.
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