Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Story Behind Surrealism


For my first research book I read Phaidon by Robert Radford. I started reading this book thinking that I knew quite a bit about Salvador Dali, but I realized that his life was far more complex than I ever thought. There are many unsolved mysteries about his early life and decisions and events shaping his art style. There was much more to Dali than anyone ever knew.

Salvador was born May 11, 1904 in Figueres in Catalunya. Dali’s life was quite a mystery containing three different stories of how his childhood was lived. The true story about pre-celebrity Dali has never been confirmed. There is the version of his childhood coming from various records, the impassioned version described by Dali, and the perfect harmonious family portrayed by Dali’s sister. Dali created a mysterious façade of himself as a painter and didn’t want anyone to know anymore than what he showed.

His art was shaped through many things throughout his life. His art style changed multiple times from things like surrealism to earlier renaissance paintings. He had many mentors he met along the way including poet Federico Garcia Lorca, film-maker Luis Bunuel, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso. Dali wasn’t always the surrealism painter that we think of. His moving to America and travel gave him different opinions and insight therefore affected his outlook on things. The different people that Dali met gave him different opinions on his artwork and what each piece meant to him.

In doing my research, I learned thing about Dali I never knew. I think that I want to try to narrow down my research paper to what made him a surrealist painter and the events in his leading up to this decision and the classic reasoning behind surrealism. I think the next book I read will focus more on the type of art.

3 comments:

  1. I think that it's very interesting that his childhood before his fame has three different stories. I also didn't know that he was friends with Pablo Picasso. It's interesting that other artists at the time helped influence his own art. True artists always have outside inspiration, whether it is from friends or nature. I am interested to learn more about the surrealism movement.

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  2. It's amazing to think that such a popular and influential artist like Salvador Dali could have so little information about his life known.
    With his many different changes in artistic style, I wonder what kind of specific influences really changed his view in the art world.
    It's good that you are narrowing down your research into a more specific topic.T his will make the information you convey more detailed in the area you've chosen to narrow down on and possibly create a stronger paper.

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  3. Its good to know that you are learning more about your topic. It is intresting how there are three stories about his childhood yet not one confirmed story, very intresting. I also intrested about how you listed the factors that influenced his art, I would never have guessed that even coming to america can affect his influence. I dont know too much about Dali, but I am glad that you are learning so much about him. Good luck on your next book.

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