Salvador Dali (research into surrealism and the mind)

As my research project is based on emotions, I have considered experimenting with surreal elements to convey what is happening in the mind. As it is based on the mind, we can imagine anything, and there are no limits. Much of Dali's work is very surreal and also takes inspiration from the mind. It is interesting to look further into the meaning behind some of his work.

''Much of Dali's work with his own identity took place within the surrealist movement, which he joined in 1929. Surrealism rejected the pragmatic, rationalist approach to life and art and initially basing it's ideas on Sigmund Freud's work on the unconscious, sought to revalue the dream and the imagination as central rather than marginal to human thought.  Through their writings, poetry, the visual arts and in other ways, the surrealists blurred the boundaries between the rational and irrational, reality and fantasy, objective and subjective. Dali was welcomed as a powerful new imagination: 'It is perhaps with Dali that the windows of the mind are opened fully wide for the first time,' proclaimed Andre Breton, the movement's leader, in his preface to the painter's first Paris exhibition in 1929.''

                                  'Salvador Dali A Mythology.' Dawn Ades (Author) and Fiona Bradley (Author), Tate Publishing (1st April 1999)


This paragraph is from the Introduction to the book mentioned above and adequately describes the relation between surrealism and the mind.  It is interesting that surrealism was initially based on Freud's work on the unconscious mind. Surrealism was never intended to be completely random but to delve into the human subconscious and express feeling and emotion without the limitations of realism.  In relation to my work I am interested in Dali's paranoiac-critical method. This is a surrealist technique that was developed by Dali in 1930. One of Dali's paintings he created using this method is 'Metamorphosis of Narcissus 1937'.  The story of Narcissus originates from Greek Mythology where Narcissus, a young beauty who broke many hearts, fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. He could never have his love and the Gods turned him into a flower as a result.

Metamorphosis of Narcissus - Salvador Dali  (1937) - Oil on Canvas

The painting above depicts Narcissus in a pool of water, infatuated with his own reflection. In the background you can see how Narcissus used to be before he saw his own reflection.  The stone hand holding an egg and a flower convey what the God's turned Narcissus into. This painting is incredibly surreal and is like two paintings alongside each other. This painting depicts Narcissistic Personality disorder.It is interesting to look into surrealist methods used to portray personality disorders. I think surrealism is a good way to portray mental health issues because it has no limitations and can express certain feelings and emotions that are within the mind and the way we think instead of just from the reality around us.  Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus is a powerful painting that adequately conveys the length of time Narcissus gets consumed by his own reflection by turning into stone.  The painting is clever because the stone hand is the same shape as Narcissus' body.

Dali wrote the accompanying poem:

Narcissus,

in his immobility,

absorbed by his reflection with the digestive slowness of carnivorous plants,

becomes invisible.

There remains of him only the hallucinatingly white oval of his head,

his head again more tender,

his head, chrysalis of hidden biological designs,

his head held up by the tips of the water's fingers,

at the tips of the fingers

of the insensate hand,

of the terrible hand,

of the mortal hand

of his own reflection.

When that head slits

when that head splits

when that head bursts,

it will be the flower,

the new Narcissus,

Gala - my Narcissus

 Another artist to paint Narcissus was Caravaggio during the baroque art movement. He used an entirely different approach. These are quite good examples of what effect using different styles has on the subject matter. I would normally thinnk that realism would convey something better as it would make something feel more'real'. But in this case I feel Dali's interpretation is more powerful. I'm not sure why. Possibly because it shows the consequence for Narcissus. He and the stone hand seem sturdy and grand and it is quite powerful that he becomes the stone. The composition and facial expression ini Carravagios painting are very powerful, though. Narcissus is conveyed as a young boy and seems more vulnerable.

Narcissus (1599) Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Oil on Canvas

References:

Books:

Salvador Dali A Mythology.' Dawn Ades (Author) and Fiona Bradley (Author), Tate Publishing (1st April 1999)

Websites:

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-metamorphosis-of-narcissus-t02343

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphosis_of_Narcissus

http://www.artble.com/artists/caravaggio/paintings/narcissus