Description
Book SynopsisThe third edition of this classic study, a thorough introduction to one of the most popular and recognizable artists of the 20th century. Salvador Dalà was, and remains, among the most universally recognizable artists of the twentieth century. What accounts for this popularity? His excellence as an artist? Or his genius as a self-publicist? In this searching text, partly based on interviews with the artist and fully revised, extended and updated for this edition, Dawn Ades considers the Dalà phenomenon. From his early years, his artistic friendships and the development of his technique and style, to his relationship with the Surrealists and exploitation of Freudian ideas, and on to his post-war paintings, this essential study places Dalà in social, historical and artistic context, and casts new light on the full range of his creativity.
Trade Review'One of our foremost historians of Surrealism … has had access to her subject – a privilege available to few – and her book is particularly revealing' - The Spectator
'A sensitive art-historical study' - Times Literary Supplement
'Richly documented and illustrated' - Arts Review
Table of ContentsPreface
Chronology
1.
Early years: Early influences; Madrid School of Fine Arts; Cubism and Purism; first one-man exhibitions.
2.
Dalí and the Catalan avant-garde: The Catalan Anti-Artistic Manifesto and the L’Amic de les Arts group; Dalí’s early writings on painting, photography and film; Luis Buñuel and the making of Un Chien Andalou; Surrealism in Spain and its influence on Dalí.
3.
Dalí, Surrealism and psycho-analysis: Dalí’s official affiliation with the Surrealist movement; the influence of Freud and psycho-analysis on his painting; collage; the legend of William Tell as obsessive theme; Dalí’s theoretical differences with Breton, and relationship with Surrealism on questions of taste and politics; Dalí, history and tradition.
4.
Painting and the paranoiac–critical method: Theory and practice of paranoia–criticism; influence of Lacan; relationship with other Surrealist methods like automatism and the dream; The Tragic Myth of Millet’s Angelus as paranoiac–critical analysis.
5.
Dalí and the Surrealist object: Dalí’s ‘Surrealist object functioning symbolically’; the object in relation to Surrealist theory; found or ‘involuntary’ and imaginary objects; furniture, spectacle, installations and exhibitions; Dalí’s jewels. 6.
Dalí’s post-war painting: Modern science and mysticism; variety of visual experiment; use of photography, holography and stereoscopy.
7.
Dalí and the cinema: Dalí and L’Age d’or; Short Critical History of the Cinema; unrealized scenarios; Hollywood collaborations and other film projects.
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