SALVADOR DALÍ The
Surrealists’ exploration of the
human psyche and dreams
reached new heights in the
works of Spain’s Salvador
Dalí(1904–1989). In his
paintings, sculptures, jew-
elry, and designs for furni-
ture and movies, Dalí probed
a deeply erotic dimension,
studying the writings of
Richard von Krafft-Ebing
(1840–1902) and Sigmund
Freud and inventing what he called the “paranoiac-critical method” to
assist his creative process. As he described it, in his painting he aimed
“to materialize the images of concrete irrationality with the most impe-
rialistic fury of precision... in order that the world of imagination and
of concrete irrationality may be as objectively evident... as that of the
exterior world of phenomenal reality.”^34
All these aspects of Dalí’s style appear in The Persistence of Mem-
ory (FIG. 35-49), a haunting allegory of empty space where time has
ended. In the painting, an eerie, never-setting sun illuminates the
barren landscape. An amorphous creature draped with a limp pocket
watch sleeps in the foreground. Another watch hangs from the
branch of a dead tree that springs unexpectedly from a blocky archi-
tectural form. A third watch hangs half over the edge of the rectangu-
lar form, beside a small timepiece resting face down on the block’s
surface. Ants swarm mysteriously over the small watch, while a fly
walks along the face of its large neighbor, almost as if this assembly of
watches were decaying organic life—soft and sticky. Dalí rendered
every detail of this dreamscape with precise control, striving to make
the world of his paintings as convincingly real as the most meticu-
lously rendered landscape based on a real scene from nature.
RENÉ MAGRITTE The Belgian painter René Magritte
(1898–1967) also expressed in exemplary fashion the Surrealist idea
and method—the dreamlike dissociation of image and meaning. His
works administer disruptive shocks because they subvert the viewer’s
expectations based on logic and common sense. The danger of relying
on rationality when viewing a Surrealist work is glaringly apparent in
Magritte’s The Treachery (or Perfidy) of Images (FIG. 35-50). Magritte
presented a meticulously rendered trompe l’oeil depiction of a briar
pipe. The caption beneath the image, however, contradicts what seems
obvious: “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”). The discrep-
ancy between image and caption clearly challenges the assumptions
underlying the reading of visual art. Like the other Surrealists’ work,
this painting wreaks havoc on the viewer’s reliance on the conscious
and the rational.MERET OPPENHEIM Sculpture especially appealed to the
Surrealists because its concrete tangibility made their art all the
more disquieting.Object (FIG. 35-51), also called Le Déjeuner en
fourrure(Luncheon in Fur), by Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim
(1913–1985) captures the incongruity, humor, visual appeal, and, of-
ten, eroticism characterizing Surrealism. The artist presented a fur-
lined teacup inspired by a conversation she had with Picasso. After
admiring a bracelet Oppenheim had made from a piece of brass cov-
ered with fur, Picasso noted that anything might be covered with fur.
When her tea grew cold, Oppenheim responded to Picasso’s com-35-49Salvador Dalí,
The Persistence of Memory,- Oil on canvas, 9^1 – 2
1 1 . Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
Dalí aimed to paint “images
of concrete irrationality.” In
this realistically rendered
landscape featuring three
“decaying” watches, he
created a haunting allegory
of empty space where time
has ended.
35-50René Magritte,The Treachery (or Perfidy) of Images,
1928–1929. Oil on canvas, 1 115 – 8 3 1 . Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, Los Angeles (purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs.
William Preston Harrison Collection).
The discrepancy between Magritte’s meticulously painted briar pipe
and his caption, “This is not a pipe,” challenges the viewer’s reliance on
the conscious and the rational in the reading of visual art.946 Chapter 35 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1900 TO 19451 in.35-50AThe FalseMAGRITTE, 1 ft.
Mirror, 1928.