By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian I know that many of my fellow Salvador Dalí enthusiasts/aficionados/collectors/fans/scholars/historians – call us what you will – are as fascinated by Dalí the man as by Dalí the artist. What we mean, of course, is that we love the Dalí persona: the antics, the surrealist happenings, the…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Salvador Dalí did a variety of interesting greeting card designs for Hallmark, but for my money none was as lovely and painstakingly executed as the one here, though I don’t know if it has a title. No matter; what we can comfortably call it is quintessentially Dalínian by…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Sometimes we get so focused on the large paintings, intricate prints, and masterful drawings of Salvador Dalí that we tend to overlook some of his less prominent yet still very revealing works. Today I’m putting the spotlight on a small oil on canvas (approx. 10” x 14”,…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian One of the hallmarks of Salvador Dalí’s art was his counter-culture vision: when, in art school, his drawing instructor had the class copy a particular statue, Dalí drew a pair of scales! That’s what he saw, he insisted. How an artist “sees” is what makes him or…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Christians honor the real reason for the season – not that they don’t also lock a big holiday hug on jolly old Saint Nick – and this brings us to – of all people – Salvador Dalí. Dalí’s religious art in general is legendary and impressive. And…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian I’m continually dazzled by Dalí’s undying diversity. OK, shameless alliteration aside, it really is rather extraordinary to consider how truly diverse Salvador Dalí’s catalog was. While Dalí was indefatigably a Surrealist, his work embraced so many different styles that it’s little wonder he was so inscrutable to categorize. Take,…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian In the Dalí world, we’re still waiting for “the big one.” No, not a California earthquake (God willing, that will never happen), but a blockbuster auction sale of a Dalí painting. A sale that eclipses even heavy-hitters like Picasso and Warhol and Van Gogh. The kind that…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian We know quite a bit about what Dalí painted, but not so much about how he painted. So I was pleased to recently come across information provided by the Tate Museum in London about its 1936 painting, Forgotten Horizon, and how master Dalí painted it. The work…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Sometimes it seems as if the world couldn’t quite turn on its axis without the influence of Salvador Dalí shining its bright light….somewhere. Recently, that light made for a most illuminating talk at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Its collection – donated by the…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Salvador Dalí claimed he was not much of a music appreciator. He insisted that music was immensely inferior to art – painting, more precisely – and that the eye clearly triumphed over the ear. And yet Dalí was a master of contradiction. He would hum and whistle…