By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian If there’s any doubt that Salvador Dalí did it all, try to find any artistic road on which he didn’t travel. Impossible. One outlet through which Dalí made his mark was photography. Not behind the camera (usually), but in front of it. And in creative collaboration most famously…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian When it comes to Salvador Dalí and film, three things leap to mind: the films Dalí made; the scenes he created for films; and the films he appeared in. We think pretty immediately of creative efforts such as Un Chien Andalou and L’Age D’ Or, which he made…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian I’ve had countless discussions with fellow “Dalínists” about works brought to our attention that are alleged to be by Dalí, but feature characteristics that raise doubts. Sometimes we’re surprised to learn that many are indeed genuine, even when certain peculiarities raise some red flags. A widely reproduced…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian I return now and again to my favorite Salvador Dalí painting, Santiago El Grande, and today I do so after seeing a recent news story about the painting’s permanent home – the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The story focused – as most stories…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian “Enigma” might as well have been Salvador Dalí’s middle name. So much of his mind-bending surrealism was wrapped in a cloak of enigma, with the unraveling left up to us. That’s always been the ultimate fun of it all: trying to understand what Dalí might have been telling…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Much has been written about the rocky relationship between Salvador Dalí and his father. The senior Dalí disowned his son – and the feeling was mutual – when Salvador brought Gala into the picture. It also didn’t help that the young artist’s irreverent personal and artistic tendencies further…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Like it or not, size matters. At least when it comes to the art of Salvador Dalí. We’re talking paintings, of course, not prints or drawings or sculpture, albeit some of those offer surprising revelations, too. But size inevitably enters into the Dalí picture, and probably first reared its…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian I was recently reminded of an intriguing phenomenon – invariably related to the appreciation of art – known as the Stendhal Syndrome. It’s a condition named after 19th-century French author, Stendhal (pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle), who, during his 1817 visit to Florence, Italy, was overcome with emotion….
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian Dalí jokingly proclaimed, “There’s never a dully moment with Dalí!” The man had a great sense of humor, even if that particular one-liner could have benefited from some support from his iconic crutches. There’s also never a moment when Dalí isn’t in the news. Or so it…
By Paul Chimera Salvador Dalí Historian The issue of nudity in art recently hit home with me in connection with my own amateur art career, but I won’t bore my readers here with details. It raises an important issue, though: that of the naked human form in art. How much, if any, is too…