Salvador Dali

Dali alters reality with surrealistic features in his painting The Persistence of Memory 1931.
He targets different creative ideas and thoughts through his incorporation of surrealism and
imaginative fantastical imagery. The structural frames are the initial features of the work that
see what elements are incorporated and what it represents. Whilst the subjective frame
focuses on the emotional response to the artwork, how the viewer feels whilst looking at the
painting, what feelings and emotions does it target, how is this expressed throughout the
artwork and how has the artist done this. Dali is a surrealist painter who has a range of
fantastical and imaginative artworks. I will be discussing how my chosen artist represents the
surrealist values in his historical context through his artworks and how he makes the viewers
respond with creative thoughts and ideas on the truly puzzling artworks. I will also be
targeting the emotional response in which these surrealist artworks create and the era of the
paintings which Dali created.

Dali was born in Figueres Spain, he was a spanish surrealist painter and printmaker. He was
initially known for his subconscious imagery and how he explored and approached surrealist
artwork primarily how he put his imagination into his art and how he expressed his ideas.
Dali is known for his surreal paintings and is one of the most famous and best known
surrealist artists. Dali is known for his bizarre but breathtaking artworks. Since Dali was a
young boy he had always taken much interest and inspiration in his surroundings. Dali was
first enrolled in drawing lessons at age 10 when he first got interested in painting and
drawing, later into Dalis teen years he wanted to follow up on his passion and was enrolled
into the Madrid School of Fine Arts where he experimented with impressionism and
pointillism styles. Unfortunately Dali lost his mother to breast cancer which he said was “the
greatest blow I had experienced in my life." When Dali was 19 his father hosted a solo
exhibition of Dali’s technically exquisite charcoal drawings in his family home. This is how
Dali’s career kicked off and created his creative image.

Dali is known for his surrealistic paintings and creating questionable works. Dali mostly works
with oil paints in his works which helps him add detail to his work and sculpt visual
representations of sounds or smells and helps him illustrate different objects. Dali created
most of his works during the surrealist movement. This was a time when surrealist paintings
and artworks were very popular, people were exploring the creative imagination and
expressing themselves through strange and unrealistic paintings which helped them creative
different realities and escape the “real world”. Dali’s works contributed to this movement
largely; he has named himself as the most famous surrealist artist to this day and his pieces
still inspire many people today. Dali used a technique in which he liked to call the “paranoiac
critical method” a mental exercise which helped him create wonderful, fantastical surrealist
pieces by accessing the subconscious to enhance artistic creativity.

The initial artwork I have chosen to respond to is Salvador Dali’s Ship With Butterfly Sails. This
is an oil painting created in 1973 with the dimensions of: 47"W x 31"H. This is a surrealist
artwork which responds to the imaginative fantastical aspects of imagery by creating a sense
of dream like reality, it circuits many emotions depending on how you interpret it. It creates a
sense of hope for the viewer and the beauty of the painting is brought to life through the
beautiful attention to detail displayed in the butterflies. A fantastical puzzling feature of the
artwork are the people holding the butterfly nets upon the rocks, this creates a sense of
wonder as reality is flipped the butterflies being larger in size to the humans is fantastical
and creates an alternate reality which the viewer may respond to in many different ways
such as a sense of creative thoughts and ideas. This work may be interpreted in many
different ways; its use of colours and shapes creates a bold statement which can reflect on
the surrealist movement which was occurring while Dali created this magnificent work. Dali
may have been inspired by his personal passion for art and the surrealism movement may
have reinforced his passion and given him new ideas.

Concluding, Dali’s artworks incorporate fantastical and imaginative imagery in response to

the surrealism movement by displaying a range of creative ideas and encouraging the
viewer to respond with an emotional response and target different ideas on how the image
may be interpreted to different viewers.

Salvador Dali The Persistence of Memory 1973 47"W x 31"H