On Tour with Sister Wendy - Salvador Dali

Dear gentle reader, you know that I am an armchair art lover and on occassion I like to take you on an armchair tour of paintings that have some significance (no matter how fleeting) to me. I don't believe art is necessarily about what the artist is feeling and the reasons behind why a certain piece was created. I believe art is about how that piece makes you feel and react.

One artist who never fails to stimulate a response from me is Salvador Dali. I am not going to bore you with his life detail, if you want to know more you can read about him on Wikipedia here.

I was browsing the Salvador Dali Art Gallery and have chosen 4 of my favourite.

The Truck (We'll be arriving later, about five o'clock), 1983

First, this painting and its title made me laugh. I can imagine waiting, impatiently, for a delivery that never arrives on time. The second reason is that today I am going to a house warming party at five o'clock.

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Celestial Ride, 1957

The rhino has a slight robotic feel to it (almost like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz) but as you look closely at the elongated legs and face, the rhino is still of flesh and blood. Mechanically enhanced, almost like he is the Six Million Dollar Rhino. How could not notice the TV embeded in his side, which is casually showing a baseball game.

There is almost too much for me to take in during a single viewing. I will need to set aside more time just to look at the bottom half of the painting. The more I look at it, the more it changes.

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Nude in the Desert Landscape, 1946

Again, the more you look at Nude in the Desert Landscape, the more you see. It reminds me of Carlos Castanada's The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge.

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Figure at Window, 1925

To me, this photo is that warm, humid air wind that and calmness that happens right before a thunderstorm. That is a very contemplative, calm and spiritual moment.

On a side note, this particular model was very close to Dali, until she published a biography about her times with Dali, which did not make the artist very happy. He responded by painting a "sequel" to Figure at Window, which was entitled Young Virgin Autosodomized by her Own Chastity (1954).