I've never been very moved by art on canvas until I was introduced to Salvador Dali in my Advanced composition class my senior year of high school. I had to write an analysis on “Hallucinogenic Toreador” and my love for Dali was born. I sort of BSed the paper, but my teacher loved it. What that paper and the painting taught me was that there is meaning in everything within pieces of art. I suppose what I like about Dali's paintings is the raw emotion his paintings evoke. The sheer amount of information he puts into his paintings amaze me, and I could look at just one for hours. I like his random symbolism and creepy moods. I also think Dali is a pretty interesting character himself with his relationship with his wife and so forth. I am glad for the chance to learn more about him.
I have been to Montmartre only briefly before coming to the study abroad trip. This was during my Europe tour with my high school in 2006. I really only saw Sacre-Coeur which I found to be very beautiful but we were heckled by gypsies the whole time which I did not enjoy. The picture I have of this trip is obviously not Montmartre, but it's from the same Paris trip!
The very first walk just about everyone did this trip was the Montmartre walk. Here's what I wrote for that blog entry showing my impression at the time: “Most of us kids went on this walk together. We were all following Courtney and Richard as they took us through each of the roads. We all laughed/were really annoyed when Erickson took us down one road just for us to go back up it. We saw a lot of houses of famous painters. We couldn't remember who Toulouse Lautrec was until Ariel reminded me. I guess that was the hipster hang out spot of the day in Paris. Nothing we saw was outright amazing, but it was pretty fun and informative. I don't think that was an area of town I would normally visit so I'm glad I got to see it. There were some points where I was thinking "why did we need to see this?" like when we were told to go down the road to look at some little fountain and such. Like I said, though, It was fun.” Wow, I only took 5 pictures of the whole walk.
It's kind of funny for me to remember that walk, and how unimpressed I was, as Montmartre has become one of my favorite areas in Paris. I suppose I didn't realize that until I went back to see the Espace Dali. My first encounter with the painter in Paris were all the fliers for the Espace Dali all over the metro stations. That was something I knew I could not miss. On the of February fifth, I dragged Courtney and Ariel up to Montmartre to check out the Espace. It was closed, but we had no idea. I tried opening the door but there was a file cabinet in the way. I know that should have given it away for me, but it didn't. I squeezed past and went right in. a man stopped us and laughed saying that it was closed. Thankfully I wouldn't have to wait long for it to reopen. We spent a lot of time wandering around Montmartre, mostly because we were lost. It was during this trip, though, that I really realized how special the area was. It's very unique compared to the rest of the creamy-off-white Paris that everyone is so used to. It also somehow has this small town feel. The crowds of tourists mainly stick around the la Place du Tertre and the Sacre Coeur, so everywhere else is pretty quiet. I suppose I just love the atmosphere, but I don't quite know why.
where i accidentally broke in
I finally made it back on the 18th with Mike this time. The Espace Dali was open this time. http://www.daliparis.com/ . This is what I wrote home to my family about the experience: “Yesterday, i went to the Dali museum with Mike. Dali's stuff is just so amazing for me. how does someone pull stuff like that out of their brains? why can't i pull things like that out? I wish i had his creativity. a good half or more of the art there was religious, and his take on it was so interesting and different. He even had some pretty interesting techniques for his art work, too. For some paintings, he shot ink bullets at his paper, then put snails on the work to let them make lines and textures and then he made images from that. All the stuff there was works from his later life, so it included a lot of 3D things like bronzes. his paintings seemed less technical and more experimental by the 60s too. I just love all his work and i am immensely jealous of his creativity. There were books in the store about him and i want to read all about him so i can start to think more like he does. I know he was kind of messed up at times, but i'm still pretty interested. There are three books i want. "The Century of Dali" by Jean Christophe Argillet (31.13 euros), "Dali" by Gilles Neret (8.50 Euros), and "The Dali Universe" by Beniamino Livi (34 euros). I want them all but i couldn't get myself to buy all of them or decide on just one to buy so i ended up getting none of them. I lose. I'll go back, though, and make a purchase. I just checked on amazon and the only one i found was "Dali" for three bucks, so definitely a lot cheaper. I didn't spend as much time there as i wanted to because i had mike with me so that was disappointing. It was 6 euros to go in so i may just go back later on my own time. It's in montmartre which i love.”
I like this one a lot. It's called "The Great Inquisitor Expels the Saviour"
Enjoying our time in Montmartre
This one is a little gross...
I love his Elephants
This is the painting where he used slugs
Twelve tribes of Israel. This is Jakob
Spiritual Elephant
When doing the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous walk, Ariel and I stumbled across the Spanish art exhibit in Jacquemart-Andre http://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/fr/jacquemart/177-events/?displayType=DetailALaUne&eventId=505 . Of course there were some Dali pictures there. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring my camera inside to take pictures. One of his paintings in there was “Projet de décor de ballet Romeo et Juliette” (1942). it was made for the ballet in the states and it had throwbacks to old artists like how he painted men in a Raphael style for example. Another painting was “L'assension du Christ” (1958). Dali was interested in nuclear physics so this painting had some elements from that. The painting was like a cosmic dream and a play on geometric forms. I learned that Dali never paints Christ's face. His wife Gala also modeled as the Virgin Mary, as I believe she has done before. I also learned that Dali had left the Catholic church for a time but returned. Quite a few of his paintings are religious, actually. The third painting of Dali's that had audio was “Etude our la Peche au Thon” (1965). The painting is of a story Dali's father once told. The painting resembles an epic battle like the clash of the titans. Dali wanted to show the energy with humans and animals. His other paintings on display were “La Plage Erotique” (1950), and “Profit du Temps” (1972).
At the Museum
I went back a little later to look for books to buy on Salvador Dali living in Montmartre. They didn't have any there about that time period! I was really disappointed. They had a few biographies about his whole life but they were in French. I bought the book “the Century of Dali” by Jean Christophe Argillet, though. It has helped me see a little in the mind of Dali. It is an interesting book because it is just full of little stories about him. He really was an interesting character. One story that stood out to me was how he had a brother born three years before him with the same name. That brother died, so Dali came to be both himself and his brother. It really has no specific details of him while in Paris, though. It is really interesting to read about Dali as a writer, inventor, lover of science and a prankster. He was indi long before indi became cool. It's pretty fun to see how he acted, and how that translated through his paintings. I also find his relationship with Gala fascinating. He was completely ok with her affairs, and she was willing to let him do some pretty erotic stuff for his art work. They are just an interesting couple.
I made one last trip to the Espace. This time I took better notes, but I had left my camera, so no new pictures. While there I learned where Dali went to live. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=7+rue+becquerel+paris+France&sll=48.888833,2.343628&sspn=0.000287,0.000862&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=7+Rue+Becquerel,+75018+Paris,+%C3%8Ele-de-France,+France&t=h&z=15 . It was a house that was built for Gala by Paul Eluard. In November of 1956, Dali did an engraving in Montmart of the first of the Don Quixotte serious in the press and was filmed during the process. I could not find that video on youtube, but I found this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWvWRgQAjos . While at the museum, I learned about a few of his themes that he always used. He liked the egg and the snail because they represent the paradox of soft and hard. These are present in his works: “Snail and the Angel” and “Space Venus.” Space venus represents the temporary manor of the beauty of french but the eternal beauty of art. The egg on her lower waist represents the renewal of life and continuation and the future. I thought it was interesting to represent it this way, showing a woman with the power of renewal. He also loved to do Alice in Wonderland. Alice represented to Dali an eternal child, and a person who leaves the surrealist wonderland back to real life unharmed and unchanged. Her head and hands were flowers, symbolizing feminine beauty. I know that women with flower heads are a common theme in Dali paintings, and I wonder if the symbolism stays the same in all of those paintings. Another one of his works, there, was “Homage to Terpsichore.” It shows two women dancing side by side. The smooth, more classical looking one represents grace and unconscious. The cubist one represents the chaotic rhythm of modern life. He says that both live side by side in all of us. “May West Lips Sofa” was Dali's homage to the actress known for her risque one liners and voluptuousness. "Venus a la Giraffe" gives meaning to Venus de Milo because he thought it was old and lacked meaning. “Woman Aflame” is a merging of two of Dali's favorite themes, a woman with drawers and flames. The drawers represent the mystery of hidden secrets. Dali thinks that a woman's mystery is her true beauty. The faceless woman was to represent all women. The fire was the hidden intensity of unconscious desire. This trip was very informative for me because I learned about some of his symbolism. I can't wait to view more of his paintings and to try to apply my knowledge to them. It's funny how everything for Dali is sexual and also represents death. He seems to have a fair amount of respect for women from what I have read about these pieces.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHTWDNii87k&feature=related Here's the link to Dali's documentary. It has information about his relationship with Gala, who he loved deeply, and a little of his live in Montmartre. Mostly all it says was that they were incredibly poor but trying to hide it while in the company of their rich friends. The whole video was also another good incite to his thoughts and actions. I love that he thinks he is too smart to be a good painter.
Over all, this has taught me the importance to understanding the painter and his themes when admiring art works. It is also pretty eye opening for me to realize that everything in paintings has meaning. At first, I just thought everyone was over-analyzing everything. It has been a fun project, and it has been fun to have a theme of things to do with my spare time.
