Painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker, and all-round showman Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was one of the 20th century's greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics. One of the first artists to apply the insights of Freudian psychoanalysis to art, he is celebrated in particular for his surrealist practice, with such conceits as the soft watches or the lobster telephone, now hallmarks of the surrealist enterprise, and of modernism in general.
Dali frequently described his paintings as "hand-painted dream photographs." Their tantalizing tension and interest resides in the precise rendering of bizarre elements and incongruous arrangements. As Dali himself explained, he painted with "the most imperialist fury of precision," but only "to systematize confusion and thus to help discredit completely the world of reality."Revolutionizing the role of the artist, the mustache-twirling Dali also had the intuition to parade a controversial persona in the public arena and, through printmaking, fashion, advertising, writing, and film, to create work that could be consumed and not just contemplated on a gallery wall.
This book explores both the painting and the personality of Dali, introducing his technical skill as well as his provocative compositions and challenging themes of death, decay, and eroticism.
About the series
Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:
a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
a concise biography
approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions
- ISBN10 3822893269
- ISBN13 9783822893265
- Publish Date September 1994
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 12 August 2011
- Publish Country DE
- Imprint Taschen GmbH
- Format Paperback
- Pages 96
- Language English