Exploring the Irrational [antikvár]

Introduction Oalvador Dalí became during his lifetime one of the most famous and talked about figures in twentieth-century art. He combined a facility for draftsmanship and an agile mind with the showmanship of P. T. Barnum and a Marx Brothers-like humor. The subjects of his work were nearly always controversial, dealing forthrightly yet flamboyantly with sex and the subconscious. In addition, the artist was obsessed by his personal version of traditional legends and mythology as well as with discovering via art an explanation of the universe in terms of modern physics and religion. Little wonder, then, that art lovers argue about him still and that the world at large regards him as a prototype of the modern artist and worldly bohemian. Dalí was very much an artist of his time, ever aware of all the new trends in art and design in addition to the science of the human psyche and its environment. Unlike other artists, he did not pursue new methods of expression or seek a new language of painting; he be-heved that the Old Masters, especially those of the Renaissance era, had brought the techniques of painting to such perfection that it was difficult to improve on them. He made endless investigations into these techniques, adapting them to his own use. As a result he portrayed in his work—in a clear and elegant manner and with fine craftsmanship, mindful of the painters of the Renaissance—the provocative, singular ideas that offered what he believed to be an explanation of his own world and that of his contemporaries. Similar to most classical masters, as an artist Dalí spoke in metaphors and invented his own versions of old mythologies. Perhaps this is difficult to comprehend by those who expect a rational explanation of all things; this is not, however, nor has it ever been, the purpose of great art, which speaks for itself to those who look patiently and with an open mind.