Musing for Amusement: Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali is one of the most recognizable, talented artists of our time. He fascinates me with every new painting I see of his, or any piece of artwork for that matter.

I remember being introduced to his artwork in college. Many of my friends had some posted on their walls, and I remember staring at them for long periods of time trying to figure out their deeper meanings. I still don't know if I know, but they were great conversation pieces. I have some on my wall now since my brother visited his museum in Spain, and sometimes I wonder if people think that I am strange for what I have hanging on my wall. I don't care. He's just that good.

He was such a strange guy--the curled-up mustache, the crazy outfits, the jumbles of language he used: Alice Cooper once noted that he would speak all different languages in one sentence. No one could understand what the guy was saying. This guy was so incredible; he knew so many important people and left such an imprint on following generations from his crazy masterpieces (Hitchcock, Disney, Elvis, etc).

Often, geniuses are strange in some sort of way, whether it's social, mental, psychological, etc. On a Biography special on his life, his wife notes how much of a genius he was, but he couldn't do very simple things like make a telephone call. Wikipedia notes his bizarre behavior: "Widely considered to be greatly imaginative, Dalí had an affinity for doing unusual things to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork."

He also lived through some very cool years--almost the entire 1900s. He lived from 1904-1989. Can you imagine seeing all of the wars, all of the technological advancements, all of the changing governments and countries (and so much more) all in that time?

To be quite frank, I always wondered about what this guy was like because he created such astonishing, freakish, disturbing but intricate and wonderful paintings. You can't figure them out in just one look. You can get so many different interpretations of just one piece. That, in my opinion, makes a great artist.

Here are some of his wonderfule pieces of work:

The Persistence of Memory