How to become a surrealist artist? Comprehending the secrets of painting, endlessly practicing, studying the paintings of masters, you can become a professional, but ... artisan.
A brilliant surrealist artist needs to be born, because only a genius can balance between the world of reality and fantasy, transferring his visions to the canvas and making others believe in the reality of the fantasy world. Through the paradox of the statements, the originality of the artist’s personality is revealed in the best possible way, as can be seen by re-reading aphorisms and quotes from Salvador Dali.
Borderline condition expressed by the phrase
Salvador Dali was not only a mystery to his entourage - he was a mystery to himself. Rereading Dali’s quotes left at different times and for various reasons, it can be assumed that his main goal was to impress the audience’s imagination with a paradoxical play on words that were a continuation of his eccentric nature.
I am doomed to eccentricity, whether I want it or not.
Everyone is talking about eccentricity, but I'm completely and completely paradoxical.
My feelings, light and fragile, like soap bubbles, are different. I could never have foreseen the hysterical and absurd course of my behavior. Moreover, the final outcome of my actions amazes me first.
However, the origins of eccentricity should be sought in childhood. Before the birth of Dali, a boy named Salvador, who died in infancy, was born in their family. When the future artist was born in 1904, he was also given the name Salvador. He recalled that he was possessed by a constant sense of bifurcation, as if he did not live his own life or should live for two. Later in his book "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, written by himself," he will say:
My brother was only the first breakdown of myself, embodied in an impossible, absolute excess ...
And later, trying to understand the reasons for his hidden desires, he will make a few more observations:
Once, choking on a fish bone, I rushed out of the dining room, coughing angrily and entering into convulsions. I really felt bad, but with some secret pleasure I exaggerated both coughing and cramps, unmistakably knowing how to attract the attention of a worried family.
This excerpt from the book gives an idea of the driving force that later forced Dali to resort literally to theatrical performances, shocking others - the desire to completely wield the attention of everyone who had the honor to rotate in the orbit of a genius.
It is difficult to attract attention even for a short while. And I indulged in this occupation every day and hour.
Childhood is drawn to insects: they are curious, they generate in the soul a craving for violence against themselves and nature, and this is already an incentive for creativity.
Madness is very nutritious for me, but it grows out of buffoonery.
Don Quixote was a crazy idealist. I am also a madman, but at the same time a Catalan, and my madness is not without a commercial vein.
The enduring desire to comprehend himself makes Dali seriously carried away by psychology. At a meeting with Z. Freud, whom Dali idolized, he tried to find answers to questions that tormented him, but Z. Freud was more concerned with the work of Salvador Dali than with the characteristics of his personality. Frustrated, Dali exclaimed:
The great psychologists could not understand: where genius ends and madness begins.
The question of his genius worried Dali from early childhood, however, like the question of power over other people. Apparently, these two categories were inextricably linked for him. In his book "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, Told by Himself," he describes many cases of manifestations of shocking child cruelty when he needed to determine the boundaries of his freedom. It is safe to say that almost all of them were caused by a thirst for gaining the boundaries of a chaotic "I" and confidence in their genius.
If you play genius, you become one.
Life is harsh ... but it is illuminated by the light of eternity.
I indecently love life. I am grateful to fate for two things: for being a Spaniard, and for being Salvador Dali.
The peculiarity of my genius is that it flows from the mind. It is from the mind.
The world will have to make room a little, and another question is whether it will accommodate a genius.
I think it was no easier for me to be born than for the Creator - to create the Universe. At least he then rested, and all the colors of the world fell upon me.
I declare with all responsibility: I have never joked, I am not joking and I am not going to joke.
I have always said that honey is sweeter than blood. And not vice versa.
Dali's look at freedom and the state
Salvador Dali had his own particular view of freedom, state and state structure: in Dali's quotes on this topic, the fear of the unbridledness of his own imagination and the desire to have someone stronger who could structure his restless mind are projected.
Anarchy under the monarchy is the best state system.
The monarch must be the guarantor of anarchy.
In fact, I can only eat something that has an explicit and understandable form. And if I hate spinach, it’s only because it is shapeless, like freedom.
Running ahead of history is much more interesting than describing it.
Dali about life and death
Dali was multifaceted: he was fascinated by various aspects of both real life and mysticism, among his friends and acquaintances there were people who left a mark in art and literature, cinema and psychiatry. Each of these people had their own unique memories of the artist, which he remembered, including the scattering of quotes by Salvador Dali, which were born spontaneously, but were engraved in memory and remained in it for a long time.
The thirst for death can often be explained by the strongest impulse to return to where we came from.
All poets aspire to the Angel, but natural negativity ruined the tastes - and they only look for fallen angels.
Three things have already fascinated me: weakness, old age, and luxury.
Being mediocrity, there is no need to get out of your way, proving that you are mediocrity: this is already noticeable.
A hero, if he is a true hero, is always on his own. One thing is a hero, another is a servant.
Love is one, but its faces are many
In the life of Salvador Dali, there was only one beloved woman - Gala: it was her who he painted many times, it was about her that his thoughts, his statements, which became Dali's quotes.
A Gala-Gradiva celle qui avance. GALA GRADIALLY the one that led me forward.
With this phrase, Dali began a description of his life in the book "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, written by himself." In this book, among many memories of different periods of Dali's life, one can find an explanation of the mutual attraction of the two opposites, which were Gala and Dali. Dali was and remained throughout his life incredibly far from practicality:
Any practical actions were alien to me - and the signs of the outside world frightened me more and more.
Gala was a very knowledgeable lady in matters of earthly life, in particular in matters of the value of works of art. And their union was simply predetermined from above.
However, as a connoisseur of beauty in all its manifestations, Dali was fascinated by several women throughout his life, one of whom was the famous singer Amanda Lear, who remained his girlfriend for more than ten years, which allowed Dali, based on the strength that Gala gave him, to be authority for young Amanda. This "love trio" lasted about fifteen years, allowing each of its participants to show their affection without losing their individuality.
Find yourself in each of them
With each of his women, Dali could reveal different sides of his contradictory nature: for some of them he was a great master, for someone - a stunning man, and Gala gave him that confidence in himself and his greatest talent, in which he constantly needed.
Gala is my only muse, my genius and my life, without Gala I am nobody.
Suffering, I have fun. This is my old custom.
However, not only women felt Dali's affection: his relationship with the great poet G. Lorka is still being discussed. Indeed, they had very tender relationships, and on the part of G. Lorca, they were even passionate, but Dali was able to very delicately set the emphasis in these relations, leaving them only friendly. And this is confirmed both by the memoirs of Dali's friends, and the research carried out by his biographer. Most likely, these people were bound by spiritual bonds, which allowed each of them, despite a strong emotional attraction, to remain a unique personality, appreciating the freedom of the other.
What I really know a few units.
Probably, the genius of surrealism needed to explore all aspects of the emotional ties between people in the intimate and thorough manner characteristic of him, as evidenced by the quotes of Salvador Dali about love and other strong feelings.
I hold the hand of my joy in my hand and think in deep tenderness: “After all this, I can kill you!”
Great geniuses always produce mediocre children, and I do not want to be a confirmation of this rule - I want to leave only myself as a legacy. Dali is a drug that can no longer be dispensed with.
I throw enemies in the coffin with flowers.
Dali about creativity and artists
The great mystifier Dali did not tolerate mediocrity: this can be seen by reading Dali's quotes about art and artists.
Maybe you see the Virgin, like all people, but I see the scales.
I’m a bad artist because I’m too smart, but to be a good artist you have to be a little fool.
For the artist, every brush touch on the canvas is a whole life drama.
To begin with, learn to draw and write like old masters, and only then act as you wish - and they will respect you.
I am completely normal. And the one who does not understand my painting, the one who does not like Velazquez, the one who is not interested, what time is it on my spreading dials - they show the exact time, is abnormal.
Bad taste is barren: there is nothing more harmful to an artist than good taste.
More than anything, I despise Rodin, who sculpted this “Thinker”: in such a pose it’s not so much to think - even shitting is inconvenient.
All my life, my obsession has been pain, which I wrote countlessly.
I had a motto: the main thing is to talk about Dali. At worst, let them speak well.
People would not be so worried if I were a mediocre artist. All the great artists were faked.
I think that now we have the Middle Ages, but someday the Renaissance will come.
In his shocking manner, not caring about the impression he made, Salvador Dali spoke of what was always his essence, his vocation, the meaning of his life - creativity. That is why the artist's thoughts on art can be considered the best quotes of Salvador Dali.