HELLO DALI: A SURREAL INTERVIEW WITH SALVADOR DALI -- Spanish-born
artist Salvador Domingo Filipe Jacinto Dali di Domènech (1904-1989) spent his
entire life being very clever – having been expelled twice from the Royal
Academy of Art in Madrid Spain in his youth, claiming he was more qualified as
an artist than those would have examined him – with history proving him right
on this one. So, in 1928 he packed up his bags and paintbrushes and headed to
Paris – the capital of all things artistic in the early twentieth century --
and met those titans of art Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro and by the time 1929
rolled around Dali had established his unique brand of art known as Surrealism
(the Surrealist theory is based on those of renowned Viennese psychologist Dr.
Sigmund Freud). Dali’s mad, dream-into-nightmare, colorful imagery secured him
a singular place in art history. At
Studio of Style, we enjoy peering into the minds of genius as much as we do observing
the art – so here is Dali in his own wonderfully surreal words!
Studio of Style: Why surrealistic art?
Dali: We
are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been
good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art. Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only
what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision. Progressive art can
assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the
society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of
their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social
emancipation. Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes
of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid,
complete and classic as the works of museums.
Studio of Style: Did you always want to
be an artist?
Dali: At the age of six I
wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been
growing steadily ever since! In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect
in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in
your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love.
After that, be a snob!
Studio of Style: Is art ever perfect?
Dali: I do not paint a portrait
to look like the subject – rather, does the person grow to look like his
portrait? Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct
them. On the contrary -- rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After
that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them. Have no fear of perfection -
you'll never reach it. And it is not necessary for the public to
know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary
for me to know it myself.
Studio of Style: What about drawing?
Dali: Drawing is the honesty
of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad. And painting
is an infinitely minute part of my personality.
Studio of Style: What is your secret to
your creativity?
Dali: The secret of my
influence has always been that it remained secret! I have Dalinian thought -- the
one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous! I don't do drugs. I am drugs! I seated ugliness on my knee, and almost immediately grew tired of
it. What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his
eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who
has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the
planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust. Each
morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being
Salvador Dali!
Studio of Style: Have you achieved
success?
Dali: The thermometer of
success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents. Let my enemies devour each
other! Those who do not want to imitate anything,
produce nothing! Democratic societies are unfit
for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of
making. Liking money like I like
it, is nothing less than mysticism. Money is a glory!
Studio of Style: Is there such a thing
as happiness?
Dali: There are some days
when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction!
Studio of Style: Or purity?
Dali: When I was five years
old, I saw an insect that had been eaten by ants and of which nothing remained
except the shell. Through the holes of its anatomy, one could see the sky.
Every time I wish to attain purity, I look at the sky through flesh.
Studio of Style: Some people thing
you’re a bit strange….
Dali: I am not strange – I am
just not normal! The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not
mad.
