Dali's Optical Illusions

by Salvador Dalí and Ades. Dawn

Book Overview

This visually gripping book focuses on a central but relatively unexamined aspect of the work of Salvador Dali: his fascination with optical effects and visual perception. The book examines Dali's use... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300081774
• ISBN13: 9780300081770
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 195 Pages
• Weight: 3.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 9.8" x 11.5"

Customer Reviews

History of art

Nice overview: the work of Dali and a specific part of the art of painting i.e. the problem of 2 = 3. Perspicere on a two-dimensional painting.

Now you see it ...

This opulently illustrated investigation of Salvador Dali's work and thought looks at the mad master's painting from a new angle. (Some would doubtless argue that any angle from which one views his art is likely to be new.) Dawn Ades has assembled a grand tour of Dali's ideas, influences, biography, loves, fears, friendships and experiments, to offer further insight into a complex intelligence. The paintings, sketches and photographs she draws upon are apt and illuminating. Though I once played at being a painter and have read widely about the arts, I am not an art student and do not speak the language of the cognesceti. Notwithstanding my naivete, I here offer my own angle on modernist art. Twentieth century art can be fairly neatly divided into two piles: pre-Warhol and post-. In the old days the institutions of art were important: acceptance by a School, the right museums, the right collectors and patrons. Within that structure most arttists conformed and a few broke out to dazzle the world. No matter how far visual artists pushed the envelope into abstraction (pointilism, impressionism, cubism, fauvism, surrealism, and so forth) they were grounded in technical excellence. Any of the masters could paint an apple so perfectly that you would want to take a bite. Post-Warhol, which I use not only in reference to the man but to the sea change he rode (easy reproduction, duplication, electronic media -- all following on the heels of photography), everything was turned on its head. The institutions lost control, idea superceded technique, photography devalued representational art, notoriety bumped-off intellect ... even paint was suddenly cheap after Germany lost the Second World War and its dominance of the chemical colorant and plastics industries. Anyone could do art and everyone does. Anyone with an Apple can make a byte. I find the parallel to electronic publishing inescapable. When printing was expensive the institutions controlled access. Publishers and editors controlled the flow and writers had to follow it. Today printing is cheap, both on paper and in pixels, and the institutions have lost much of their sway. The emergent problem in both cases is for the audience. When a few Schools of art, a few publishing houses, a few film studios, even a few TV networks controlled the spigot, what emerged was apt to have some merit. Without that institutional control we face a torrent. Post-Warhol there is a lot more bad art. (If I have herewith condemned the Soupletter, so be it.) Dali's art is a reminder that just being clever and different is not sufficient. You have got to be good to be famous for more than fifteen minutes.

In reply to review no.1

Hallucinagenic Toreador is a painting that can never leave the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, and therefore could not, sadly, be included in the exhibition (and catalogue). Plenty of other double images were though.

A "must" for all Salvador Dali fans.

Dali's Optical Illusions is the first to probe Dali's fascination with optical effects and perception, packing in examples of Dali's works and commenting on his sources, inspiration, and methods. Accompanying discussions to each page of illustration comment on technique, inspiration, and visual impact of Deli's images. Highly recommended.