Dali

by Robert Descharnes

A collection of paintings by Salvador Dali is accompanied by a description of his life and analyses of his artistic style."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810908301
• ISBN13: 9780810908307
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 127 Pages
• Weight: 2.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.3" x 12.3"
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Riding Dali's Roller-Coaster

As a college art major I developed a distaste for Dali and his art, even referring to him as a "pimp" in an essay. I was turned off by his commercialism and his overly-polished style. But over the years my opinion began to shift, and the major retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art has completely renovated my appreciation for the man and his art. This huge and handsome tome is the catalogue for the Philly retrospective, and includes hundreds of color images along with insights into the thought behind the imagery. The book takes you through his youthful experiments in post-impressionism and cubism (there are a few works you'd swear were by Picasso!), into his affiliation with Surrealism, his development of his personal "paranoiac-critical" method, and his later interests in physics and conversion to Catholicism. The middle section of the book and exhibit includes hundreds of his best-known and most widely-admired paintings, but surprises abound in the early and later sections, with works most people never knew he created. What struck me most in the show and the book was how thoroughly dedicated Dali was to his art, and how intellectually involved his work was. His draughtsmanship was also so acute as to defy belief. I realize now that I was sold so completely on his posture as an eccentric personality, that I lost sight of the power of his art. But this show and book reveal how truly special and significant Dali was as an artist, art theorist, and explorer of the hinterlands of the mind and soul.

DALI at his best...........

After collecting, selling and trading Dali art works for more than 30 years, Mr. Robert Descharnes, one of Dali's past secretaries, has outdone himself in this magnificent book. Without a doubt it will become a collectors classic and a must for any serious Dali admirer. Well worth its price in gold!!!!!

Comprehensive, insightful analysis by formost Dali scholar.

This book is a "must" for anyone who wants to understand the principles and themes found in Dali's works. Ades is one of the formost Dalinian scholars. Her book analyzes many of his most popular paintings and will assist the reader in understanding these as well as works not included in her book.