NAVIGATION
ALL ARTISTS
Meditative
Rose (Rosa Meditativa) 1958 by Salvador
Dali, Oil on canvas 36 x 28 cm. The Rose Meditative painting
is something of an enigma coming from a painter whose works are primarily
the stuff of dream and nightmare. Absent are the stretched forms and crutches
signifying the paranoiac method. Instead we have a pretty picture. Here
Dali seems to be showing off his painting skills at a time when many famous
artists (including Dali himself) were painting in a much more abstract
manner. Perhaps he was preparing himself for the Homage to Surrealism
Exhibition which his friend Andre Breton had asked the artist as well
as Joan Miro to exhibit in and represent Spain. The painting itself is
reminiscent of a natural Om symbol hanging against the sky above a desolate
landscape. This work was completed the same year that Dali published his
"Nuclear Mysticism" manifesto titled "Anti-Matter".
Commenting on this newfound belief in science, DNA, and nuclear physics
the artist had this to say, "In the Surrealist period I wanted to
create the iconography of the interior world and the world of the marvelous,
of my father Freud. Today the exterior world and that of physics, has
transcended the one of psychology. My father today is Dr. Heisenberg.
It is uncertain how this piece fits into either the paranoiac method or
the nuclear mysticism practices. The following quote sums this particular
style of Dali's, "The surrealists saw in Dali the promise
of a breakthrough of the surrealist dilemma. Many of the surrealists had
broken away from the movement, feeling that direct political action had
to come before any mental revolutions. Dali put forth his "Paranoic-Critical
method" as an alternative to having to politically conquer the world.
He felt that his own vision could be imposed on and color the world to
his liking so that it became unnecessary to change it objectively."
from the New York Times obituary, January 24, 1989 issue. Perhaps the
rose was a message of love to a year that saw the world embroiled in revolution.
To find out more about Dali visit Fundacio
Gala-Salvador Dali a wonderful website run by the estate of Salvador
Dali about the museum and the artist's final home in Dali's birthplace
of Figueras in Spain. Clicking on the image above will route you offsite
to a print and poster seller for that specific item only.