Salvador Dali

Mini Biography: Salvador Dali was born May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain. Dali was a prominent Spanish surrealist artist. He was known for his crazy antics outside of his art. He thought very highly of himself and believed that he was overqualified for formal education. Gala, a Russian immigrant, was an important influence in his life. She was the rock and muse of his life. In 1940 Dali moved to the United States. Here he became the the darling of the American High Society. Though he had a great amount of success and wanted to continue it, he had palsy, a motor disease, which caused him to go into retirement in 1980. Dali has 2 museums dedicated to his works through his lifetime.

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening 

1944

Oil on Wood

20 1/8 in x 16 1/8 in

Commentary on the work: "To express for the first time in images Freud's discovery of the typical dream with a lengthy narrative, the consequence of the instantaneousness of a chance event which causes the sleeper to wake up. Thus, as a bar might fall on the neck of a sleeping person, causing them to wake up and for a long dream to end with the guillotine blade falling on them, the noise of the bee here provokes the sensation of the sting which will awaken Gala."

Background information: Since Dali was a surrealist, he was very interested in psychology and the unconscious mind. His fascination with the occurrences during the dream-state was the inspiration behind the painting. He also took into account the theories of Sigmund Frued when creating this piece.

Relation to the exhibition: The dream world is an untapped knowledge. It is a strange world that we as the dream creators really don’t know anything about. We are unable to control what comes out in our dreams. They can reveal our innermost thoughts or just be plain bizarre. I think that this fits the theme of macabre because of how shocking he depicts dreams and how eccentric they can be.