Dal: The Paintings: 1904-1989

At the age of six, Salvador Dal (19041989) wanted to be a cook. At the age of seven, he wanted to be Napoleon. Since then, he later said, my ambition has steadily grown, and my megalomania with it. Now I want only to be Salvador Dal, I have no greater wish. Throughout his life, Dal was out to become Dal: that is, one of the most significant artists and eccentrics of the 20th century. This weighty volume is the most complete study of Dals painted works ever published. After years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Nret located painted works by the master that had been inaccessible for yearsso many, in fact, that almost half the featured illustrations appear in public for the first time in this book. More than a catalogue raisonn, this book contextualizes Dals oeuvre and its meanings by examining contemporary documents, from writings and drawings to material from other facets of his work, including ballet, cinema, fashion, advertising, and objets dart. Without these crutches to support analysis, the paintings would simply be a series of many images. The study is divided into two parts: the first examines Dals beginnings as an unknown artist. We witness how the young Dal deployed all the ismsImpressionism, Pointillism, Cubism, Fauvism, Purism and Futurismwith playful mastery, and how he would borrow from prevailing trends before ridiculing and abandoning them. The second part unveils the conclusions of Dals lifelong inquiries, as well as the great legacy he left in works such as Tuna Fishing (1966/67) or Hallucinogenic Toreador (1970). It includes previously unpublished homages to Velzquez or Michelangelo, painted to the same end as the variations on past masters done by his contemporary, Picasso. We discover how, motivated by the desire to tease out the secrets of great works and become a Velzquez of the mid-20th century, Dal became Dal.