ISBN: 3836576244 9783836576246

Category: Art / History / Modern (late 19th Century to 1945)

Page count: 752

<p>At the age of six, <b>Salvador Dalí</b> (1904-1989) 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 Dalí, I have no greater wish." Throughout his life, Dalí was out to become Dalí: that is, <b>one of the most significant artists and eccentrics of the 20th century</b>.<br> <br> This weighty volume is <b>the most complete study</b> <b>of</b> <b>Dalí's painted works ever published</b>. After years of research, Robert Descharnes and Gilles Néret located painted works by the master that had been inaccessible for years-so many, in fact, that almost half the featured illustrations appear in public for the first time in this book.<br> <br> More than a catalogue raisonné, this book <b>contextualizes Dalí's oeuvre and its meanings by examining contemporary documents</b>, from writings and drawings to material from other facets of his work, including ballet, cinema, fashion, advertising, and objets d'art.<br> <br> The study is divided into two parts: the first examines <b>Dalí's beginnings as an unknown artist</b>. We witness how the young Dalí deployed all the isms-Impressionism, Pointillism, Cubism, Fauvism, Purism and Futurism-with playful mastery, and how he would borrow from prevailing trends before ridiculing and abandoning them. The second part <b>unveils the conclusions of Dalí's lifelong inquiries</b>, as well as the great legacy he left in works such as Tuna Fishing (1966/67) or Hallucinogenic Toreador (1970). It includes <b>previously unpublished homages to Velázquez or Michelangelo</b>, painted to the same end as the variations on past masters done by his contemporary, Picasso.<br> <br> We discover how, motivated by the desire to tease out the secrets of great works and become a Velázquez of the mid-20th century, Dalí became Dalí.</p>