Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate One ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

‘[…] flying about like a bee, which is also one of the names which I have given her,for like a bee she brings me all the oils, all the media, and it is thus that I find thepentagonal hive of my studio filled with all the pollens which the painter, at everymoment of the day, needs to be able to spin the integral honey of his work.’ 7DreamsThe precise moment painted by Dalí in Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee… is exactly onesecond before Gala awakes to find herself attacked by a dream in the form of a rifle witha bayonet and two tigers, one being swallowed by a scorpionfish which in turn has beenexpelled from an open pomegranate. With this succession of dreamlike actions Dalí lets us seethat Surrealism and Freudian psychoanalysis are still present in the iconography of his work:the free association of images leads the unconscious to the conscious mind. In looking at thepainting we involuntarily become interpreters of dreams. With Dream Caused by the Flight of aBee… Dalí wants to share with the spectator-interpreter a moment from Gala’s subconscious asthis has been interpreted by him with his brushes.08Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee…,Dalí had always been fascinated by dreams, as the following entry in his adolescent diary attests:‘It is cloudy today like yesterday. But I feel fine and I get up. I had a delightfulnight. Dreams are something I love. I usually pass the nights in extraordinaryand delightful dreams, which I do not recount because all the details fly from mymemory.’ 8Long after the most Surrealist years (the 1930s), dreams continue to be a recurrent theme inthroughout Dalí’s career. Also in 1944, the year he painted Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee…,he was invited to design the dream scene for Alfred Hitchcock’s film Spellbound. Dalí told thepress at the time that he mostly dreamt in shades of grey, but that a few times each month,7. DALÍ, S. (1948), 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship. The Dial Press, New York, pp. 181-1868. DALÍ, S. (2003), ‘Un Diari 1919-1920: les meves impressions i records íntims’. In: Obra completa, Barcelona;[Figueres]: Ediciones Destino; Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, vol. 1, Escrits autobiogràfics, p. 196
although this was not a good sign, he dreamt in colour. And it was as a specialist in dreams thatLife magazine commissioned Dalí to write a piece about a nightmare. In ‘Nightmare Journey’ hetold the story of the train journey he made from New York to San Francisco, during which hewas assailed by fears and anxieties about confronting the practical aspects of everyday life. Dalístarts his account with a confession:‘At night I always dream of extremely agreeable things, and it is precisely when Iam perfectly wide-awake, in broad daylight and in contact with practical life, thatmy most hallucinatory nightmares have always occurred.’ 9099. DALÍ, S. ‘Nightmare Journey’, Life, 6 March 1944.
Page 1 and 2: Salvador DalíOil on wood panel51 x
Page 3 and 4: Painting for the ballet Sentimental
Page 5 and 6: 3. INTERPRETATIONThe LandscapeThe l
Page 10 and 11: APPENDICEWorks Produced by Dalí in
Page 12: NOTES ON THE PRELIMINARY SKETCHES O

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate One ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?