Liquid Desire _ Personal impressions

Finally made it to the Dali exhibition titled Liquid Desire.

I won't attempt to embarrass myself by trying to be an art critic.

Just a personal record of what impressed me.



The exhibition is arranged chronologically and the first small canvases are of the sixteen year old Dali in the impressionist style.

Moving along we see an example of his emulation of the Braque style. Finally the emergence of the surrealist that we know as Dali.

What surprised me was how small the size of the paintings were. Having become familiar with Dali through books, I always had the notion that the paintings would be much larger than they actually were.
In the same way, I had been surprised by how small the Van Gogh paintings were when I toured the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

My learning experience from the exhibition was that from an artists point of view. In other words the close examination of the painter's technique.

Dali seems to draw like no other artist. His lines are exquisite, precise, tiny and squiggly if you look at his sketches. The detail in the ink and pen drawings is just awesome.

What also left an impression on me was how small Dali's signatures are on the canvas.
If they were any smaller you would have to read them with a magnifying glass. I'm sure psychologists would have a field day just analyzing Dali's signature and handwriting.

The size of the smaller figures and the detail in the small figures that scatter the landscapes is incredible in it's detail.
To me, it seems that Dali draws his visions on the canvas and then paints.
As the years go by, you see how his technique is refined to a sublime smoothness on the canvas but at the beginning it isn't smooth and free of visible brush strokes. That only appears in the latter years.
In comparison, I remember being astonished at the quality of Rene Magritte's paintings which are just flawless in terms of technique. No doubt Dali worked hard to equal that quality he must of admired in Magritte.

Another lasting impression is how Dali used vast empty spaces to such great effect with the tiny figures positioned on the canvas in contrast.
The use of symbols and the influence of Freud I leave to more knowledgeable writers.


There was only one large painting on show, large in the sense that I imagined all his paintings to be. The Pope coronation.

There was also exhibits of collaborations with photographers, movie directors (Bunuel being the most famous) and an eye opener to me being the collaboration Destino with Walt Disney.
The jewellery exhibit was interesting but not much of his sculpture was on show other than the lobster telephone.