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The Temptation of St. Anthony by Salvador Dali

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Salvador Dali was produced in 1946 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Musee Magritte Museum, Belgium

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): elephant, horse, temptation
 
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The Temptation of St. Anthony is an oil painting produced in 1946 by Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

The Temptation of St. Anthony was Dalí’s work better known as the “Dalí Renaissance”.

The Temptation of St. Anthony depicted a landscape similar to desert. The landscape consists of a line seems to be a horizon with dark clouds at the top in the sky. At the bottom left hand side of the painting, a figure was kneeling holding a cross in right hand and from his left hand on the rock, he supports himself. The figure seems to be of Saint Anthony. A human skull lies at a distance shown between his two legs. A group of elephants with horses at the beginning approached Saint Anthony. They were carrying object which represents different figures, one with a nude woman holding her breast, other with a complex building confining a nude woman, another with an obelisk, a vertical tower. These elephants and horse were painted having very long and spindly legs.

David Loew Albert Lewin had organized a contest for his film production company for which Dali’s painted The Temptation of St. Anthony. The painting was supposed to be used in the film The Private Affairs of Bel Ami and many artists participated for the contest. Unfortunately, Salvador Dali painting was not chosen in the film and this was the only contest where Dali had participated in his entire life.

Salvador Dali was known as the surrealistic artist and many paintings contain surrealistic elements from his work. This painting was regarded as the first and foremost which lightened Dali’s interest between the earth and the heaven. The dimensions of the painting The Temptation of St. Anthony were 119.5 cm x 89.7 cm.

The work can be viewed at Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium

 

 

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The Great Masturbator by Salvador Dali

The Great Masturbator by Salvador Dali was produced in 1929 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): masturbator, sexual, woman
 
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The Great Masturbator is an oil painting produced in 1929 by Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

Salvador Dalí wanted this painting to be kept at the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, his personal collection.

At The center of the painting The Great Masturbator, a distorted figure similar to a human face was looking downwards. The figure was based on a natural rock formation like shape similar to the formation at Cap de Creus along the sea shore of Catalonia. Dali painted The Persistence of Memory two years later and included in it the same figure. A naked female rise from the back of a head resembling similar to Dali new wife Gala and this figure could be the reason as the title of painting suggest The Great Masturbator. The mouth of the female was placed near the male crotch which suggests that Fellatio was going to happen. The male figure painted had bleeding cuts in knees and seen from his waist portion only. This painting represents Salvador Dali attitudes and thoughts towards sexual intercourse. The dimensions of the painting were 110 cm × 150 cm or 43.3 in × 59.1 in.

At The center of the painting The Great Masturbator, a distorted figure similar to a human face was looking downwards. The figure was based on a natural rock formation like shape similar to the formation at Cap de Creus along the sea shore of Catalonia. Dali painted The Persistence of Memory two years later and included in it the same figure. A naked female rise from the back of a head resembling similar to Dali new wife Gala and this figure could be the reason as the title of painting suggest The Great Masturbator. The mouth of the female was placed near the male crotch which suggests that Fellatio was going to happen. The male figure painted had bleeding cuts in knees and seen from his waist portion only. This painting represents Salvador Dali attitudes and thoughts towards sexual intercourse. The dimensions of the painting were 110 cm × 150 cm or 43.3 in × 59.1 in.

The work can be viewed at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

 

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Illumined Pleasures by Salvador Dali

Illumined Pleasures by Salvador Dali was produced in 1929 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Modern Museum of Art, New York

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): box, surreal
 
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Illumined Pleasures is an oil painting produced in 1929 by Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

The size of the painting compared with the level of detail, here it reveals how Salvador Dali managed to compress many things in his canvas, and why he was known as the great talent of miniaturists.

In this painting Illumined Pleasures, Dali’s middlebox was similar to the one used in The Great Mastur:bator and a self-portrayed of himself. On the left-hand side of the painting, there was another box from which a man shoots at a rock. This rock symbolizes as the head of the person from which blood was flowing from the holes that were created by to bullets. The blood flowing from the head and nose symbolizes the fear. Dali’s painting Illumined Pleasures was rather filled with violent images. In the foreground of the painting, the couple seems to be struggling.

The luminous imagery projected on to the boxes of theater-like structure dominated the painting and its composition such that the title of this picture coincides close to it. Dali had to show a disjunction between the illusion world and the reality which he experienced in the darkness of a theater. The dimensions of the painting Illumined Pleasures were 34.7 x 23.8 cm or 9 3/8 in x 13 3/4 in.

Dali’s head appears through the middle theater shaped like box placed in the middle while universal dreams and anxiety role play below. This scene displays the script of Un Chien Andalou which was being shot and published in La Revolution surrealist later in a journal. Many other Surrealist painters had used these theater shaped like box in their paintings.

The work can be viewed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

 

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The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali was produced in 1952-1954 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): flood, landscape, water
 
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The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory is an oil painting produced between 1952 and 1954 by Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory was a recreated painting from The Persistence of Memory which was completed by Salvador Dali in 1931.

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory was originally known by name of The Chromosome of a highly colored Fish’s Eye Starting the Harmonious Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory. Salvador Dali completed the painting in 1954 sent it for exhibition at the Carstairs Gallery in New York. In this painting, the landscape of Cadaques was shown to be flooded with water making it a memory. Here, disintegration word was used to convey what was going on below and above the flooded water. Different shapes and figures made up of brick were shown floating in the water individually. These figures represent the quantum mechanics logic that matter consisted of atoms and molecules which are independent to each other.

During the Second World War, when the US launched a nuclear explosion in Japan, Salvador Dali attention got diverted to nuclear science and he then described the atom as his favorite food. He knew that matter was a combination of several atoms having spaces between them so that they don’t touch each other, similarly The Madonna of Port Lligat depicts this logic and Dali also replicated it. The dimensions of the painting The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory were 25.4 cm × 33 cm or 10 in × 13 in.

Earlier, this painting was exhibited in 2009 at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. There were many other paintings of Salvador Dali in that gallery and later were transported to the Dali museum. This painting was well-known for its surrealism and the artist lost interest in this form of art as depicted by the picture. Later, Dali was led to another interest of his in nuclear physics and religion.

The work can be viewed at Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida

 

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The False Mirror by Rene Magritte

The False Mirror by Rene Magritte was produced in 17th Century and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Modern Museum of Art, New York

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): eye, mirror
 
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The False Mirror is an oil painting produced in 1928 by Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte.

The False Mirror painting style was Surrealist art and it also been referred to as magical realism.

Rene Magritte’s painting The False Mirror was completed during the ongoing World War I when several artists come to terms when these scared environments and conflicts were prevailing. Many other artists of
Rene Magritte include Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, and Man Ray painted similar paintings depicting the human eye. The painting was both symmetrical through its horizontal and vertical lines and the color of the pupil at the center of the eye which draws viewer’s attention. The use of a particular scene in The False Mirror depicts to challenge the viewer in terms of there thinking. Here, the viewer thought that what they really know, does it correspond to what they saw in the painting.

The false mirror title was provided by another Belgian Surrealist writer Paul Nouge. The title justifies itself as to the iris was replaced with the blue sky partly filled with clouds. Rene Magritte single eye functions dual as to when the viewer looks through the eye, it seems as if it looks through a window and was looked at by it.

Rene Magritte surprises viewers by removing the pupil from the eyes repositioning the pupil at the center of it while the sky scene captures the area around the eyes. The dimensions of the painting The False Mirror were 54 x 80.9 cm or 21.1/4 in x 31.7/8 in.

The work can be viewed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

 

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Personal Values by Rene Magritte

Personal Values by Rene Magritte was produced in 17th Century and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Musee Magritte Museum, Belgium

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): comb, personal
 
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Personal Values is an oil painting produced in 1952 by Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte.

The Musee Magritte Museum hosted the painting until 2015 and now it was lent by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The painting Personal Values style was similar to the old master’s style i.e. more realistic and ultrafine. Rene Magritte used a deadpan to illustrate the articulated content of this picture which results in a power paradox. It means that there were certain beautiful images in clarity and simplicity but they could provoke unsettling thoughts. These pictures seem to declare that they were hiding nothing but at the same time were so strange. Rene Magritte wanted that the viewers would start to question the definition of the painting. The comb in this painting represents a tool with a socially accepted exterior behavior. Its position depicts a standing figure and a relationship with the pillow.

Personal Values is an oil painting produced in 1952 by Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte.

The comb was generally used to groom one’s hair either male or female. The soap present nearby represents the importance of the grooming of the body. Through this painting, Rene Magritte’s particular personal hygiene and picture were shown. The dimensions of the painting Personal Values were 80 cm x 100 cm

Magritte painted the walls with the color of the sky which depicts that the room was free from its limit to human physicality of imagination. It suggests that the image of any individual viewer was up-to their own and they could interpret the composition of the painting Personal Values.

 

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The Lovers by Rene Magritte

The Lovers by Rene Magritte was produced in 1928 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Renaissance Art movement. The work can be viewed now at Modern Museum of Art, New York

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): kiss, love
 
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The Lovers is an oil painting produced in 1928 by Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte.

Rene Magritte was only 30 years old when The Lovers was painted.

The lovers was painted by Rene Magritte in which two figures naturally male and a female were locked in an embrace. The face of both of these figures was covered with a cloth and they were kissing one another through veils. They both were placed in a room having a side wall, back wall and a ceiling. The back wall was painted with light grey and blue shaded color on the bottom of the wall while the top half of the wall contains a darker shade of the color. The wall adjacent to it was brick red with light shade at the bottom of the painting joined with the darker shade from top to the adjacent wall. The ceiling of the room was white along the border of the side wall with decorative borders. The border does not continue towards the back wall.

The male subject as painted was wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a tie. The woman on the other hand was in a red garment which was sleeveless and trimmed. The woman skin is tanned as depicted by the arm that was exposed. Rene Magritte painted the male figure in much dominated posture as compared to the woman. The man leans down to kiss the woman and the woman tilts her head up for the man.

Rene Magritte was only 14 years old when his mother committed suicide through drowning into the water. He witnessed his mother’s body when she died and had her wet nightgown covering her face completely. It was thus speculated that this scene inspired Rene Magritte to cover the face of these figures too. The dimensions of the painting The Lovers were 73.4 cm x 54 cm or 21 3/8 in x 28 7/8 in.

The work can be viewed at Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

 

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The Menaced Assassin by Rene Magritte

The Menaced Assassin by Rene Magritte was produced in 1927 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Modern Museum of Art, New York

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): assassin, death
 
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The Menaced Assassin is an oil painting produced in 1927 by Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte.

The Menaced Assassin was exhibited in Rene Magritte first solo exhibition in 1927.

The Menaced Assassin was regarded as one of Rene Magritte’s largest and most theatrical works. Rene was also the fan of the crime fiction and the pre First World War. The Murderous Corpse was the film released in 1913 from which Rene Magritte inspired and painted the two detectives like figures near the doorframe. As the name suggests, the main subject of the painting was a nude woman lying on a nearby couch and her body was smeared with blood. A standing nearby well-dressed man was the assassin of her and was ready to leaving the room while leaving behind his coat and a hat. He put those things on a chair placed near his bag. He was feeling somewhat relaxed manner and delayed due to the sound of the music which was coming from the gramophone being placed on the table. On the far left and far right of the painting, two man were standing definitely his colleagues armed with clubs and net were waiting for him. Behind the assassin was a window from which three other men were also watching. The dimensions of the painting The Menaced Assassin were 150.4 cm × 195.2 cm or 59.2 in × 76.9 in.

The work can be viewed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York

 

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Rooms By The Sea by Edward Hooper

Rooms By The Sea by Edward Hooper was produced in 1951 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Impressionism movement. The work can be viewed now at Private Collection

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): nature, room, sea
 
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Rooms By The Sea is an oil painting produced in 1951 by American painter Edward Hopper.

One of the greatest works of Edward Hopper painted on a very large canvas.

Edward Hopper had a great interest in the different effects of the sunlight and begun his painting career by portraying these effects on canvases when he was a young student in Paris. He then moved to New York and turned into a mature artist while designing a sunny secluded studio of his own at Truro. The scene depicts looking at the ocean on a sunny day. Edward Hopper spent most of his days in Cape Cod, Massachusetts during summers. This painting was based on the scene that was from the back door of the studio. The empty room was filled with the essence of silences, the mystery of existence, spirit, and air. His work was inspired by Van Gogh as they both try to paint the objects as if they were self-portraits of their own.

 

Edward Hopper has two titles in mind at starting of this painting, one was Rooms by the Sea and the other was The Jumping Off Place. But, later he noticed that the scene which he had painted depicted much similar to the composition of the Rooms by the Sea. So, he deleted the other one as it perceived to have some of the malign overtones. The image thus seems to convey about the silences of nature and its beauty by the sea.

Hopper had a gift of noticing smaller details and communication with his inner life. He tried to find the sense of beauty, the desolation, and despair of feelings through the figures, objects, and buildings that he painted. This painting of Hopper depicts realistic behavior and surrealistic all at once. The dimensions of the painting Rooms By The Sea were 73.66 cm x 101.98 cm

 

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Swans Reflecting Elephants by Salvador Dali

Swans Reflecting Elephants by Salvador Dali was produced in 1937 and is considered to be one of the famous artworks of Surrealism movement. The work can be viewed now at Private Collection

 

Medium: Oil Painting 

Subject(s): elephants, swan
 
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Swans Reflecting Elephants is an oil painting produced in 1937 by Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

In Swans Reflecting Elephants painting, three swans in front of the picture were seen near the leafless trees and they were reflected by the water below them. The image reflected seems to be of elephant’s trunks similar to swans neck above the water and trees become the lower part of the elephants i.e. legs. The background of this picture contains a Catalonian landscape colored deep as there was a swirl around the lake but the water seems to be still. Salvador Dali hometown was Catalonian and thus depicted by the landscape. On the left-hand side of the painting was the self-portrait of Salvador Dali seems to be facing away from the scene. It means that he was frustrated with not having enough attention for his work in surrealism artwork,

The work cannot be viewed and owned as a private collection

The painting contains double images which were his technique of Paranoia critical method. In 1935, he said about this method to be The Conquest of the Irrational in which an understanding of irrational should be based on the critical association of the various phenomena. Dali used this technique to bring the visual illusion in the form of double images which attracts the viewer and he has to think about it.

In Swans Reflecting Elephants painting, Dali uses the water of the river to reflect the double image. Another painting of Dali was Metamorphosis of Narcissus in which he used the refection of the narcissus thus creating double images of the shape of his hand on the right-hand side of the painting. The dimensions of the painting Swans Reflecting Elephants were 51 cm × 77 cm or 20.08 in × 30.31 in.

 

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