Dali - The King of Surrealism

Dali - The King of Surrealism (DVD) (*)

~~$29.99~~ $26.98

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
English ( Subtitles )
Italian ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
Italian ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
45 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2010 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Salvador Dali

Written By:
Salvador Dali

Actors:
Salvador Dali

Synopsis:

Explore the incredible works and extraordinary life of the surrealist master. He was an immense talent who relished the spotlight. An artist whose imagination soared beyond the canvas, he tried his hand at everything from fashion to film. With his impeccable attire and trademark mustache, Salvador Dali cut an unforgettable figure in 20th century art. A master cubist and the most influential of all the surrealists, he later worked with movie legends Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney. Filled with colorful recollections from those who knew him best, this captivating portrait traces his career from his first exhibition (at the age of 13) to the halls of the world's great museums.

Born May 11, 1904, Figueras, Spain-died Jan. 23, 1989, Figueras. Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker, influential for his explorations of subconscious imagery. As an art student in Madrid and Barcelona, Dalí assimilated a vast number of artistic styles and displayed unusual technical facility as a painter. It was not until the late 1920s, however, that two events brought about the development of his mature artistic style: his discovery of Sigmund Freud's writings on the erotic significance of subconscious imagery, and his affiliation with the Paris Surrealists, a group of artists and writers who sought to establish the 'greater reality' of man's subconscious over his reason. To bring up images from his subconscious mind, Dalí began to induce hallucinatory states in himself by a process he described as 'paranoiac critical.' Once Dalí hit on this method, his painting style matured with extraordinary rapidity, and from 1929 to 1937 he produced the paintings which made him the world's best-known Surrealist artist. He depicted a dream world in which commonplace objects are juxtaposed, deformed, or otherwise metamorphosed in a bizarre and irrational fashion. Dalí portrayed these objects in meticulous, almost painfully realistic detail and usually placed them within bleak, sunlit landscapes that were reminiscent of his Catalonian homeland. Perhaps the most famous of these enigmatic images is 'The Persistence of Memory' (1931), in which limp, melting watches rest in an eerily calm landscape. With the Spanish director Luis Buñuel, Dalí also made two Surrealistic films- Un Chien andalou (1928; An Andalusian Dog) and L'Âge d'or (1930; The Golden Age)-that are similarly filled with grotesque but highly suggestive images. In the late 1930s Dalí switched to painting in a more academic style under the influence of the Renaissance painter Raphael, and as a consequence he was expelled from the Surrealist movement. Thereafter he spent much of his time designing theatre sets, interiors of fashionable shops, and jewelry, as well as exhibiting his genius for flamboyant self-promotional stunts in the United States, where he lived from 1940 to 1955. In the period from 1950 to 1970 Dalí painted many works with religious themes, though he continued to explore erotic subjects, to represent childhood memories, and to use themes centring on his wife, Gala. Notwithstanding their technical accomplishments, these later paintings are not as highly regarded as the artist's earlier works. The most interesting and revealing of Dalí's books is The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942-44).

Salvador Dali participated in the first exhibition at the age of 13. At 18 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid where he met Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Bunuel and discovered Cubism. Expelled for saying that the teachers were not prepared to judge him, he moved to Paris. Here he joined the surrealists quickly became the leading exponent of the new movement. Inspired by Gala, his muse and then wife, who promotes it skillfully, he launches into new forms of artistic expression, moving to the United States. His work becomes, thanks to Gala, a big business.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 05 February, 2013.