Salvador Dali Paintings

Symbolism in Salvador Dali Paintings

To state that Dali paintings abounded in symbolism would be stating the obvious. The hallmark of his paintings, the soft watches, is a suggestion of Einstein's theory of the relativity of time. The recurrent elephants are metaphors of space.

Some famous Salvador Dali Paintings

Listed below are some famous works from Dali's glittering oeuvre:

The Persistence of Memory (1931)

This is the most famous and recognized of Dali's works. It is also known as Soft Watches and Melting Clocks . The landscape of the Catalonian seashoer is the background for the depiction of the four soft,cheese textured clocks. This painting seems to suggest that time is not as rigid as it seems.

The Great Masturbator (1929)

The center of this painting has a distorted human face looking downwards. There is also a nude female figure enmeshed in this lump of limbs. The hint of fellatio makes this painting disturbingly sexual.

The painting seems to suggest Dali's conflicting attitude towards sex.

The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937)

This painting is based on the myth of Narcicuss , the Greek mythological figure who fell in love with his own reflection. Dali suggest the decadant nature of self love by placing a decaying stone figure which corresponds closely to Narcissus, next to him.

Salvador Dali Paintings are important documentation of the way of life of the 20 th Century and even though Dalí's eccentricity pervaded his life throughout his career it never managed to overshadow his brilliance. He is famous for having said "every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí."