Swans Reflecting Elephants Free Essay Example, 750 words

Swans Reflecting Elephants Salvador Dali is one of the most well-known s not only in the Surrealism movement, but in the general world of art. Even after his death, his artistic influence and his astounding paintings continue to be recognized, discussed, and used as examples of what it means to be a surrealist artist. Swans Reflecting Elephants, one of Dali’s most intriguing paintings, is not only representational of Surrealism, but is an epitome of who Dali was as an artist. In this piece, Dali utilized the technique that he coined the paranoid-critical method, as well as introduced the concept of double images. It is the strain on the mind that is required to make sense of this piece that makes it, and Dali, truly surreal. Salvador Dali was a Spanish Surrealist painter who was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Catalonia. Dali honed his artistic talent from a very young age, having been encouraged by his mother. Dali attended drawing school and his charcoal pieces were the first to be displayed to the public. When he was eighteen years old, Dali studied at the Academia de San Fernando, during which he through himself into painting; his unique interpretation of Cubism made him popular among his peers. We will write a custom essay sample on Swans Reflecting Elephants or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now As Dali got older, he experimented more with Surrealism until he had created a style that was uniquely his own. He painted his most famous work, The Persistence of Memory, when he was twenty-seven years old, and his works that came after stayed true to this bizarre and significant style. Though Dali died on January 23, 1989 from heart failure, his legacy continues to live on. Swans Reflecting Elephants is similar to a brain teaser, or an optical illusion, which is what Dali was aiming at when he painted this piece. At first glance, the painting seems to consist of three swans sitting on a lake. They are surrounded by leafless trees, suggesting that the painting takes place in autumn, and some cliffs, and a few stray clouds drift across the sky. Despite the washed-out appearance of the colors, it is a very serene image. However, the closer that one looks at the painting, the more of the subject matter that they can make out. While the image is clearly that of swans sitting on a lake, a second, more closer examination of the piece reveals that the swans and the trees behind them reflect elephants on the lake. The bare trees become the legs of the elephants and the swans become their trunks and bodies. The perfect placement of the trees and swans allow for this double image, essentially offering two paintings, or two stories, in one. In his Swans Reflecting Elephants, Salvador Dali wanted to show that life is not always what it seems at first glance. His use of the double image, with the swans fading so seamlessly into elephants, reveals that our perception can pick up on aspects or features of life that are not immediately recognizable. This is similar to finding constellations among a smattering of stars, or picking out images or designs in the stucco of walls. Our eyes are capable of finding more than just the original image. Furthermore, Dali gives evidence as to how simple it is to make a new image or scene out of something else. In this case, Dali, using his paranoid-critical method, found elephants among the reflections of trees and swans. If, instead of a painting, Dali went to a lake with swans and stared long enough, his mind might have come up with the same scene in his painting, the same reflections. Again, Dali is showing that there is more to this world than meets the eye, or what is immediately evident. I feel that this image is a perfect example of what it means to be an artist - finding something new among the mundanity of the world. I find Swans Reflecting Elephants to be a very intriguing painting. Without having to add additional features to the swans and trees, Dali was able to create elephants from their reflections. By not altering the original image to compensate for the double image, Dali makes this painting realistic. I feel that if someone were to set up swans perfectly on a lake beneath trees, in a fashion similar to the painting, they would accomplish this same reflection. Dali not only succeeded in painting this double image, but I believe that he was successful in accurately portraying how the human mind is capable of working. I also appreciate the fact that this is a painting that needs to be examined. While I could look at it briefly and have a vague understanding of the subject matter, this is a painting that becomes significantly more incredible the longer one inspects it and the more they take in the utilization of the double image. Salvador Dali has become a household name. Even for those who are not familiar with the majority of his works, there are quite a few that people simply know certain pieces as belonging to Dali. His style was unique, even to Surrealist standards, and Swans Reflecting Elephants is a prime example of this. Dali was able to take something as mundane as swans sitting on a lake and turn it into an astounding, thought-provoking image. In this way, Dali stood, and still stands for, what it means to be both a surrealist and an artist.