Dali does Dante
Yesterday Brother and I went to the Loveland Art Museum to see their Dali exhibit, which was really more along the lines of 'Dali does Dante' since it consisted primarily of his images of for each canto of Dante's work. Some really interesting, visionary, stuff.
It reminded me a great deal of the William Blake exhibit I saw at the Met my first year in New York.They even briefly explored the printing techniques required to print each image. Many of the Dali illustrations took up to thirty-some impressions to capture each of the elements. By far the most amazing part of the Blake exhibit was seeing some of his plates and the tools he used to carve out the negative spaces to make impressions. Prior to Blake most printing of images was done by etching into a flat plate. Blake did not believe in 'the blank slate' so he created something more akin to stamps for his illustrations, not only resulting in sharper impressions, but longer lasting plates. For some reason, this brought an insight to his work that I had never experienced before.
Looking at Dali's work and thinking about comparisons to Blake made me wonder what Dali's spirit world might look like should he take the trouble of inventing one. Brother told me that while most the museum notes went on about Surrealism with which Dali is most easily associated, that the works we were looking at most likely post-dated his affiliation with the Surrealist movement. He told me that after WWII Dali returned to Catholicism and was summarily rejected by the rest of the surrealists. Likewise, he had been criticized for living in his native Spain (Catalonia) while it was under Franco's rule. Even the work we were looking at---originally commissioned by the Italian government---had been dropped due to the outcry of a Spaniard illustrating an Italian national treasure. He completed the work, nevertheless, and had them printed in France.
For my part, looking at the works of such an notorious artist illustrating the works of an iconic author... well, it gave me a new found respect for an artist I'd often viewed as a sensationalist. I went through a Dali phase in my mid-teens, but that's because I enjoyed his trippy images as though they were posters from a headshop. I don't think I ever really stopped to appreciate it as art or conveying anything beyond 'whoa, that's fuckin' weird!'
But I also wondered as I overheard conversations among the other visitors to the museum if most of them had any context for the work as illustration or if they were just looking at images as completely separate from the literary work. Most of them tended to think that Virgil was a girl ("He can't help looking like a girl anymore than he can help being born before Christ!" I joked to my brother.) And the interpretations of the sins/sinners themselves, was also telling.
Brother said, "I think the point that people miss with Dante is that the punishments aren't merely poetic justice, but a continuation of the sin itself. The punishment of the sin is the sin itself---for all eternity---with no chance for reprieve from the behavior."
In any case, yesterday was the last day for the exhibit, so you will not have a chance to see it yourself. However, here is a link to a gallery, which has many of the prints:
http://www.lockportstreetgallery.com/DivineComedy.htm
Also, here is a set of decompositions that they have highlighting the printing process:
http://www.lockportstreetgallery.com/DCdecomposition.htm
Also on display were several prints from:
* Alice in Wonderland,
* Don Quixote,
* and some huge paintings from Alchimie des Philosophes.
Also a series of Phiippe Halsman's photographic portraits of Dali on loan from CU.
It reminded me a great deal of the William Blake exhibit I saw at the Met my first year in New York.They even briefly explored the printing techniques required to print each image. Many of the Dali illustrations took up to thirty-some impressions to capture each of the elements. By far the most amazing part of the Blake exhibit was seeing some of his plates and the tools he used to carve out the negative spaces to make impressions. Prior to Blake most printing of images was done by etching into a flat plate. Blake did not believe in 'the blank slate' so he created something more akin to stamps for his illustrations, not only resulting in sharper impressions, but longer lasting plates. For some reason, this brought an insight to his work that I had never experienced before.
Looking at Dali's work and thinking about comparisons to Blake made me wonder what Dali's spirit world might look like should he take the trouble of inventing one. Brother told me that while most the museum notes went on about Surrealism with which Dali is most easily associated, that the works we were looking at most likely post-dated his affiliation with the Surrealist movement. He told me that after WWII Dali returned to Catholicism and was summarily rejected by the rest of the surrealists. Likewise, he had been criticized for living in his native Spain (Catalonia) while it was under Franco's rule. Even the work we were looking at---originally commissioned by the Italian government---had been dropped due to the outcry of a Spaniard illustrating an Italian national treasure. He completed the work, nevertheless, and had them printed in France.
For my part, looking at the works of such an notorious artist illustrating the works of an iconic author... well, it gave me a new found respect for an artist I'd often viewed as a sensationalist. I went through a Dali phase in my mid-teens, but that's because I enjoyed his trippy images as though they were posters from a headshop. I don't think I ever really stopped to appreciate it as art or conveying anything beyond 'whoa, that's fuckin' weird!'
But I also wondered as I overheard conversations among the other visitors to the museum if most of them had any context for the work as illustration or if they were just looking at images as completely separate from the literary work. Most of them tended to think that Virgil was a girl ("He can't help looking like a girl anymore than he can help being born before Christ!" I joked to my brother.) And the interpretations of the sins/sinners themselves, was also telling.
Brother said, "I think the point that people miss with Dante is that the punishments aren't merely poetic justice, but a continuation of the sin itself. The punishment of the sin is the sin itself---for all eternity---with no chance for reprieve from the behavior."
In any case, yesterday was the last day for the exhibit, so you will not have a chance to see it yourself. However, here is a link to a gallery, which has many of the prints:
http://www.lockportstreetgallery.com/DivineComedy.htm
Also, here is a set of decompositions that they have highlighting the printing process:
http://www.lockportstreetgallery.com/DCdecomposition.htm
Also on display were several prints from:
* Alice in Wonderland,
* Don Quixote,
* and some huge paintings from Alchimie des Philosophes.
Also a series of Phiippe Halsman's photographic portraits of Dali on loan from CU.