Reflecting on Salvador Dali's Surrealism (years 7, 8, 9)

Picturing Dreams: Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali painted what he saw in his dreams and his inner mind. In this picture, we see the rocky cliffs of the Catalonian seashore in Spain, where Dali grew up. Yet everything seems strange. Clocks seem to be melting. A mysterious object sits in the centre of the painting. Some people think it is Dali’s face in profile. Do you see its long eyelashes and funny looking tongue? Others think it is a strange animal. Dali wanted his pictures to puzzle us. He left it up to us to decide what his pictures mean. As you can see, he painted his imaginary scenes with great detail. The soft objects and shadows look so real, it is as if we could step right into this dream world and touch them.

Imagine
Close your eyes and picture yourself travelling to this make-believe place. Open your eyes and imagine that this is where you landed.

  • Look all around. What do you see here?
  • What would it be like to be in this place?
  • Notice the clocks. What is unusual about them?
  • Why are the clocks soft? How would you explain this mystery?
  • Take a close look at the large object on the ground. What could it be?
  • Find a tree. What is strange about it?
  • Travel to the background of the picture. What do you see there?
  • What is the weather like in this place?
  • What time of day or night is it? How can you tell?
  • What other odd things do you see in this picture?
  • What about this place is like a dream?
  • Would you want to be in this picture? Why or why not?

Travel to the land of your dreams.





Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931,
Oil on canvas, 24.1 x 33cm


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