Sunday Dalí: Paranoiac Critical Solitude, 1935.

During 1935 and 1936, Dalí’s repetition and use of elements which are completely out of place is remarkable. Here the desired effect is obtained with the maximum of force, and the minimum of means. Dalí has taken a small piece of desolate landscape with some rocks. Into his decor, he has placed an automobile, or rather a wreck of an automobile overgrown and half-covered with flowering plants, and then has incorporated the machine into the rocky crags, through which a hole has been pierced. Next, in a paranoiac manner, he has divided the image in two by repeating it on the left part of the rock while scrupulously re-creating the silhouette of the vehicle, impressed in the hollow of the rock, of which a piece, cut out in the same shape as the hole on the right, appears suspended in front. The optical uneasiness of this picture stems from the contradiction which exists between the piece of rock on the left in relief and the empty space in the rock on the right, which itself seems clearly in front of the car. Paranoiac-Critical Solitude was painted on olive wood in Port Lligat.

(via dali-gallery)