Sunday Dalí: The Endless Enigma, 1938. Oil on canvas. Gift from Dalí to the country of Spain.
Want to have a paranoiac-critical experience (sort-of) like Dalí could? Here, I’ll help.1
Inside this painting are six separate images, interwoven and laid atop one another.
A Reclining Philosopher.
A Greyhound.
A Mythological Beast
The Face of the Great One-Eyed Moron.
Mandolin, Fruit Dish, and Figs on a Table.
Woman Mending a Sail Seen from the Back.
When combined, a few other elements become apparent. The top-level image contains a dead branch with a tiny umbrella hanging off it. On top the the brach is a small fish. The right side has the peering eyes of Gala. The combined images create the appearance of a face with a bow tied around its head. The eye rapidly oscillates between the whole and the individual images, creating what Dalí called, “a mental crisis” in the viewer. You are having a paranoiac-critical experience!
Another interesting and unifying point within this work is the “subjects.” Not only are there many of them, but they span numerous genres of typical painting subjects:
- Reclining nude.
- Animals.
- Mythology and mythological creatures.
- Portrait.
- Still life.
- Scene with common work being performed.
Dalí was not just combining several different paintings into one, he was essentially combining all of painting into one single canvas.
