Review: "Dali's Classicism, Surrealism's Hijack"

Dr. Elliot King of the University of Essex, Colchester, England, left art students of Rhodes College in a surreal bliss of intellectual wonderment after his spectacular lecture “Dali’s Classicism, Surrealism’s Hijack” on Monday afternoon.

King commanded and integrated the room with his intellectual charm and wit behind his all too noticeable height and outstandingly vibrant spectacles. The art history scholar provided a unique perspective on the infamous Spanish painter Salvador Dali, proving quite effectively the lack of significant change between the artist’s self titled “Surreal” and “Classic” periods. Dali was once a member of the Surrealist group of the early twentieth century, led by Dadaist Andre Breton, but was rejected by his contemporaries due to inconsistencies in theoretical processes of the members.

Prior to King’s publications, the works of Dali’s “Classic” period were mostly disregarded by art scholars who found his association with the Surrealists much more interesting. This previously ignored phase, however, spanned the majority of Dali’s artistic career and was the setting for some of his most astonishing works. Though his most famous work is undoubtedly “Persistence of Memory” (also known as the melting clocks), from his Surrealist period, his work continued to reflect a Freudian inspired, three-dimensional, dreamlike quality until the end of his career. His later works increasingly incorporated religious and historical imagery and utilized double images for “surreal” effect.


Dali’s fantastical dreamscapes, however, were still shown through conventional methods of art composition, rather than the phallic, abstract approach preferred by the Surrealist group. In spite of his self-labeled classical style, Dali was recorded to have said that the only difference between him and the Surrealists was that he was a Surrealist. Whether by self-proclamation or actual development in his aesthetic processes, his move away from Surrealism is not obviously much of a progression. One could even claim that by separating himself from the Surrealist group and establishing his own form of dreamscape, Dali created his own branch of Surrealism, one that was better known and more greatly appreciated than the original.

Dali made surrealism a product for the world to cherish. He capitalized his paintings and style, taking the movement in his own direction away from the Bretonian Surrealist group that rejected him early in his career. Much like the Baroque split between the Carracci and the Caravaggesque painters, Dali split the surrealist movement and set his style as the standard for Surrealist imagery and theory at the time and in subsequent generations.

King’s vast knowledge of Dali raised new questions about how the artist viewed himself and his artwork, while also expanding the audiences understanding of the artist’s stylistic distinctions. Though he spoke of increasingly dense theoretical material, King’s presentation was as fun and interesting as the purple Venetian glasses that he sported, and Dali will hopefully be more appreciated in the future because his academic endeavors.