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Why Salvador Dalí had a mustache, and more
by Jillian Wagner
News Editor
News | 3/11/08
Posted online at 4:23 AM EST on 3/11/08
/ Last updated at 7:02 PM EST on 3/11/08
Brandeis welcomed Dartmouth College language scholar José del Pino last Monday for a presentation on the life and mind of famed surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.
Del Pino, the chairman of the department of Spanish and Portuguese and a Spanish professor at Dartmouth College, spoke before almost 50 students and faculty members in the Shiffman Humanities Center in a lecture titled "Surrealism and Psychedelia."
"If you are not that interested, it's because it's my fault. It is not because of the great and controversial Salvador Dalí," del Pino said to open his speech.
The discussion was structured in a chronological fashion, beginning with Dalí's early career as an Impressionist and leading up to his later surrealist style. Del Pino showed the audience various paintings, film clips, and other related pictures by Salvador Dalí.
Del Pino analyzed Dalí's obsession with Sigmund Freud. He said that many of Dalí's surrealist paintings were based on his dreams, which Dalí believed were just as important as reality.
According to del Pino, Dalí met Freud in 1948 in London. Dalí put his dissertation on the table in front of Freud to hear Freud's opinion. "Freud said that Dalí was 'a prototype of a Spaniard,'" he said. "'He's a fanatic.' And Dalí was very proud."
Del Pino said that Dalí considered himself "a genius, clairvoyant and a surrealist explorer of the subconscious."
Throughout the presentation, del Pino reiterated that Dalí made sure to remove himself from the political sphere. During World War II, Dalí was fascinated by the psychiatric reading of Adolf Hitler's mind. "He was fascinated with fascism, which did not necessarily mean that he embraced it," del Pino said. "Dalí liked Franco, Stalin and the Kaisers; he loved the paintings of these eccentrics, of people he considered to be Prophets, missionaries. He was attracted to this touch of this craziness and irrationality."
Dalí wore mustaches because he was inspired by dictators who wore them, del Pino explained.
"The content of the presentation was very interesting," attendee Julie Goodman '11 said. "I especially liked the pictures and movie clips del Pino showed; they were strange and unexpected but really cool." She also said, "I found it interesting that Dalí was an influential precursor to the pop art era. We think of Andy Warhol as a pioneer, but Dalí had many unconventional ideas first."
Del Pino, the chairman of the department of Spanish and Portuguese and a Spanish professor at Dartmouth College, spoke before almost 50 students and faculty members in the Shiffman Humanities Center in a lecture titled "Surrealism and Psychedelia."
"If you are not that interested, it's because it's my fault. It is not because of the great and controversial Salvador Dalí," del Pino said to open his speech.
The discussion was structured in a chronological fashion, beginning with Dalí's early career as an Impressionist and leading up to his later surrealist style. Del Pino showed the audience various paintings, film clips, and other related pictures by Salvador Dalí.
Del Pino analyzed Dalí's obsession with Sigmund Freud. He said that many of Dalí's surrealist paintings were based on his dreams, which Dalí believed were just as important as reality.
According to del Pino, Dalí met Freud in 1948 in London. Dalí put his dissertation on the table in front of Freud to hear Freud's opinion. "Freud said that Dalí was 'a prototype of a Spaniard,'" he said. "'He's a fanatic.' And Dalí was very proud."
Del Pino said that Dalí considered himself "a genius, clairvoyant and a surrealist explorer of the subconscious."
Throughout the presentation, del Pino reiterated that Dalí made sure to remove himself from the political sphere. During World War II, Dalí was fascinated by the psychiatric reading of Adolf Hitler's mind. "He was fascinated with fascism, which did not necessarily mean that he embraced it," del Pino said. "Dalí liked Franco, Stalin and the Kaisers; he loved the paintings of these eccentrics, of people he considered to be Prophets, missionaries. He was attracted to this touch of this craziness and irrationality."
Dalí wore mustaches because he was inspired by dictators who wore them, del Pino explained.
"The content of the presentation was very interesting," attendee Julie Goodman '11 said. "I especially liked the pictures and movie clips del Pino showed; they were strange and unexpected but really cool." She also said, "I found it interesting that Dalí was an influential precursor to the pop art era. We think of Andy Warhol as a pioneer, but Dalí had many unconventional ideas first."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Jimi Hewson
posted 11/14/08 @ 10:06 PM EST
Inspired by dictators! Classic! There's no doubt that Salvador Dali was a complex and controversial character. On Dal?'s personality, George Orwell once remarked that 'one ought to be able to hold in one's head simultaneously the two facts, that Dal? is a good draughtsman and a disgusting human being, the one does not invalidate or, in a sense, affect the other. (Continued…)
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