There are many 'egoist' artist in history (think Alfred Hitchcock) but no-one can take over this catalan genius. Named moment arrived in my life a long time ago and since then, I had to realize not only is he a great painter but his writing skills are extraordinary as well.
I am a Picasso fanatic and am always sad to see that out of 10 books on artists in a bookstore at least 7 is about Dalí and only one is about Picasso but I am always thrilled to see that out of that 7 books at least 5 is actually written BY Dalí.
I could write and talk hours about his works and how much I love to have him as my 'private catalan teacher' (he often explains what this or that means in catalan) but this time I would only like to talk about his biography (or pseudo-biography??), The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí.
First of all, this anything but a usual bio but what could one expect from him, after all? It is filled with speeches that kind of glorify him in the loveliest way, for example:
"At the age of 6, I wanted to be a female cook. At 7, Napoleon. After that, my ambition just went on growing. I wanted to be Salvador Dali and nobody else."
Other wise words are also to be found in the book...:
"What is an elegant woman? An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and who has no hair under her arms."
But despite all of his self-adoring life, after (and, as he claims, even before) he had found Gala, his wife, life itself has changed. He remained to be in love with himself but he has stated countless times how much he loved Gala (once he said he loved her more than his parents; than he said he loved her so much, after she dies he'll eat her and so on).
If you want to read (or give a gift to someone, anyone), trust me, this one is a perfect choice. It is entertaining, witty, has great thoughts and introduces the life of one of the most influential and famous artists of the 20th century more authentically (okay, according to some, not really authentically but definitely wonderfully) than anyone else could do so - by Salvador Dalí himself.
1 comment:
I've never thought about it but Alfred Hitchcock does have a bit of a "cult of personality" going on in his stuff. Maybe that's because he has "cock" in his last name?
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