Sleep ~ Salvador Dali

Dali, one of the best known surrealist painters, had his own unique style of surreal work. He had very exaggerating, striking paintings, and often left the viewer confused as to what his message might be from the image. When I look at his paintings, I start off feeling confused and I usually have to stare at it for at least 5 minutes to figure out what is present in the scene. He seemed to have a habit of twisting random objects together, and make everything chaotic, but still make it work. To be able to do what he did truly requires a very broad imagination. His eccentric manner in which he painted was what got him a lot of attention at first, rather than his work. He got a lot of his inspiration from the Dada movements. He used his random objects as symbolism in his work.... Veeery unique symbolism.

In this painting, "Sleep," which he painted in 1937, Dali shows a subject which many surrealists were familiar with; dreams. He and other surrealists felt that the mind during sleep is very valuable and the images one gets from dreams are very precious, because it can give one a chance to see into another world. This head, which is oddly shaped like a foot, is propped up by what appears to be abunch of wooden crutches. I have noticed Dali tended to use crutches a lot in his paintings. I found it odd for the crutches to be holding the mouth, nose and eyes; it made me cringe to feel the sensation. I think the fact that those specific parts of the face are being held suggests that the head would disintegrate if the crutches were moved. ANother way to interpret that would be thinking of how one moves during sleeping and their dream changes, and they flinch. According to Dali, "Sleep is a heavy monster that is held up by the crutches of reality."