Dali: The Salvador Dali Museum Collection (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This compact yet dazzling album, based on the collection of the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., serves as an idea point of entry into the Dalian universe. Even in the early, representational, color-drenched paintings (1917-1927), one senses Dali's "violent passion for the exterior world." Then comes the sudden plunge into the irrational (1927-1928), followed by a succession of surrealist canvases in which the Catalan prestidigitator purges his fantasies, fears and obsessions. Lubar, an art professor at New York University, argues that Dali (1904-1989), too often dismissed as a reactionary, "sought nothing less than the liberation of desire through a critique of language and visuality." Judging by the evidence here, Dali's watercolors deserve to be as well known as his oils, and his sensitive, poised drawings give his febrile imagination free rein without the grandiloquence that mars some of the paintings.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The painting collection of the Salvador Dal! Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, is reproduced here and accompanied by a text from New York University fine arts professor Lubar. The essay breaks little new ground but does a good job of compiling and summarizing information from earlier publications, most notably Ian Gibson's The Shameful Life of Salvador Dal! (LJ 1/99), Dal!'s The Secret Life of Salvador Dal! (1942), and The Collected Writings of Salvador Dal! (Cambridge Univ., 1999). The book is most notable for the 94 full-color illustrations encompassing new acquisitions and other notable holdings. Included are several of Dal!'s best-known works and a large number of early canvasses from the 1920s. Given Dal!'s continuing popularity, this can be recommended for public and academic libraries. Kathryn Wekselman, M.Ln., Cincinnati
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch (September 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821224808
• ISBN-13: 978-0821224809
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 11 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #438,483 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully Dali, March 2, 2001

By A Customer

If you have any space left on your coffee-table, this is the perfect art book for you! Rarely do you ever find a more complete presentation of Dali's works, both popular and private, in a single volume. This collection presents both the whimsy and the nightmares that are characteristic of his work, giving an accurate depiction of his range. If you thought Dali was just another haunted artist, the paintings in this book will reveal his gift for humor as well. Filled with insightful comments by Lubar, this book is a great compilation for anyone interested in Dali.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dali on the Beach, June 23, 2006

By	Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Dali: The Salvador Dali Museum Collection (Paperback)

On a recent family visit I had the great fortune to visit the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. This excellent book cataloguing the museum's collection then makes for a very nice souvenir, of course--but it easily stands outside of this immediate context as a fine art book in its own right.

The main feature of the book is definitely the 94 large, carefully reproduced color illustrations of Dali's paintings held by the museum. These range from some of his earliest works in the late 1910's to his large scale masterpiece "The Hallucinogenic Toreador" of 1969. I had never seen the earlier works before, and these show some of his first halting steps and experiments as an aspiring artist and the gradual evolution of his distinctive style. Among all 94 illustrations there is a good mix of famous classics you've seen a million times and lesser known gems that are equally intriguing. And each illustration comes with a commentary by Robert Lubar that clarifies the painting, its significance and symbolism, and its context and place within Dali's artistic development over the years with great eloquence without explaining the picture away.

Lubar's Introduction (with 9 interesting black & white illustrations) makes for a nice, brief overview of the artist's life and career, and the Biographical Chronology in the back includes several photographs of Dali through the years (including him with the founders of the museum). There are other useful tidbits too for the serious art historian and Dali specialist.

In short, even if you haven't been to the Dali Museum, this is an excellent coffee-table book of weird, whimsical, and wondrous surreal art by one of the twentieth century's greatest and most eccentric artists.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars detailed informative book on the genius of art, December 7, 2005

By	myownme777 (avon park, florida) - See all my reviews

i bought this book at the amazing salvador dali museum in st.petersburgh florida which i strongly recommend in itself.this the book of some of salvador dali's works on display at the museum is a detailed look into the life of the man and the myth. with each work is a detailed explanation describing their meanings and what dali was up to during the time of their production.i am grateful for having read this book as dali is my all-time favorite artist.with this book i've learned more about him and his works' meanings,in which i'm sure all of us have taken for granted.i knew that alot of dali's work is based upon sexuality but never knew before how freudian it all really is.the book explains dali's deep fascination with sigmund freud's writings and beliefs and they come out within his work.if you've never experienced THE man before and appreciate art than this is a good source.if you have the chance visit the salvador dali museum in st.pete,fl.with any look they will be showing the brilliant short film that dali made with another brilliant mind luis bunuel called,"Un Chien Andalou."