The Essential Salvador Dali [Hardcover]

Robert Goff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Essential Series | Publication Date: September 1998

Salvador Dali' was one of the great Surrealist painters of the 20th century. Images of his work hang in college dorm rooms and major museums worldwide. What nerve did he tap, and why did he become so famous?

What is the story behind: the melting watches/the tabloids and rock stars, the money and excess/the constant publicity stunts?the rep as genius, fraud, madman, artist, egomaniac?the blend of religious and sexual images?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you've ever doubted that good things come in small packages, take a look at the pocket-sized books in the Essentials series, which include volumes devoted to Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, and Edward Hopper. It's clear that the book's designers had some fun with the material, both visual and textural. Key words are italicized for the student reader. Quotations labeled "sound bytes" are highlighted with strips of color. There are rubrics every few paragraphs, so you can review "What's So Great About Salvador Dali" or "Phalluses, Crutches, William Tell: Authority Figures," if you're looking for something to toss into a conversation at a gallery opening. The pictures range from one-inch reproductions of not-so-important images to clear, large details of key works.

Salvador Dali, the Spanish surrealist who died in 1989 after a long period of misery, comes off as a truly tortured soul in Robert Goff's sympathetic text. The book is designed to give a quick dip into the sea of surrealism, and its manic design is perfect for the artistic Cliff Notes crowd--smart teens discovering culture, young professionals looking for more than stock quotes in their lives, or even cognoscenti with gaps in their art history education. But Goff goes deeper than all of that. He accurately and kindly conveys Dali's prodigious natural talent, his psychosexual torment, his obsession with masturbation, his heterosexual ambivalence, and his profound attachment to his beloved wife, Gala, described as a shrew and a trollop. In the end, the book succeeds in giving a rounded view of an artist whose surrealist antics sometimes obscured his strange genius. --Peggy Moorman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Harry N Abrams (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0836269969
• ISBN-13: 978-0836269963
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,802,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small, Affordable, and Surprisingly Dense with Paintings, December 2, 1999

By 

Kevin Nieman "Writer / Provocateur" (Thousand Oaks, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Salvador Dali (Hardcover)

If you're looking for an introduction to Dali's works, this is a fine starting point. It features most of his most popular works, and a biography of his life. It's a wonderful teaching tool, and it's also a great gift for the artistically inclined. If you know a Dali fan, but you are working on a budget, this is the perfect book for you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Biographical Bravo!, February 20, 2000

By 

Adam Brown - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Salvador Dali (Hardcover)

The Essential Salvador Dali is exactly what the title stresses; everything that you need to know about the life and times of Dali without all the drab fillings that seem to thrive in recently written biographical reference titles. The book makes a point of telling the reader the important facts about Dali's life as well as analyzing some of his more important paintings and placing in various qoutes and facts to keep the reader interested. It also gives a clear explanation of the terms that would otherwise be unfamiliar to those who were not exactly surrealist veterans. The book will indeed prove itself a worthy resource for study as well as an entertaining tabletop reader.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dali true, February 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Essential Salvador Dali (Hardcover)

This is a book for anyone who want to begin to explore the interesting word of Surrealism. The book is informative, clear and greatly written. A great book to have.