Dali's Optical Illusions (Hardcover)

by Dawn Ades (Editor), Antonio Pinchot (Contributor), Peter C. Sutton (Contributor), Mr. Eric Zafran (Contributor) "Sigmund Freud was one of many who have been dazzled, whether in admiration or with disapproval, by Dali's virtuosity as a painter..." (more)
Key Phrases: surrealist exhibition, surrealist painting, double images, New York, Julien Levy, Salvador Dali (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
"If you compare me with any classical painter whatsoever, then I'm an absolute nonentity," confessed Salvador Daliin his late years. The statement is particularly ironic given Dali's status as one of the most original twentieth-century artists and the twentieth-century artists' general disregard for the masters. But Dali, of course, was never one to run with the crowd. In fact, Dalibuilt his extraordinary technical repertoire by studying the ancient masters of perspective and applying what he had learned to create canvases of his own mad visions. As the writers explain in this collection, Dali's experiments with perspectives were all-encompassing. The catalog examines his study of conventional forms of perspective in Dutch and Italian art, as well as his play with anamorphosisthe perspectival distortion that produces on the canvas elongated forms demanding an oblique viewpoint--such as in The Enigma of William Tell. It also examines Dali's own invention of the "paranoiac-critical method," which produced the famous double image that can be "read" in multiple ways, such as in Apparition of the Face. The exhibition catalog contains 109 color and 61 black-and-white illustrations of Dali's fantastic optical illusions. Veronica Scrol

Product Description
Fascinated with optical effects and visual perception, Salvador Dali created paintings of gripping intensity and astonishing variety. This book focuses on Dali`s use of such pictorial techniques as distorted perspective, double images, and three-dimensional illusions, as well as photographs and holograms, to explore perception, perspective, and the ways that optical illusion affects our sense of reality.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300081774
• ISBN-13: 978-0300081770
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #596,844 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must" for all Salvador Dali fans., April 4, 2000

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Dali's Optical Illusions is the first to probe Dali's fascination with optical effects and perception, packing in examples of Dali's works and commenting on his sources, inspiration, and methods. Accompanying discussions to each page of illustration comment on technique, inspiration, and visual impact of Deli's images. Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars History of art, July 4, 2009

By	A.L.vandenBerg - See all my reviews

Nice overview: the work of Dali and a specific part of the art of painting i.e. the problem of 2 = 3. Perspicere on a two-dimensional painting.

4.0 out of 5 stars Now you see it ..., November 19, 2007

By	Cecil Bothwell "Author of Pure Bunkum" (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This opulently illustrated investigation of Salvador Dali's work and thought looks at the mad master's painting from a new angle. (Some would doubtless argue that any angle from which one views his art is likely to be new.) Dawn Ades has assembled a grand tour of Dali's ideas, influences, biography, loves, fears, friendships and experiments, to offer further insight into a complex intelligence. The paintings, sketches and photographs she draws upon are apt and illuminating. Though I once played at being a painter and have read widely about the arts, I am not an art student and do not speak the language of the cognesceti. Notwithstanding my naivete, I here offer my own angle on modernist art. Twentieth century art can be fairly neatly divided into two piles: pre-Warhol and post-. In the old days the institutions of art were important: acceptance by a School, the right museums, the right collectors and patrons. Within that structure most arttists conformed and a few broke out to dazzle the world. No matter how far visual artists pushed the envelope into abstraction (pointilism, impressionism, cubism, fauvism, surrealism, and so forth) they were grounded in technical excellence. Any of the masters could paint an apple so perfectly that you would want to take a bite. Post-Warhol, which I use not only in reference to the man but to the sea change he rode (easy reproduction, duplication, electronic media -- all following on the heels of photography), everything was turned on its head. The institutions lost control, idea superceded technique, photography devalued representational art, notoriety bumped-off intellect ... even paint was suddenly cheap after Germany lost the Second World War and its dominance of the chemical colorant and plastics industries. Anyone could do art and everyone does. Anyone with an Apple can make a byte. I find the parallel to electronic publishing inescapable. When printing was expensive the institutions controlled access. Publishers and editors controlled the flow and writers had to follow it. Today printing is cheap, both on paper and in pixels, and the institutions have lost much of their sway. The emergent problem in both cases is for the audience. When a few Schools of art, a few publishing houses, a few film studios, even a few TV networks controlled the spigot, what emerged was apt to have some merit. Without that institutional control we face a torrent. Post-Warhol there is a lot more bad art. (If I have herewith condemned the Soupletter, so be it.) Dali's art is a reminder that just being clever and different is not sufficient. You have got to be good to be famous for more than fifteen minutes.