Dali's Mustache (Hardcover)

by Salvador Dali (Author), Philippe Halsman (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Warning! This book is preposterous," says the back cover. This collaboration between the flamboyant Spanish painter and the Latvian-born portraitist is also a surrealistic work of art. Halsman understood the extroverted Dali better than any other photographer; their talents and personalities were the perfect complement to each other. In the course of this witty and inventive homage, the artist's celebrated whiskers tie themselves in a knot, are pressed into service as a paintbrush, become the hands of a clock and blemish the face of the Mona Lisa.

Product Description
With 101 Life magazine covers to his credit, Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) was one of the leading portrait photographers of his time. In addition to his distinguished career in photojournalism, Halsman was one of the great pioneers of experimental photography, motivated by a profound desire to push this youngest of art forms toward new frontiers by using innovative and unorthodox photographic techniques.

One of Halsman's favorite subjects was Salvarod Dali, the glittering and controversial painter and theorist with whom the photographer shared a unique friendship and extraordinary professional collaboration that spanned over thirty years. Whenever Dali imagined a photograph so strange that its production seemed impossible, Halsman tried to find the solution, and invariably succeeded.

As Halsman explains in his postface, Dali's Mustache is the fruit of this marriage of the minds. The jointly conceived and seemingly nonsensical questions and answers reveal the gleeful humor and assumed cynicism for which Dali is famous, while the marvelous and inspired images of Dali's mustache brilliantly display Halsman's consummate skill and extraordinary inventiveness as a photographer.

This combination of wit, absurdity, and the offhandedly profound is irresistible and has contributed to the enduring fascination inspired by this unique photographic interview, which has become a cult classic and valuable collector's item since its original publication in 1954. The present volume faithfully reproduces the first edition and will introduce a new generation to the irreverent humor and imaginative genius of two great artists.


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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Flammarion (January 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2080135600
• ISBN-13: 978-2080135605
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #816,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Photographs, May 27, 2000

By	"[e-mail]" (Texas) - See all my reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed the photos in this book, but that is all there was to it. There are about 40 really great photos of Dali doing strange things with his mustache. It is certainly not, as I was led to believe by the other reviewer, a novel. One can easily read the whole book in just a few minutes. It is called a photographic interview and just has some questions, each followed by a crazy photo with a caption.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful little book, December 6, 2004

By	Johny Bottom "Insane and lonely guitarist" (Jacksonville, NC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This book is mainly pictures of Salvador Dali's mustache in different poses. His whiskers have stand straight up, go straight out, and everything in between. There is some some dialogue that is nothing more than questions and answers. For instance, it is asked why Dali paints. On the next page his mustache is shaped like an 'S' and there are two paint brushes running across his face to complete the dollar sign '$'.

I love this book because I am a big fan of Dali. Also my daughter has come to love it and usually asks for this book for her bedtime story. It makes her giggle because some of the pictures are just so strange. Although the picture of Dali as the Mona Lisa is quite disturbing.

The book can be read in under three minutes, but for fans of "The Dali" it can bring a lifetime of pleasure.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic journey into the strange world that is Dali., January 3, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Nebraska) - See all my reviews

A must have for all Salvador Dali fans and a definate collectors item. World famous photographer Philippe Halsman beautifully (and sometimes disturbingly) brings to life one of the greatest Dali obsessions of all time...his mustache. A funny and free-spirited trip into a crazy world. I highly recomend this novel for any enthusiast or someone with a taste for the bizarre. Painstainkingly produced. A masterpiece for all ages!