Dali, basic art series

Nobody made reality look stranger than Salvador Dalí. Painter, sculptor, filmmaker, writer, and flamboyant public figure, Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was a brand and phenomenon before either one of the concepts were even created. His work turned dreams into razor-sharp images and everyday objects into surreal icons.

From melting clocks to lobsters with telephones, Dalí called his canvases “hand-painted dream photographs”. He rendered the bizarre with meticulous precision, creating art that systematized confusion and dismantled reality. Beyond the easel, Dalí reinvented the role of the artist itself, staging himself as a persona, extending his vision into film, fashion, advertising, and printmaking, and making surrealism part of mass culture. Did you know that he designed the logo of the Chupa Chups lollipops!

This Taschen Basic Art book captures both the paintings and the personality, pairing high-quality reproductions with insightful writing in a beautifully made volume. It’s a thoughtful choice for design-conscious readers, a brilliant gift for art lovers, or simply the closest thing you can buy to a Dalí moustache in book form.

Taschen’s Basic Art series offers accessible, always beautifully illustrated introductions to key artists, movements, and architects, combining concise texts with rich visuals, perfect art history summaries.

• Author(s): Gilles Neret
• Size: 22 x 1 x 26,5 cm and 96 pages
• Published: 2015
• Language: English