Merry Christmas
from your old Uncle Sal!
On his first visit, in 1934, Salvador Dali was so happy to be in the United States (his fascist pals back in Europe were proving ruder than he’d expected) that he churned out all kinds of cheerful, delightful art.
It helped, of course, that the news media were nuts about him. He repaid their fascination by laying another of his celebrated eggs. (Yes, that’s really him in the beard and cap.)
In “Allegory of an American Christmas”, above, the egg makes a return appearance following “Illumined Pleasures”, and it’s hatching a new idea, as it would again in “The Metamorphosis of Narcissus”.
Dark clouds roil the suspense and figures gaze upward hopefully from a bleak landscape as an airplane emerges from the egg, from just about where New York sits. Dali was afraid of flying, so perhaps he had in mind Santa’s airborne arrival.
Eight years later he was back in the spirit. “Christmas” is much more traditional, possibly overly so. The trees are decked and baubles dangle from a classic Dalinean archway in an almost mirror image, accented with the shadow of an angel and a pair of buttressed columns with noses and lips that could almost by harps.
Ths was, after all, about the same time Dali was clowning around with Harpo Marx. Maybe this was the Christmas card Sal sent him.
I’ve tried all day to get thru and it is telling me it has sent me a passwoed but when i go to my mail there hasn’t been nothing nor a password sent to me.I have 2 pictures of Whisttler’s mother.But I haven’t had no lock in being able to get no where.Please can you please help me to beable to get a password.Thank you for your time.
Hi, Virginia. I’ve just logged out and tested the registration procedure and received an email with a password immediately. I can only suggest that a system glitch blocked you the first time. I also noticed that the clickable links under “Curious?” are really too close together, so I’ll put some space between them ASAP. Look forward to seeing the pictures!