Autumnal Cannibalism, 1937
Salvador Dali (Figueres, 1904-1989)
Oil on cnvas, 65.1 x 65.1
Although many people think art should be beautiful and pleasing it has often dealt with ugliness, pain and horror. In the early part of the XXth century psychiatrists, especially Freud, tried to show how pleasure and pain, reason and unreason are linked together. One of their main techniques was the study of dreams. Surrealist artists like Dali have used these ideas to paint pictures.
The XXth century was a very violent one and horrifying events were brought to everyone´s attention in newspapers, magazines, television and art. "Autumnal Cannibalism" was painted in the year of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the artist said it represents the Spanish people devouring each other. In the background on the right, you can see a Spanish landscape burned by the sun, on the left a desert or beach. In the foreground, two revolting figures, which seem to be half-melted humans, are eating each other. One of them reaches right round the other and accidentally cuts into its own body. This one, on the left, with its paler skin and blouse open at the front is a woman; the other is a man. They are on a chest of drawers which is empty, or perhaps this is the lower part of their bodies joined together. This chest of drawers appears in many of Dali´s pictures. It is like the obsession described by psychiatrists- an image which comes to you again and again and will not go away.
There are no obvious indications of war- no planes, guns or soldiers. If the picture represents the war, it represents it in the way that nightmares often do- the sense of horror and fear is very powerful but the events are strange and distorted. The feelings have been transferred to another set of images. I cannot give you an exact meaning for everything in the picture. If I could, perhaps its power would be weakened, like magic. All the same, it seems that the idea of the Spniards living together in one country, dependent on one another but unable to stop attacking and trying to dominate one another, is mixed with an image of the love between a man and a woman which can be very hurtful. Dali shows that the relationship is mindless and blind by painting figures without faces, particularly without eyes. They have no bones so they cannot move and help themselves. As a whole, the picture is painted with great clarity and detail so that it seems to have the overwhelming reality of a nightmare from which you cannot escape.
What do you think of it? How do you react to this painting? How does it make you feel? Write your opinion in the blog.
The XXth century was a very violent one and horrifying events were brought to everyone´s attention in newspapers, magazines, television and art. "Autumnal Cannibalism" was painted in the year of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the artist said it represents the Spanish people devouring each other. In the background on the right, you can see a Spanish landscape burned by the sun, on the left a desert or beach. In the foreground, two revolting figures, which seem to be half-melted humans, are eating each other. One of them reaches right round the other and accidentally cuts into its own body. This one, on the left, with its paler skin and blouse open at the front is a woman; the other is a man. They are on a chest of drawers which is empty, or perhaps this is the lower part of their bodies joined together. This chest of drawers appears in many of Dali´s pictures. It is like the obsession described by psychiatrists- an image which comes to you again and again and will not go away.
There are no obvious indications of war- no planes, guns or soldiers. If the picture represents the war, it represents it in the way that nightmares often do- the sense of horror and fear is very powerful but the events are strange and distorted. The feelings have been transferred to another set of images. I cannot give you an exact meaning for everything in the picture. If I could, perhaps its power would be weakened, like magic. All the same, it seems that the idea of the Spniards living together in one country, dependent on one another but unable to stop attacking and trying to dominate one another, is mixed with an image of the love between a man and a woman which can be very hurtful. Dali shows that the relationship is mindless and blind by painting figures without faces, particularly without eyes. They have no bones so they cannot move and help themselves. As a whole, the picture is painted with great clarity and detail so that it seems to have the overwhelming reality of a nightmare from which you cannot escape.
What do you think of it? How do you react to this painting? How does it make you feel? Write your opinion in the blog.
