Dali, Tête Raphaëlesque éclatée (1951)

I promised myself to try write everyday... Great idea, a lot harder to implement in reality than it sounds in theory, especially so close to my semester 1 exams. So now I'm not trying for everyday, but hopefully a couple times a week. On the bright side, I went to the Degas to Dali exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery again, a great mix of modern art with Matisse, van Gogh and even a Warhol, an artist I'd actually never seen before. But one Dali was absolutely beautiful, and I knew I had to write about it.



Salvador Dali, Tête Raphaëlesque éclatée (1951)
Oil on canvas
43.20 x 33.10 cm

Known as Tête Raphaëlesque éclatée, but for those of us can't speak so exotically, she's known as Exploding Raphaelesque Head. Quite descriptive and quite accurate if you ask me. The influence I could immediately pick up was the famous Italian painter Raphael, and I don't say that from the title. I literally saw this work from across the gallery floor, and I immediately knew it was based off of Raphael. My second thought was, knowing it wasn't a Raphael, how skillful the artist was, this distorted and fragmented head yes still such a recognizable interest. I had a quick search of Madonna's that Raphael painted, and while I can't find the exact posing, this work is probably the closest I'll get to the real thing. Raphael painted a series of these Madonna's in various poses with Jesus and John the Baptist, and Dali has hit the nail on the head. Her carefully tilted face, looking down in maternal warmth even when the babies aren't present while there's this grace, this humbleness to her. Her head also resembles the Pantheon, a temple with a large dome that's got a large oculus and Dali probably did this in homage to Raphael, who's buried here. But the oculus also gives this ethereal feeling in combination with the lightly sketched halo. She has this inner light from a heavenly place, an inner wisdom that is from something higher than us, she truly has reached the status of a Virgin Saint.

But this is where the classical influences really end, as the most obvious feature is the fluctuating and almost fluid fragments that make up her head. Dali describes it best, there's this inner explosion and although they may be held together by some sort of other wordly gravity, they're disintegrating. This is one moment in time, but who knows wether she will still be with us in the next. The date is significant in this context, 1951. Dali has had to live through World War I, World War II and the horrific bombings of Ngasaki and Hiroshima by the first atomic bombs (I just had to google that to make sure I had spelt it right, and the images that came up were terrifying). Dali has to be feeling some disillusionment, some questions over what history has presented him. This shattered world, fractured, divided. Destruction, everywhere. Perhaps this is why he painted such a distorted image of such a beautiful subject.

Another contemporary development of the time to mention was the atomic bomb, which has undoubtedly influenced him. Although there's this inner explosion, it isn't one of rubble and shrapnel but one of this shimmering fluidity. The scientific revelations (or horrors, whichever way there is to look at it) was not lost on Dali, who kept up with scientific readings of the time and was surely aware of atomic theory and what it could bring. He had witnessed it's horrors only six years earlier.

You can also see the faint sketchings of vertebrae just to the right of her neck, a light inkling of the rest of her body. It adds a certain grace in my opinion, I don't know what it is but I just love the beauty of the spine. One other point to mention is the half recognizable wheelbarrow in the bottom left, a wavering image of what it once was. This to me is a small modern twist to an otherwise modern main subject, perhaps signalling the destruction of such ordinary things that the atomic bomb can bring.

I've always loved the Surrealists in their own way, and I have held admiration for Dali and all his innovations but this work... It has got to be in my top 3, if not, my favourite work of all time. This absolute clash and mix of beauty and destruction, heaven and hell, enlightenment and destruction, terror and calm, dream and reality, old and new... What is not to love about this painting. I think this is Dali's masterpiece, and even though it's been painted over 50 years ago, it resonates with me. It makes me wonder about if we've really progressed from the terror of what's happened. I sat there in a gallery and looked at it, and it all just melted away, even if just for a second. I was in this other world with her and it was all so certain and uncertain. So fragile, like any little tilt would make it all fall away.

She's so beautiful...