When I got the call inquiring about a Salvador Dali tribute I have to say I was excited. Dali, who died in 1989 was very well recognized surrealist who was born in Figueres, Catalonia Spain.
His work was truly one of a kind, and he was actually a skilled draftsman but he is better known for his memorable and often bizarre images in his surrealist work. Few, however, know that he also did film, sculpture, and photography. His best-known work is painting is The Persistence of Memory which he painted in oil and completed in August 1931. In it are melting and distorted clocks pocket watches that are said to represent the erratic passage of time that we experience while dreaming.
The chair I was commissioned to do is actually pays tribute to many of Dali’s works of art including Archeological Reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus on the front of the chair; The Temptation of Saint Anthony on the legs; Lincoln in Dali Vision on the back of the head; Atavistic Vestiges After the Rain on the back of the chair; the symbolic melting clocks from The Persistence of a Memory on the center of the seat and along the right side of the chair; The Enigma of Desire on the seat; and an actual photograph of Dali for the for the head.
The result of the chair is a truly wonderful piece of functional art honoring this famous surrealist who often left us guessing as to what he was thinking.
