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The Great Masturbator.
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The Great Masturbator.
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Description
Larger Image
Larger image may be viewed by UofL faculty, staff, and students only (log-in required using ULink username/password) at:
http://echo.louisville.edu/login?url=http://vrc-web.louisville.edu/Jpegs/2440/2447-10.jpg
Title
The
Great
Masturbator
.
Creator
Dali, Salvador (Spanish painter and printmaker, 1904-1989)
Date
1929
Cultural Context
Spanish
European
Western European
Style/Period
Surrealist
Modern (styles and periods)
Modernist
Theme
Paintings (visual works)
Oil paintings (visual works)
Avant-garde
Imagery
Symbolism (artistic concept)
Symbols
Fantasy
Eroticism
Sex
Sexuality
Phallic
Genitals (animal or human components)
Male
Fear
Anxiety
Figurative art
Figures (representations)
Women
Men (male humans)
Busts
Heads (representations)
Heads (animal or human components)
Legs (animal or human components)
Knees (animal or human components)
Front views
Profiles (figures)
Standing
Embracing
Animals
Wild animals
Wildlife
Lions
Locusts
Flowers (plants)
Subject
Paintings
Oil paintings
Symbols
Fantasy
Lust
Sex
Relations between the sexes
Fear
Disgrace
Anxiety
Distress
Women
Men
Couples
Standing
Hugging
Body parts
Genitals
Heads (Anatomy)
Legs
Animals
Lions
Wild cats
Tongues
Ants
Locusts
Insects
Lilies
Flowers
Description
"To the
right
of the
photograph
[referring
to the
photograph
in
Dali's
painting
The
First
Days
of
Spring
,
1929]
we
find
the
first
appearance
of an
icon
soon
to
proliferate
in
Dali's
work
: a
waxy-complexioned
head
with
closed
eyes
,
long
eyelashes
,
prominent
nose
and a
giant
locust
glued
to the
spot
where
there should be a
mouth
. The
shape
of the
head
,
which
represents
Dali
as
compulsive
masturbator
, was
inspired
by a
rock
in the
inlet
of
Cullaró
at
Cape
Creus
and was
soon
to
find
its
maximum
expression
in The
Great
Masturbator
,
begun
in the
summer
of
1929
. As
regards
the
locust
,
we
already
know
that
Dali
was
terrified
of these
creatures
. Their
obsessive
presence
in the
paintings
of this
period
perhaps
alludes
to the
painter's
fear
of
sexual
contact
and
impotence
,
while
the
closed
eyes
indicate
that the
masturbator
,
oblivious
to
external
reality
,
is
only
concerned
with the
erotic
fantasies
being
played
out
in the
theatre
of his
mind.
"
(Excerpt
,
pp.256-257)
; "The
head
featured
in The
Great
Masturbator
,
inspired
by the
rock
at
Cullaró
, had
made
its
inaugural
appearance
in The
First
Days
of
Spring
. To its
representation
in this
much
larger
painting
Dali
added
,
along
with the
lion
,
locust
and
other
elements
present
in
so
many
paintings
of the
period
, an
allusion
to
fellatio
,
another
of his
secret
desires
.
According
to the
artist
, the
face
placed
beside
the
prominent
genitals
of the
male
figure
with
bloodied
knees
was
inspired
by the
print
of a
woman
smelling
a
lily
, and
is
'mixed
with
memories
of
Cadaqués
, of
summer
, of the
rocks
of
Cape
Creus'
. The
intense
eroticism
of the
scene
is
heightened
by the
noticeably
phallic
aspect
of the
arum
lily's
spathe
and of the
lion's
tongue
. The
theme
of
fellatio
was to
recur
frequently
in the
paintings
done
over
the
following
months
, and
one
cannot
but
deduce
that, in this
respect
,
Gala
gave
Dali
what he
wanted
, or
promised
to
do
so.
"
(Excerpt
,
pp.282-283)
Material
Oil on canvas
Oil paint (pigmented coating)
Paint
Canvas
Measurements
110 x 150 cm
Technique
Oil painting (technique)
Painting (image-making)
Work Type
Oil paintings
Paintings
Source
Gibson, Ian. The Shameful Life of Salvador Dali. New York; London: W.W. Norton, 1998. (Color plate XIV)
Rights
Photograph reproduced in Gibson courtesy: Archivo Fotográfico Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.
Digital Publisher
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center
Format
image/jpeg
Digital File Name
VRC
2447-10.jpg
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