After Dali became famous for his surrealistic paintings, he began to showcase his persona to the public which made him more of a character than a visual artist. The way they described it in the article was perfect. His later work was simply not as good because his career was "exacerbated by relentless self-promotion, shameless hucksterism."
Unfortunately, to me I would say that Dali is the art world's Lady Gaga, and while he did have genuine talent, it was hidden behind his larger than life persona. This has left him to be the hipsters' cult symbol; remembered mostly for his mustache and second only to Andy Warhol.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/arts/design/03dali.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=arts
I would have to agree with what you said about his persona distracting from his work, especially later in life. I feel that that art should make an artist and it appears both from background knowledge and through this article that here it seemed more to be the artist trying to make the art. It almost takes away form the value and appreciation for the work itself. I think if the work was isolated and looked at for its genuine talent and content it would have much better reactions than it does. Now that he's gone, art shows like this force the viewers to take his work at face value without the influence of Dali weighing on their opinions.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I feel like I posted this blog. And your Lady Gaga reference couldn't be more true. I really don't know what else to say but he had talent, hipster's cult symbol, mustache, and Andy Warhol.....perfect!
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