APPARATUS AND HAND by SALVADOR DALI |
the Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida Believed to be printed by Leon Amiel in the early 1970's, it is numbered “EA” or artist’s proof The image itself is 9 ½ inches by 11 ½ inches. Framed it measures approximately 20 by 26 inches Up until the year Dali painted Apparatus and Hand in 1927 at the age of 23, his main influences had been the Impressionists and early 20th-century painters. Through his early visits to Paris he went beyond these influences as he embraced Surrealism and Sigmund Freud. Thus this painting is steeped in the dreamlike anxiety of the Surrealists The central figure of the piece, of course, the apparatus, is at an angle as though it may topple over at any moment. It is supported on flimsy legs On top of the apparatus is the hand without skin. It seems electrified, radioactive The apparatus could almost be human as though a human is desperately trying to emerge from the surreal landscape of Dali's mind. The two smaller figures around have a more pronounced human quality Such imagery placed in a surreal landscape challenge us to look at the world around us with a new perspective or questions the way we look at the world around us already It is Dali's disturbing take on the "real" world |
