Born in Figueres, Spain, Salvador Dali (1904-1989) displayed his artistic genius from an early age, and eventually joined an art academy in Madrid. In the ’20s, he went to Paris and began interacting with other prominent artists of that era, such as Pablo Picasso, René Magritte and Joan Miro, which led to his first Surrealist phase. Before his departure to Paris, he was working with Impressionism, Futurism and Cubism. By and large, the artist’s paintings covered three general themes, a) man’s universe and sensations, b) sexual symbolism and, c) ideographic imagery.

‘Swans Reflecting Elephants’ (1937), oil on canvas, 20.08 inches × 30.31 inches, belongs to Dali’s Paranoiac-critical period, in which he paints with double images, an idea which he put forward in his essay, The Conquest of the Irrational (1935). The artist uses the reflection in a lake by combining the necks of the swans and the nearby tress so that the swans’ heads becomes the elephants’ heads, and the trees become their bodies. The painting is housed in a private collection.— M.Z.A.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 1st, 2016