Remarked by her contemporary Coco Chanel as "That Italian artist who makes clothes" Elsa Schiaparelli (New Yorker - Janet Flanner) bought Surrealism to fashion. She was one of the most influential creators of Parisian haute couture in the era between the two World Wars. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco on Mar 16, 2012 - 12 comments

Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus, one of the earliest full-scale art installation pieces, raised some eyebrows at the 1939 World's Fair. Visitors entered beneath the spread legs of a woman in high heels to find a grotto featuing Venus, a topless sleeping actress on a red satin bed surrounded by lobsters and champagne bottles. Her dream, visible through the nearby window, included cavorting (again topless) mermaids flapping their rubber fins and playing a woman-shaped piano. Murry Korman took many iconic photos of the spectacle. What few knew was that Dali was engaged in a battle of creative crontol with his sponsor, a rubber tycoon and creator of rubber mermaid tails among other things. Dali would appear on site while the exhibition was being created and snip the tails off of the mermaids (pdf). While he was not around for the opening of his creation, he purportedly hired a plane to drop printed leaflets over New York: "The Declaration of the Independence of the Imagination and the Rights of Man to his Own Madness," a protest against efforts to interfere with his vision. [some links NSFW, via]
posted by jessamyn on Nov 5, 2011 - 27 comments

in 1976, surrealist icon Salvador Dali starred and directed in the fake documentary/travelogue Impressions de la haute Mongolie - Impressions of Upper Mongolia - about his quest to find a rare hallucinogenic mushroom. It was intended as a tribute to the late Raymond Roussel. It is available on Youtube in 5 parts. 1 - 2 -3 - 4 - 5 (70 min)
posted by The Whelk on Sep 3, 2011 - 25 comments

At the 1938 Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme in Paris. each of fifteen artists were given a dressmaker's mannequin as their canvas and encouraged to transform the figure in any way they desired.
The artists included (in order of appearance in this video) Salvador Dalí, Óscar Dominguez, Marcel Duchamp, Léo Malet, André Masson, Joan Miró, Wolfgang Paalen, Kurt Seligmann, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Jean, Max Ernst, Espinoza, Maurice Henry, Sonia Mossé, and Man Ray. Here are some stills.
posted by adamvasco on Aug 12, 2010 - 3 comments

Minotaure published only 12 issues between 1933 and 1939. The covers were by some of the leading artists of the day century. (via)
posted by adamvasco on Aug 9, 2010 - 14 comments

Ralph Steadman’s Alice in Wonderland. Salvador Dali’s Alice In Wonderland.
posted by mediareport on Mar 9, 2010 - 16 comments

Smartie Art by Prudence Emma Straite; who previously has made works of Dali (and whole rooms) from chocolate and the Pope (and the Coliseum) from pizza. (Radio 4 doc - real audio) (PS. The blue Smartie is back)
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Apr 16, 2008 - 12 comments

Edward James (1907 - 1984) was a millionaire Scottish, art patron and surrealist who moved to Mexico in 1947 to grow orchids. After the orchids were destroyed by a freak snowstorm in 1962, he decided to switch to experiments in architecture. He built a monument to surrealism called Las Pozas, just outside of Xilitla. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Jul 11, 2006 - 21 comments

S. Dali + 3 Marxes. From Marx-Out-Of-Print, "a tribute to The Marx Brothers with full reproductions of books and articles from magazines and other publications that are now 'out of print' and hard to find." Dali was a huge fan of Harpo and once gave him a harp strung with barbed wire. He also wrote a script for the Marx Brothers, which was deemed "too surreal."
posted by Joey Michaels on Dec 16, 2004 - 8 comments

February, 1989.
The U.S.S.R. leaves Afghanistan, a fatwa is issued for Salman Rushdie, Tim Berner-Lee is writing a proposal for something called "hypertext", Salvador Dalí is laid to rest, and Terry Gross interviews William Gibson.
posted by Tlogmer on Nov 27, 2004 - 10 comments

The sculptures of Shigeo Fukuda show that shadows and reflections (mpegs) may not be what they appear to be. When you turn M.C. Escher's drawings into sculptures, you can get some impossible objects (mpeg). And Dick Termes paintings on globes are stunning examples (Quicktime) of six point perspective. All of these works of illusionary art are featured in the book Masters of Deception: Escher, Dalí & the Artists of Optical Illusion and must be seen to be believed.
posted by euphorb on Nov 15, 2004 - 6 comments

Way Lay is the homepage of cartoonist Carol Lay, creator of the strip Story Minute. In addition to being one of the few places one can view the strip without going through Salon's obnoxious free pass system. The site has the best autobiography I've seen for an artist site and images of earlier bizarre parodies of Salvador Dali and the Shroud of Turin.
posted by KirkJobSluder on Apr 24, 2003 - 7 comments

Torture by Art. 'Bauhaus artists such as Kandinsky, Klee and Itten, as well as the surrealist film-maker Luis Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali, were said to be the inspiration behind a series of secret cells and torture centres built in Barcelona and elsewhere '. Maybe there is a future for those Turner Prize winners after all.
posted by rolo on Jan 28, 2003 - 26 comments

Dali worked with Disney on a project called Destino and only 15 seconds were made. but if it's anything like his work with Hitchcock, they should release it to the public.
posted by destro on Oct 10, 2001 - 14 comments