When I saw that they had a Picasso special exhibit, I had to go. The Museum of Modern Art is one of the world's great museums. It has a fantastic impressionist and surrealist collection, including Picasso, Dali, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Fredia, and many others.
Then, fast-forward six weeks. I went to a lecture about the artist Salvador Dali on the Queen Mary 2. Dali, better known as Dali, pioneered the Surrealist movement.
He once said that the only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad. He was a very flamboyant individual who thought he was the reincarnation of his dead older brother, Salvador, who died before he was born. He was a big fan of Sigmund Freud and was fascinated with what dreams meant to the psyche. His paintings, to some extent, documented hallucinations and interpreted dreams.
His major contribution to surrealism is the "paranoiac-critical method, a surrealist technique developed by Salvador Dalí in the early 1930s. He employed it in producing paintings and other artworks, especially those involving optical illusions and multiple images. The technique consists of the artist invoking a paranoid state (fear that the self is being manipulated, targeted, or controlled by others). The result is a deconstruction of the psychological concept of identity, such that subjectivity becomes the primary aspect of the artwork."
He met Pablo Picasso when he was young in the 1920s and was influenced by cubism. He is commonly labeled a member of the lost generation. At the lecture, we were all asked if anyone had seen his painting, The Persistence of Memory, at the MoMA. We had just been to the Museum of Modern Art before we departed New York. Included is a picture I took of it at the MoMA.
Our trip to the MoMA was an incredible experience. It ranked up there with trips to the Louvre and the Prado. If you are in New York for any length of time, it is well worth a visit.
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