Salvador Dali's 1933 "Phenomenon of Ecstasy" is a photomontage, or collage of photographs, that represents how artists who were part of the Surrealist movement adapted photography and collage (both still relatively new media) to their interest in exploring unconscious states of mind, dreams, fantasies, etc. Surrealists sought out new artistic processes as a means both to excavate and represent a new understanding of the human mind inspired by the psychoanalytic studies of Lucien Freud. At the same time that Dali is interested in unconscious phenomena, however, he is also looking back to an interest in expression and emotion evident already in classical sculpture and seventeenth-century Baroque works like those of Bernini. How might you compare and contrast Dali's interest in the ecstatic body to Bernini's sculptures "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" or "Pluto and Prosperina?" And why do you think he focuses here almost exclusively on female subjects... or does he?
At surface level, Dali tends to focus on female subjects as they lose themselves at a tipping point of sexual fantasy. However, there are other images in the collage like the tilting chair and repeating profile views of men’s ears. Although women are the predominate image of the overall composition, it is bizarre and intriguing to find these other images. Dali specifically focuses on female subjects in relation to men. He includes a face of a man in the bottom left image glaring at the women to the far right as a symbol of seeking the female form. The patterns of ears of many different men could symbolize a collection of suitors who are anonymous and insignificant in comparison to a beautiful woman.
ReplyDeleteGrace is absolutely right to point out the inclusion of male subjects as viewers and listeners to the female figures in ecstasy. One interesting question is the gender represented by the ears; the implication is of male listeners but it is impossible to verify.
DeleteFrom this artwork, we can definitely see Dali's preference of female figures instead of male figures. In addition to female bodies' sexual fantasy, females are also often associated with being subjective, and therefore, are closer to Dali's concept of unconsciousness, dreams and fantasies. The most obvious similarity between the sculpture Ecstasy of St. Teresa and this artwork is that the viewers are looking up at these female figures. Moreover, all females depicted in this photomontage and in the sculpture are very round and feminine. Also, although both artworks focus on females, they both include males as minor figures. While compared to the sculpture Ecstasy of St. Teresa, the females depicted in Dali are more realistic and diverse. Photos are taken in different angles and distance. The sculpture of Ecstasy of St. Teresa clearly focuses on only one major figure, while Dali does not have a conspicuous focal point in his photomontage. All of the photos Dali's work contribute to the composition, and creating the dream-like effect.
ReplyDeleteSherry makes a great point about how the female body was considered more impressionable and therefore more readily associated with the unconscious, dreamlike state of ecstasy than male subjects.
DeleteWhen you compare Dali’s Phenomenon of Ecstasy to Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa, you notice what would appear to be a complete focus on the female subjects. However, if we approach Dali’s piece from a different angle, we can see that while both pieces carry important female subjects at the center of the pieces, there are different commentaries in each. Bernini’s sculpture focuses on movement in the ecstasy that is achieved through a rather suggestive divine knowledge. However, there is even more movements with Dali as women are pulling the viewer in different directions from the many angles of their heads and the gaze of their eyes. The focus in this piece on ears as erogenous zones, the crookedly suggestive furniture, and even the few men watching the women all suggest the viewer to pay attention to the way women are watched as they achieve ecstasy. The continual sexual objectification of women continues as they are watched and patrolled throughout sexual development and pleasure.
ReplyDeleteSavannah perfectly sums up the essential difference between Bernini's St. Teresa and Dali'a photomontage, namely that Teresa's state is an expression of her achievement of union with the divine, whereas Dali is investigating an unconscious phenomenon internal to the female mind and body and not impacted by outside forces. The perception on the viewer's part thus becomes one of erotic voyeurism rather than spiritual awakening.
DeleteThinking about connections between Dali's work and that of Bernini in terms of expressing an "ecstatic body" brings up thoughts of emotions in my mind. It is possible that both pieces use woman as the prominent choice of gender for depiction these expressive states because woman were socially known to be more expressive than men. While there are ears shown in Dali's work above, it is unclear whether these ears belong to men or women. I think that these were included as Dali was experimenting and focusing on the human body and the way it is portrayed and depicted. This could be similar to the studies that Rembrandt did, in which he made many different portraits in order to learn from them and figure out different ways in which he could depict humans realistically. Similarly, Dali could be using this as a way of experimentation and learning. Why would he need to learn how to represent people if that was already done years before him? Maybe because of the modernization of photography, he felt the need to relearn the art of accurate human depiction through a different medium.
ReplyDeleteHarry makes a great point in thinking about Dali's process as comparable to that of Rembrandt studying the face in his tronies. Dali explores the documentary aspect of photography as a medium that captures real experience in a moment, and then montages a collection of those bodily experiences to suggest the unconscious workings that underlie them.
DeleteDali focuses primarily on the facial expressions of different women experiencing feelings of ecstasy while the “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” and “Pluto and Prosepina” sculptures incorporate the body. This enables to viewer to notice the subtle differences among the women in Dali’s photomontage, which communicates that each woman has her own unique way of experiencing ecstasy. Dali focuses exclusively on the faces of female subjects to show how every female’s experiences of ecstasy are unique to the individual and to compare the women with each other. All of them experience feelings of ecstasy but they all have slightly different responses, which are evident in their varying facial expressions.
ReplyDeleteSophie adds an interesting angle to Harry's point. One thing photography allows as a documentary medium is to compare a variety of ecstatic responses in different female subjects, almost how a doctor might conduct medical research by studying a pool of subjects. At the same time, Dali's montage has a voyeuristic quality rather than a scientific one in its approach to the subject of erotic ecstasy.
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