''The Burning Giraffe'' (1937) is a painting by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

. It is an oil painting on panel and is in the

Kunstmuseum Basel The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends back to t ...

. Dalí painted ''Burning Giraffe'' before his exile in the United States, which was from 1940 to 1948. Although Dalí declared himself apolitical—"I am Dalí, and only that"—this painting shows his personal struggle with the battle in his home country. Characteristic are the opened drawers in the blue female figure, which Dalí on a later date described as "Femme-coccyx" (tail bone woman). This phenomenon can be traced back to

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

's psychoanalytical method, much admired by Dalí. He regarded him as an enormous step forward for civilization, as shown in the following quote: "The only difference between immortal Greece and our era is Sigmund Freud who discovered that the human body, which in Greek times was merely neoplatonical, is now filled with secret drawers only to be opened through psychoanalysis". The opened drawers in this expressive, propped up female figure thus refer to the inner subconscious within man. In Dalí's own words his paintings form "a kind of allegory which serves to illustrate a certain insight, to follow the numerous narcissistic smells which ascend from each of our drawers." The image is set in a twilight atmosphere with deep blue sky. There are two female figures in the foreground, one with drawers opening from her side like a chest. They both have undefined phallic shapes (perhaps melted clocks, as a recurring image from Dalí's previous works) protruding from their backs which are supported by crutch-like objects. The hands, forearms, and face of the nearest figure are stripped down to the muscular tissue beneath the skin. One figure is holding a strip of meat. Both human figures that double as a

chest of drawers A chest of drawers, also called (especially in North American English) a dresser or a bureau, is a type of cabinet (a piece of furniture) that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers generally stacked one above another. In American English a ...

as well as the crutch-like shapes are common archetypes in Dalí's work. In the distance is a giraffe with its back on fire. Dalí first used the burning giraffe image in his 1930 film ''

L'Âge d'Or ''L'Age d'Or'' (french: L'Âge d'Or, ), commonly translated as ''The Golden Age'' or ''Age of Gold'', is a 1930 French surrealist satirical comedy film directed by Luis Buñuel about the insanities of modern life, the hypocrisy of the sexual mor ...

'' (''The Golden Age'').Williams, Edgar (2011).
Giraffe
'. Reaktion Books. p. 122. . It appears again in 1937 in the painting ''The Invention of Monsters''. Dalí described this image as "the masculine cosmic apocalyptic monster". He believed it to be a premonition of war.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burning Giraffe Paintings by Salvador Dalí Surrealist paintings 1937 paintings Giraffes in art

See also

References