You could do this easily in Photoshop today, but Philippe Halsman did not - this was shot live. It took 26 tries to get it over five hours - Halsman counted to four, Dali leapt, 3 assistants threw the cats, one threw the water from a bucket. But most importantly, I think, is that Halsman's wife held the chair aloft for those five hours of retakes, almost like an artistic Moses against the Amelikites!

I wonder if the reference to the biblical "Water and War" in Exodus ch. 17(5-6; 10-13) isn't more explicit. Halsman's photo surrealistically shows a world off balance, as if the floor has only just fallen away from beneath the feet of the painter, the animals, and the furniture. With nothing to stand on, rivers miraculously start flowing through the sky from a source as unexpected as a solid rock. Dali becomes a Moses of the artistic faith: as long as he keeps his feet off the ground the artistic war will be won, miraculous interventions into reality will be made possible, and we will have or guide through exodus to the promised land of the aesthetic ethical.

January 5th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: aesthetics, artists, surreal, faith, Dali, lolcats