Salvador Dali, Apparatus and Hand

Apparatus and Hand, 1927
By: Salvador Dalí

Describe:

Geometric shapes such as cones and triangles, human anatomy including the features of a naked woman, a red hand coming out of the head of the figure, a headless horse, mountains in the distant sky, a blueish-gray background

Analyze:

What was Salvador Dalí thinking while creating this piece?
What experiences in his life made him want to create pieces such as this one?
What does Dalí’s art say about his personality and lifestyle?

Interpretation:

During the summer of 2010, I visited the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. I viewed many of Dalí’s works of art and tried to get an understanding of who he was by viewing his art. He uses very good detail and very often uses the human anatomy and body in his works. In some piecess, he elaborates off paranoiac critical hallucinations and sometimes used nature and geometry to create human bodies.
In Salvador Dalí’s piece, Apparatus and Hand, he uses very beautiful and contrasting colors to create an awkward yet interesting piece of art. He uses oil on canvas and geometric shapes to create a human form. Throughout the piece, Dalí uses random and different objects as the human arms, legs, eye and head of the figure. This piece represents Dalí and his weakness of sleep after an experience in the military.
I enjoyed this piece because it is very unique. It helped me to view art through a different perspective. Dalí helps to open your mind with this work as well as many of his other pieces. He helps to challenge the viewer and have them understand his experiences throughout his lifetime. Dalí’s art portrays his personality and changes the way you look at art because of his lack of seriousness yet deep perspective.

Judgment:

Dalí’s, Apparatus and Hand, successfully challenges the way one views art. He makes the viewer think differently about his art. I enjoyed viewing his art because it gave me a different perspective of how art can be portrayed. Dalí is a very strange man and expressed himself throughout his artwork. Although he was bizarre, he used deep perspective, strange landscape, and beautiful colors.