Blog exercise 2

Selected masterwork:

Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of a New Man by Salvador Dali (1943)

After the lecture on Surrealism on Thursday, I realised I related more towards the Veristic Surrealist camp, where images of the subconscious are created and their meanings are deciphered through analysis.

My own personal feelings are that artworks are usually created with a purpose; with a story to tell. As the lecture mentioned, they are usually a representation of the link between abstract realities of the human mind and the real forms of the material world.

This masterwork by Dali shows a mother pointing out to her child, the emergence of a "man" from a round object that represents the globe/world. It is interesting to note that the man is emerging from the location where America is on the world map.

My take on this work would be that perhaps Dali was trying to narrate how America was slowly becoming a world superpower by the 1943, especially with the country's involvement and show of military might in World War Two after the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese.

Perhaps the emerging motion of the man, which is similar to the birth of a child, represents how America was beginning to spread its influence all over the world. The hand of the emerging man can be seen to be reaching out towards the European regions.

It is interesting to note, however, that Asia was not represented on the "globe". Perhaps the emerging leg of the man can be interpreted as the extent of American influence towards Asia, which was slow, but with growing significance during that period of time.