Dali Taschen (okładka  twarda, wyd. 01.1997)

This study of Salvador Dali's art is the most complete edition of his known paintings ever published. It is not, however, a "catalogue raisonne" in the classic sense. Rather, it contextualizes Dali's work, teasing out its meanings by examining numerous contemporary documents of very different kinds: writings and drawings supplementary to the main Dali "oeuvre", as well as material relating to his versatile work in other areas of art, from ballet and cinema to fashion, advertising, and "objects d'art". Without these crutches to support analysis (to borrow a favourite Dali motif), the paintings would be simply so many images. The first part examines the early Dali, an unknown artist whose skill and command were astounding. The young Dali deployed all the isms - Impressionism, Piontillism, Cubism, Fouvism, Purism and Futurism - with breathtaking ludic mastery. He would borrow from the prevailing trends, ridicule them, and drop them. The second part of "Salvador Dali: The Piantings" conveys the sum conclusins of Dali's lifelong enquiries, the great legacy he left in works such as "Tuna Fishing" or "Hallucinogenic Toreador". It includes works prevoiusly unpublished, homages to Velazquez or Michelangelo, painted to the same end as the variations on past masters done by that other great Spanish genius of the age, Picasso. Both were motivated by the desire to tease out the secrets of great works. Dali wanted the same immorality that had been granted his illustrious predecessors. And, by aiming to be a Velazquez of the mid-20th century, he became Dali.