Salvador Dalí: A Story in Video
Down the rabbit hole of fascinating and weird
As you may know, if you’ve been reading my posts for a while, my upcoming novel, IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS (which you can pre-order here!), is a retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone, told from the point-of-view of a model that Salvador Dalí brings to the Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo to paint in 1948.
Usually, when I’ve done research for my novels in the past, there wasn’t any film for me to watch to understand my characters. Not so for Dalí. Despite the fact that 1948 was 76 years ago, there is a wealth of videos out there for us to get a sense of who Dali and his wife, Gala, were.
If you aren’t familiar with Dalí beyond his melted clock painting, then here’s a great place for you to start, this video from the Royal Academy of Arts.
He was known for his mustache. He tells you about how he maintains it in this not-very-shocking video.
There are a few videos of him painting, like this one at his home in Cadaqués, Spain.
Dalí was a performance artist, and TV was ready for him. Here he demonstrates an actual paint gun. I wonder what he thought of paint guns that emerged in the 80s!
On What’s My Line.
On The Name’s The Same.
He brought his anteater on Dick Cavett. And yes, you should feel sad for the poor anteater!
I took inspiration from this wonderful video of one of his dinner parties.
Being able to see Dalí and his wife Gala on film was an enormous help for me as I crafted my novel. I’ll have more gems to share with you in future posts.
What’s Bringing Me Joy This Week'
The new Vanessa Peters album makes my 🩷 happy! https://vanessapeters.com/music (purchase) and you can check out the album on Spotify:
This late Roman Republic fan cast…what actors match up to ancient sculptures?
Click through for a good crack-up. 😂
Let’s talk about the good stuff. If you love food and love Italy, and haven’t read THE CHEF’S SECRET or FEAST OF SORROW, click the links to learn where to buy your copy! 🍒🍗🍷
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