DALI: MULTIFACETED

Javanese Mannequin (detail)

Even people who detested Dali’s perverse personality, gentle association with Fascism, and occasional forays into eye-slicing cinematography, never dared to deny the Catalonian painter’s technical ability or Surrealistic genius.

In fact, one of his pre-war paintings has even been interpreted as accurately predicting the entire course of WWII, suggesting that there may have been deep insights in his dreamlike works.

While paintings, like the Freudian "Javanese Mannequin" (1934) and still baffling "Napoleon’s Nose, Transformed into a Pregnant Woman, Strolling His Shadow with Melancholia amongst Original Ruins" (1945), reveal his technical skill as a painter, objects like “The Aphrodisiac Dinner Jacket” (1970) – an item of clothing designed to help its wearer get drunk and presumably laid – show his fiendish sense of humour.

Thru Jul. 11, Nagoya City Art Museum, 9:30 – 17:00 daily (Fridays 9:30 – 20:00). Admission is 1300 yen.

Previously published 2007