Apparition du buste de Voltaire 1962

Salvador Dalí gave us “Apparition du buste de Voltaire,” and whatever medium he used, he used it to make us question what we're really seeing. It's all about how he applies these colours, not really mixing, but smudging. Process is key here: it's like he’s coaxing the image out from the shadows. Take a step closer, check out how the cool blue-purple tones of the shadows mix with the stark white of the wall. The surface feels almost like it's breathing with the texture of the light. The shapes are not sharply defined, they melt into each other. I can see the shadow that makes Voltaire’s nose, his smug little mouth - it’s almost an accident, a beautiful trick of perception. There's something of the Old Masters in the way Dalí teases out a figure from the darkness, like a Rembrandt etching, but then it's gone, a waking dream, a strange and beautiful conversation across time.