La descente du Saint Esprit 1964

Salvador Dalí made this, La descente du Saint Esprit, with watercolor and ink, and, boy, does it make you look! First, the mark-making is all over the place. There's splattering, dripping, and scratching. It's like Dalí was wrestling with the paper! Look at the gray circles hovering above the figures. Are they halos? Are they just a bunch of gray circles? I think he’s showing us how the making happens. The physicality of the watercolor is crucial here. It's thin and transparent, allowing light to pass through. In one of the lower sections, the dark blue bleeds into the paper. This, I think, is the Holy Spirit descending. Dali reminds me of Francis Picabia in his total disregard for good taste! It's refreshing and challenges me to embrace the messy, unpredictable side of art-making. Ultimately, it’s about embracing ambiguity and the many ways we can experience the world.