Alice in Wonderland 1969

Curator: This is Salvador Dali's "Alice in Wonderland," a watercolour illustration completed in 1969 as part of a series. Editor: It's quite whimsical! The soft watercolour washes give it a dreamlike, almost ephemeral quality. I’m drawn to the biomorphic forms, especially how the clock face becomes an archway. Curator: Dali’s work is, of course, rooted in Surrealism, a movement born from the interwar period in Europe which responded to feelings of instability through imagery of dreams and the subconscious. These Alice illustrations commissioned in 1969 came about due to growing youth culture and the psychedelic exploration and experimentation happening during this time. Editor: Exactly, and consider how the cool greens and blues in the top half contrast with the warmer oranges and browns below. This division emphasizes the tension between the familiar world above, depicted with the tree, and the distorted reality of Wonderland represented beneath it by this, uh, what is it, melting clock shape? Curator: Good eye! The combination of dream imagery, pop culture, and Dalí's artistic celebrity really elevated these images into the collective unconscious. The art world needed some lighter subjects too, during the tumult of this moment in our shared history. Editor: Agreed. What fascinates me is the almost obsessive detail within this fluidity. Note how the tree emerges organically, growing into the top of a U shaped clock, on the inside of which he paints in such detail little teacups and a coffee pot. This contrast amplifies that sense of the fantastical made real, or, rather, rendered tangible through paint. Curator: It's true; a close reading of the composition does reveal Dalí's incredible skills! We could see these watercolour works on paper also as evidence of an artist and market now embracing the mass market in popular books and distribution networks as well as the high-end gallery and museum circuit. Editor: Thinking about the overall composition, it does leave one with the feeling of being invited down a rabbit hole… Or maybe through the looking glass? A masterful representation of what surrealism can offer in its capacity to unsettle and enchant simultaneously.