The Life and Works of Dali

by Nathaniel Harris

An introduction to the twentieth-century painter includes reproductions of some of his best-known surrealist works

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction, History

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1997

Reviews

[Adam Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 / 5 for 'The Life and Works of Dali' by Nathaniel Harris

At only 79 pages long, I never expected this book to go too in-depth into either Salvador Dali's life or his wonderfully surreal artwork, and my expectations were indeed correct. Even so, this book did surprise me with how little attention each painting is given, with just a paragraph or so per picture of generic information, and some (occasionally incorrect) assumptions of what each paintings meanings and metaphors were.

All paintings were reproduced in colour which is good, and the majority are given a fair bit of page space,l so we can enjoy looking at them. Again, it would have been nice to get some more information though, both about the artist and his artworks. This book is very light and superficial when it comes to its text.

This is a good, but not great, very brief introduction to Salvador Dali, and no more than that. It's like showing you the above-water tip of an iceberg but ignoring the gigantic remaining block of ice hidden under the waves.

Good, but not great, and extremely superficial.

3 / 5

[JP · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would love to say: short and informative, but it’s short and has some mistakes. If you don’t know much about Dali, do not read it for a quick intro, this book has too many things wrong and instead of making Dali’s work look intriguing and shedding some light, it will give you some very basic info, titles and terms, with mixing them up a bit. Like, the paranoiac-critical method is not about double images… Two different things that you can sometimes find in the same picture.
Don’t waste your time, not worth. Wikipedia is better, and just google those paintings instead to have a closer look, and then find some better book for more in-depth info.
Dali is fascinating (and crazy, yeah ;), this book will not really show you why.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

This was an interesting look at the works and life of Dali. I picked it up recently and I've read several other ones so I do have a few to compare it too. It's a quick overview of his life and works, and although I learned a few things it did seem to glaze other others, almost like there was a bit of expectation that the from the reader to knowledge on some areas of Dali's life. Even so, it was a interesting look at his work, and had lots of the iconic Dali pieces as well as several that were new to me. Overall, an enjoyable read.

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

What intrigued me: Meg gave me this book when she was sorting through her shelf.

What I liked: There were some insights in this book that I had not read in other Dali biographies.

What I didn't like: It's quite short. I don't like the way some of the images span the crease because you lose details.

Favorite quote: N/A

[Romina G · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really great as a general overview of the artist and its works, but I would have loved to see a more analytical perspective of the paintings.

[Rizal Kabir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Salvador Dali is a name of mystery and I am a big fan of his bizarre, ambiguous, surrealistic arts. Highlighting the works of Dali within a single book of about 80 pages must be a very difficult task, but the writer did it pretty well.

Along with some of Dali's majestic artworks, the writer described briefly about them in a quite comprehensive manner. So from a basic reader's point of view, this book has been very supportive to analyze Dali's masterpieces more closely.
Apart from that, I think it has provided me with some research-topics too. The influence of Gala, Spanish Civil-war, sexuality had tremendous influences in his works. He definitely had some warped perceptions that caused such jumbled up, fantasized artworks though they depicted something deeper in all the cases.

Thanks Nathaniel Harris for such a concise, well-written book on the work of the master of surrealism and mysticism Mr. Salvador Dali.

[SummerBlue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it’s a nice, light springboard of an art book to quickly address concepts and ideas within the works of Dalí. Not detailed by any means, but great to have a flick through to see the artist’s body of work.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author definitely comes across as an art-curator type. He finds little to do but intone CliffNotes profundities and psychological mumbo-jumbo throughout (I'm just glad it was a short book).