Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol: Encounters in New York and Beyond
Category: Books,Arts & Photography
Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol: Encounters in New York and Beyond Details
About the Author Torsten Otte is an attorney and art historian. He is the author of a biography of Salvador Dalí. He lives in Berlin. Read more
Reviews
By Paul ChimeraI'd been waiting for a book like this to come along for quite some time, as I've always been fascinated by anecdotes about my favorite artist, Salvador Dali. Now such a book is finally here. My interest lies squarely in the life and work of the Spanish Surrealist master. Candidly, I've never had very much interest in Warhol. Nevertheless, Otte does an estimable job of comparing and contrasting the two great figures of 20th century art and pop culture.I learned many things in this lively read. I appreciated the author's exploration of details I didn't know about Dali's large masterwork, "Apotheosis of the Dollar" (that's its shortened title). I never knew of Dali's veneration for artist Andrew Wyeth. Nor that Dali's spontaneously written "contract" with the British TV series Aquarius, when they filmed the 1975 documentary, "Hello Dali," was written on -- wait for it -- a pack of Marlboro cigarettes! That is so Dali!And one of the most interesting nuggests of information was Otte's quoting of Dali secretary John Peter Moore ("Captain Moore"), revealing that Dali's dear friend and companion, whom he called Louis XIV, "was the woman Dali would really have liked to marry." Shocked? You won't be after reading some of the things that made Gala Dali, well, not quite the darling one might guess from seeing her much vaunted image in Dali's paintings.The almost obsessively footnoted book also features a host of photos, many of which I'd never seen before. They add significantly to the book, albeit some folks I know have expressed regret that the thick book wasn't better populated with pictures.Reportedly, Torsten spent some seven years researching and writing this book. Clearly he has the patience of a saint. But I think it's going to pay off. For him and for readers interested in the subject at hand. This dense volume could have been ponderous and mind-numbingly boring. It's not. The author keeps the writing lively and clear, and the virtually bottomless well of interesting anecdotal material makes the content engaging and even a bit shocking in parts.Just a hint of what I mean can be found in some of the frank discussion about the two artists' sexual proclivities and escapades. Suffice it to say some of it isn't for the faint of heart.This is a solid new book that admirers of Salvador Dali and/or Andy Warhol simply need to have in their library.