Salvador Dalí’s “Great Masturbator”: Surrealism and Psychoanalysis
Salvador Dalí: The Great Masturbator (1929)
Location: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
Styles and Periods: Surrealism, Dream Imagery
Size: 1.10 m x 1.50 m
Theme
This painting delves into Dalí’s obsessions, presenting a composition rich in autobiographical elements, myths, and fears. The central theme is masturbation, a rare subject in art history, with precedents in Goya’s Black Paintings and some European Expressionist works.
Dalí, newly acquainted with Gala, struggled to communicate with her. Their separation evoked strong sexual content in this piece, symbolized by the hook with a broken string. The painting visualizes Dalí’s intense desires for Gala, manifesting as fellatio and a lion with a large tongue.
Childhood fears are also depicted, including a fear of insects and death, represented by locusts and a lobster’s belly teeming with ants.
Iconography
Erotic dreams, a hallmark of Surrealism, are central to this work. It exemplifies the movement’s connection to psychoanalysis, exploring hidden desires and the subconscious. The hallucinatory imagery challenges societal norms.
A viscous white mass, symbolizing sentiment and hardness, dominates the scene. Dalí’s self-portrait appears on the left, a recurring motif since 1927. The profile features a large nose, eye, and eyebrow, with a grasshopper replacing the mouth, symbolizing death and decay. An anchor pierces the head, possibly alluding to family pressures.
The fleeing female figure, inspired by English Pre-Raphaelites, represents Gala and Dalí’s departure from his Spanish context. Lilies symbolize purification.
The desolate landscape evokes Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings. The embracing couple under the grasshopper represents Dalí and Gala. Rocky formations and shells reference their encounters in Cadaqués.
Technical and Plastic Elements
The work is an oil on canvas, showcasing Dalí’s mastery of technique acquired at the School of Fine Arts in Madrid. Precise drawing and vibrant colors create a photo-realistic effect, reflecting Dalí’s admiration for Vermeer and Meissonier. He described his works as “hand-painted dream photographs.”
Compositional Elements
The central figure, supported by a large nose, floats in a disturbing, open atmosphere. Various sex symbols, such as a lobster, a woman’s face on male genitals, and a lion’s head, are attached to the figure. The broken string on a hook symbolizes absence and separation.
Style and Characteristic Elements
Surrealism, inspired by Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams,” aimed to access the subconscious through automatic and reflective disorientation techniques.
Automatic creation involved chance and spontaneous drawing or writing. Reflective disorientation juxtaposed subconscious images in logical spaces, creating new meanings by altering context.
Surrealism featured two representation types: objective (mimicking reality, like Dalí) and anti-objective (not reproducing natural forms, like Miró).
Historical Context
Post-WWI (1919), Dadaism flourished in Cologne. Synthetic Cubism emerged around 1921. Mexican muralists like Orozco and Rivera gained prominence. Brancusi created his Endless Column, and Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius revolutionized architecture.
In 1924, André Breton published the first Surrealist Manifesto, incorporating Freud’s theories of verbal and graphic automatism. Surrealism disbanded in 1944 but continues as a global trend.
Dalí’s Artistic Evolution
Dalí studied in Barcelona and Madrid, befriending Lorca and Buñuel. Early works were influenced by Cubism and metaphysical painting. He embraced Surrealism in 1927, befriending Picasso and Breton.
In 1929, he collaborated with Buñuel on Un Chien Andalou and published The Invisible Woman, introducing his “paranoiac-critical” method. He later diverged from Surrealism, traveling to Italy and the US. He settled in Port Lligat with Gala, focusing on his museum’s design and construction until his death.