The Beautiful and Ugly from 3 Artists
Comparing the worst and best art from Dali, Goya, and Munch
One interesting behavior exhibited by so-called art connoisseurs is their willingness to spend huge amounts of money on artwork that is ugly or dumb. Of course, I accept it is their money and so can do with it as they wish.
Not being an art connoisseur or sophisticated art critic, I began to wonder if renowned artists who had painted bizarre works had also painted any works that I would consider beautiful, or at least close to it. After all, artists held in high esteem for their bizarre and even ugly works surely must have produced works I, an unsophisticated novice in the art milieu, might appreciate. I was pleased to discover three renowned artists capable of painting on both ends of the ugly (or dumb) to beautiful scale.
Incidentally, if you are wondering who I am, a self-confessed novice, to judge art as beautiful or otherwise, suffice it to say, I am simply someone who realizes true beauty is independent of subjective opinion. This leaves open the possibility of learning I might be wrong. Anyway, I’ll leave that to your judgment.
Salvador Dali (1904–1989)
Not being an aficionado of Dali, I was surprised to learn he also painted art that was not fantastic or distorted. I will admit I do find his painting The Persistence of Memory thematically interesting (which is different than beautiful). Josephine Dawn Adès, professor emeritus of art history and theory at the University of Essex, offered the following interpretation of this painting:
The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order. ¹
which apparently was a shout-out to Alert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. However, when Dali was asked if this was what he intended, he replied the watches were inspired by:
…the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting in the sun. ¹
So, I guess in this painting Dali was either saying, the surrealist movement was fueled by melting cheese, or he was hungry. Hmm? Well, anyway, if you would like to purchase this piece from the Museum of Modern Art, you’ll have to come up with an estimated 50 million USD ² or more to do so.
Okay, I’ll admit The Persistence of Memory is not ugly, but, notwithstanding the surrealist movement, at the estimated selling price it seems just a wee bit dumb.
Until a friend posted this picture, I had thought Dali only painted surrealistic art given those works have received the most publicity, so Figure at the Window came as a surprise.
I find it interesting Dali was only twenty-one years old when he painted this masterpiece. At the time, Figure at the Window was widely celebrated and supported Dali as a major artistic talent.
Figure at a window, even though it has the same qualities as the other paintings, is fresher, softer in colour and more luminous. When looking at this picture, one encounters an indefinable feeling of peace and wellbeing. Light plays across the folds in the fabric and the water of the sea in a captivating manner. In all of Dalí’s canvases there is something that attracts; his paintings are not simply a technical and well-chosen combination of colours: the artist’s emotion is deeply rooted behind all of them. ⁴
If Dali had asked me, I would’ve told him his path to artistic greatness was by way of realism as opposed to surrealism. And while I do believe this is true, he never sought my advice.
Anyway, if you want to purchase Figure at the Window, you’re going to have difficulty finding an estimated value (at least I did); however, I can tell you the most ever paid for a Dali painting was $17,134,200.00 (U.S. dollars) for the following:
Hmmm? Could it be Dali was more influenced by money than muse?
Francisco Goya (1746–1828)
Here, I must ask you, if this were the only painting Goya had ever created, would you conclude Goya was a true master of his craft? If you are a professional art critic, you might say the painting obviously depicts the myth where Saturn ate his children at birth to avoid being overthrown by them as had been foretold in prophecy; consequently, Goya must have been an enthusiast of Roman mythology and masterfully employed one such myth as the theme of his painting.
In fact, this was how the experts interpreted Goya’s painting and named it Saturn Destroying His Son after Goya’s death. I submit; however, the painting’s title is a misnomer based on the experts’ faulty interpretation. I believe their interpretation was contrived to make the painting, if not respectable, at least acceptable to the viewing public. This was a practice considered when trying to make Goya’s painting, La Maja Desnuda acceptable to society.
La Maja Desnuda (La maja desnuda) has been described as “the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art” without pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning. ⁶
The operative word from the quote being “pretense”.
I propose a darker, more believable interpretation of the misnamed Saturn Destroying His Son is possible, and one that better matches the ugliness of this painting. In this regard, the following facts pertain.
As implied, this painting was never given a name by Goya nor was it intended for public display. Rather, this was one of six wall murals Goya created at Quinta del Sordo, his residence near Madrid. The six murals are now called Goya’s Black Paintings ⁵.
The Black Paintings remained on the walls of Quinta del Sordo for fifty years after Goya’s death. Due to the deterioration of the plaster on which they were painted, and possibly because the then-owner of Quinta del Sordo was sick of looking at them, the Black Paintings were transferred to canvas and donated to the Spanish state.
During the process of moving the six murals onto canvas, several painted features were lost. One important detail on the so-called ‘Saturn’ painting that was either lost in the transfer or by agreement of the parties involved was ‘Saturn’s’ large and turgid member (shall we say).
Also, if you examine the small figure upon which ‘Saturn’ is chomping; in particular, the figure’s legs and buttock, I assert these more closely resemble the female form, not the male form.
Finally, consider that Goya was antisemitic (Licht). I am not suggesting this painting necessarily had anything to do with antisemitism, but rather to underscore that Goya could be mean and punitive.
Taken together: (1) Goya did not give the painting the name it currently goes by. (2) The painting was not intended for public display. (3) The large figure dining on the small figure was originally painted with a prominent erection. (4) The small figure more resembles a female form, not a male form. And (5) Goya could be mean-spirited, so this painting can easily be interpreted as conveying Goya’s misogynism rather than a pension for Roman mythology.
Nevertheless, if you simply must have the misnamed Saturn Destroying His Son, expect to pay something between 7 USD to 16,420,000 USD ⁷, which is what Goya paintings have sold for at auction. I also discovered that two paintings stolen from a private owner in Spain were valued at 5 million ⁸.
Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina⁹ and The Portrait of Doña María Vicenta Barruso Valdés¹⁰
Both works (I couldn’t decide which to use so I used both) reveal what Goya was capable of creating when he was in his right mind. In particular, the years 1804 through 1806 were especially productive with Goya painting approximately forty-three portraits and thematic works equal in quality to Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina and The Portrait of Doña María Vicenta Barruso Valdés. Examples of his allegorical theme paintings are presented as follows.
According to Sotheby’s, the highest auction price record (1992) for Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina was 5,729,850 US Dollar ⁹, and The Portrait of Doña María Vicenta Barruso Valdés sold at auction (1998) for 16,420,000 USD ¹⁰.
Edvard Munch (1863–1944)
Yes, this painting is colorful. And, yes, I like the swirly blue water contrasted against the rippling red-orange sky. I will even say the frightened little man is amusing. Yes, I will admit to all of these attributes if you, dear reader, will at least consider that The Scream could have just as easily been painted by a talented twelve-year-old.
While The Scream does provide some interesting insights into Munch’s 1893 state of mind, and while some consider the piece ‘iconic’, neither of these commonly used value assessments supports the possibility that The Scream is a beautiful masterpiece — a colorful and amusing or somewhat interesting painting, yes, a masterpiece, no.
On an earlier rendition of The Scream, Munch had lightly scrawled his opinion that this painting “could only have been painted by a madman” ¹¹. If I could travel back in time, I would tell Munch not to be so hard on himself, that his madness is nothing compared to the madness of the person who purchased The Scream at auction for 120 million US dollars! That’s right, 120 million US dollars, much more than any painting discussed so far!
Hmmm? Maybe I’ve underestimated Edvard Munch.
Edvard Munch, like Salvador Dali, created his brighter and most optimistic art as a young man. For example, Munch was 19 years old when he painted Garden with Red House, and Dali was 21 years old when he painted Figure at the Window.
Although Garden with Red House is not considered one of Munch’s major works by the experts, I disagree. While my choice of this painting as one that is beautiful or close to it exposes my personal bias favoring landscapes, I still maintain, however, that if art is beautiful or close to it, it is so apart from my opinion or the opinions of the experts.
In Garden with Red House, I will simply point out Munch’s skill at using light and shadow to highlight the various shades of green and yellow in the foliage. Additionally, consider how he contrasts his predominate green/yellow color scheme with the little red house sitting bravely in the sunlight against the blue sky and the inevitable encroachment of the surrounding foliage as the abandonment of the table and school bench in the foreground portend — like memories fading in the midst of encroaching reality.
Perhaps the red house, along with the abandoned table and school bench, alludes to the fading importance of his father’s disappointment in Munch choosing to devote his life to the pursuit of art (his reality) rather than engineering (his father’s emphasis on practicality).
Regardless of how accurate my interpretation of Garden with Red House is, I believe it is self-evident that this painting represents a masterful expression of Munch’s personality compared to his two-dimensional expression in The Scream (his amateurish use of perspective in The Scream notwithstanding).
The realized cost for Garden with Red House at auction was 43,126 USD ¹³.
Last Thoughts
Finally, it is neither the opinion of critics nor the opinion of experts who assign the monetary value of a painting, which should guide your assessment of beauty in art. Rather, a work of art is either inherently beautiful or it is not. Only you can make this judgment and only for yourself. It helps in judging if you remain open to the possibility you are wrong.
To this day I remain unconvinced that The Persistence of Memory, Saturn Destroying His Son, or The Scream are in any way beautiful or even important works of art, particularly when compared to the exceptional works of Dali, Goya, and Munch. However, I remain open to learning why I may be wrong.
References
- The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (1931), discussed in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Estimated value at art auction in The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali at EmptyEasel.com, (2006–2024)
- Figura en una finestra (Figure at the Window) by Salvador Dali (1925), at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (museoreinasofia.es)
- La Veu de l’Empordà (Figueres, 12/12/1925), J. Cusí, in Dalí’s ‘Girl at the Window’ returns to the Figueres museum, Mario Ximénez (9/26/2014), Vogue Spain
- Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya (1931), in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2024, March 4)
- Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art, Licht (1979) p. 83, New York: Universe Books, referenced in Francisco Goya Middle period (1793–1799), Francisco Goya, in Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (2024, February 27)
- Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (2024), at MutualArt Services, Inc.
- Two Works by Francisco de Goya Worth $5 Million Stolen from Private Home in Madrid, by Lorena Muñoz-Alonso (2015), in Law and Politics, news.artnet.com
- Francisco de Goya Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., at artsy.net
- María Vicenta Barruso Valdés, research by Manuela Mena (2008), in Online Catalogue at Goya Foundation in Aragon
- The Scream, in Wikipedia the free encyclopedia (2024, February 25)
- Garden with Red House, in Garden-with-Red-House-Edvard-Munch-1882, located at useum.org
- Edvard Munch | Garden with Red House (1882) | MutualArt
