Dalíscious
The Ingenious Salvador Dalí
“Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali”
Dalí (1904-1989) is one of the most ingenious artists the world has ever known. Deviating from the more traditional forms of art, Dalí chose to take his own surreal path.
Although The Persistence of Memory is most likely his most recognized work, his art extends further than his surrealism. Dalí’s greatest piece of art was his entire life.
I was never quite sure if I actually liked Dalí’s paintings. But then some years ago I read his autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, and I understood that his art isn’t about affection. Dalí’s art is about existence. With his existence, Dalí was able to create beauty, scandals, love, hate, admiration, criticism, comedy and parody.
These latter two, I believe, are Dalí’s greatest gifts. His eccentric life came to so far extremes of eccentricity as if he was making fun of his most serious critiques. Art does not have to be so serious. Art, for him, seems to have been an alternative universe where anything was possible. And in this universe, he parodied Raphael, Picasso and Velazquez – and art itself. I leave it for you to judge the ulterior motives behind this, but in my opinion his ingeniousness was purely benevolent.
All of this grandiousness and self-boasting can be witnessed at the Dalì Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain.
Indeed, eccentricity is what might define Dalí best. Intentional eccentricity. In his autobiography, this out-of-this-world mentality is best captivated. He oftentimes addresses himself in third person, or as just simply Salvador Dali as though Salvador Dalí was a concept and not a person. He seems to believe that “being Dalí” is a state of mind, a superior form of being only attainable to Gala and Dalí himself.
Gala
Dalí’s love for his muse, lover and wife, Gala, seems equally eccentric. He saw nothing else in the world except for Gala: a great majority of the paintings and jewelery at the Gala-Dali Foundation in Figueras depict Gala, or themes where Dalí transforms the world to please Gala’s will. For Dalí, Gala was mother nature, a goddess. Some might go as far as to state that Gala replaced some Freudian needs of Dalí to come to terms with his mother’s early death. Dalí, in his own words, worshiped his mother in a rather similar fashion.
A Freudian love or not, Gala was Dalí’s center of the universe. Gala, in all paintings, is depicted as a strong woman. She rules the world. She is powerful, she is big, she is the absolute. While most of the art works picture Gala, interestingly enough, only one piece of art in the entire collection is called, simply, “Gala”. This is the one and only piece that is small, fragile, pastel. It gives a feel of sweetness, of a dream. The painting is so small, and in such a remote and dark corner, that most people pass it by quickly. But it made me stop for a long time. I thought it said more about how Dalí really saw Gala, than all the hundreds of other grand pieces of art.
The Comedian
Dalí, the way I see it, was a great comedian. His greatest satire, if you will, was his life. “I myself am surrealism”, he said. But as all surrealism, his too needed an alternative universe.
In the Dalí Theatre-Museum, on the fourth and last floor, there is a sets of drawings based on Cervantes’ Don Quijote de la Mancha. Just as Don Quijote, so too Dalí fought his own windmills. And just as Cervantes ridiculed the art and the critiques of his time, Dalí too created a parody of a lifetime.
Alonso Quijano, having read romantic literature of his time, begins to believe that he in fact is Don Quijote, a medieval knight. This alternative universe takes him on incredible journeys – which of course are product of his own creation.
Don Quijote, being overtly romantic, was the prince charming for Dulcinea. Gala for Dalí was what Dulcinea was for Don Quijote. With no direct connotation to Gala, though, Dulcinea was a mere prostitute; for Don Quijote she was a queen, a lady, a beauty. When Dulcinea was around, Don Quijote saw nothing else in the world.
But Don Quijote’s greatest defeat was life, truth itself. For when the world – other people – condemned him for his alleged insanity and eccentric optimism, he was forced to see life bluntly as it was: Don Quijote’s world crumbled. Seeing the truth brought him no sanity. Sometimes, the truth is not the greatest remedy. Don Quijote’s greatest remedy was his surrealist universe. And so it was for Dalí, too.
Dalí’s satire extended also to contemporary artists. Picasso got the most of it. If you visit the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, you get to see an extensive collection of 58 Picasso’s interpretations of Velázquez´ Las Meninas. In Figueres, Dalí depicts himself as Velázquez – not as a means to mock Velázquez (Dalí, in deed, admired him), but as a means to honor him and depict Dalí himself as a parallel. Picasso, on the other hand, is portrayed as quite a horror. But, in my opinion, the greatest thorn in Picasso’s eye is a hologram called Holos! Holos! Velázquez! Gabor!. While this is an honoring of Velázquez and Gabor, the inventor of holograms, I see parody of Picasso. The hologram depicts, in the background Las Meninas, but in the foreground, you can see Dalí with two friends over a table of beer. It is as if to say, that while Picasso was getting obsessed over the 58 versions of Las Meninas, Dalí himself enjoyed life – because he is Velázquez.
Dalí and his art are an ensemble that must be looked at in its entirety. His entire life was his greatest piece of art. He truly and profoundly believed in the existence of this universe, and fundamentally lived the art.
“Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali”
Google Bids for Groupon
Location is the next big thing.
This is what I claimed in one of my earlier blog posts on Google vs. Facebook.
Google’s first move to prove this took place in October 2010. Marissa Mayer took up a change in roles from VP of Search Products and User Experience to head Google’s location and local services section. Mayer was the first ever female engineer to join Google in 1999, and was one of the key creators behind Gmail and AdWords. Now she will lead Google’s next localization steps.
On Monday, November 29th, Google went the extra mile to make their localization efforts more concrete. According to Dealbook, the first source to reveal the offer, Google has bid a total sum of $6 billion USD for buying out Groupon.
Groupon, the coupon-provision-based-on-the-power-of-grouped-buying company was created a mere two years ago, and is claimed to be one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Just the astounding number of flourishing business model copycats around the world seems to prove this true.
And Google, apparently, does not want to miss out on the fastest growing company in the world. $6 billion USD, according to some, is a pure understatement of Groupon’s real value. Others, of course, state that the price tag is way too high. Nevertheless, if this sale realizes, it will be the largest acquisition made by Google. Currently Google’s largest acquisition has been DoubleClick, at $3.1 billion USD.
Again, in the Google vs. Facbook battle, my votes still go for Google!
Google vs. Facebook Vol.2
Since my last post on Google vs. Facebook, there has been a big time change in the battle.
It is called Facebook mail (see video).
Facebook’s strike targets Gmail pretty directly. While Facebook claims to revolutionize messaging, I do not see a quick exit for conventional e-mailing, either (see, these days e-mailing is conventional, snail mail appears prehistoric!). But I must admit, Facebook mail is quite a cool concept.
Pretty convenient, have to say.
But. Google is not short of strike backs. Funnily enough, I find both Facebook mail and Google Voice rather similar concepts: both of them attempt to make communication more convenient, more simple. Combining different communication platforms under one service seems to be the industry trend!
Be it a strike back, a trend or just the most natural next step to take, Google Voice takes phone calling to a new level:
Women in Leadership
“In terms of return on equity, the top-quartile group exceeds by 41% the group with no women (…), and in terms of operating results, the more gender-diverse companies exceeds by 56 percent the group with no women.”
Simple, but true.
For those of you who naturally create a list of criticism towards the study: the results are statistically significant. You cannot argue against the numbers. However, while the numbers speak for themselves, it can be argued (and I’m sure most of you will) that the causality of the results cannot be proven. In other words, is women leadership the cause of higher performing companies, or are companies that perform well simply more prone to promoting women to top management positions?
McKinsey argues for the first: women tend to foster leadership styles that lead to higher organizational performance, and the resulting diversity and complementarity in leadership styles exercised by both sexes holds its benefits to higher performance
Why, then, aren’t women at the top? Out of the 1500 executives interviewed by McKinsey, only 28% claimed that promoting women leadership is on their strategic agenda.
We have no other conclusion to draw. Gender diversity is not a fading trend. It needs to be embedded in every company’s DNA – provided the company has as an objective to improve performance!
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