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Illustration of Vogue title with letters denoting spring and birds forming Dalí's face in the air
About a decade after its emergence on the French art scene, surrealist art had become a sensational topic for American newspapers and was adopted by fashionable publications, especially Vogue. For America, the timing – when the world lay at the brink of war – was just right for new ideas such as surrealism. Although Vanity Fair was among the first American publications to publish the highly experimental surreal photographs of Man Ray, the grandfather of the art movement here in the U.S., Vogue waited until January 15, 1936 to make its first reference to a Dalínian dream landscape, described as putting “the atmosphere of dreams on canvas.”
As Vogue later explained in the November 1 issue of that year, “[surrealism] announced to the world at large that art (or poetry) should not take its models and subjects from the exterior world, but must turn to the unexplored, mysterious domain of the subconscious mind… creative freedom is encountered only in dreams; there the human spirit moulds the rigid reality into fantastic shapes of his choice.”
Red-gloved hand inside wicker hat stand wearing a leghorn sailor hat
Ants and birds were just two of the commonplace figures that Dalí put to symbolic use in his surrealistic fantasies. Hands were another symbol explored and shared by many artists. Examples include a Cecil Beaton photograph of a model wearing a black catsuit with small gloves attached to the entire garment; a Man Ray photograph of hands painted by Picasso to look like gloves; or, vice versa, a pair of Elsa Schiaparelli gloves designed to look like hands with painted nails (an effect Schiaparelli achieved using red snakeskin). At times, symbols and magical, nonsensical landscapes were created simply to produce the illusion of happiness.
Woman in swimsuit sailing over a shell on the beach, while a man in a tuxedo sits buried in sand
Bride wearing white plaster flowers and chiffon veil, highlighted with pink and blue lights.
In this cover, for the April 1, 1936 issue of Vogue, Beaton created a dazzling effect with lights and a living model. The female figure is completely isolated and void of the symbolic imagery so essential to Dalí’s work. The symbolism, however, is not missed, for the ethereal blue and pink light – producing simultaneously cool and mellow and burning hot sensations – creates an atmosphere of wonder. The magical ambiance of color filters, making the image resemble more a photo painting than a photograph, plunges the viewer into a dreamlike state.
Surrealist photography pushed artists to be more innovative than ever. Effects like tinting, lighting, and layering were used to create these illusionistic covers.
Woman's face half obscured by a man's silhouette
Elongated image of a model wearing tweed jacket and plaid skirt
Model's head and bare shoulders superimposed with images of blue water and starry sky
