WomenAndFilm: "Old Couple or Musician" - Salvador Dali, an analysis on interpretations

The painting “Old Couple or Musician” by surrealist Salvador Dali is a renowned painting that is based on perception through illusion. From afar and at a glance, the illustration depicts what seems to be an old woman and man looking at each other. When observed a tad closer however, it seems to be a different painting entirely. Rather than an old couple, there is a young man playing guitar and a young woman sitting opposite him.

The neat thing about this painting is that some people might see the old couple at first, while some might see the young couple at first. This painting is cleverly designed to play to your perceptions. It is almost “the glass half full or half empty” illusion except this painting doesn’t imply anything about your characteristics or persona specifically (optimist, pessimist).

Surreal art strives to express imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control. If you’re a Freudian, you will agree that which image you see first depends solely on your subconscious. Others might argue that you simply "see what you want to see".

I chose this painting because it seems to be free from the usual depictions of women in art. In John Berger’s “Ways Of Seeing”, Berger mentions how all art is influenced by surrounding. In this painting however, the illusions remain the same regardless of where you view it. Because this is a surrealist piece of art, it is not meant to imply any specific meaning. Surrealist art is one of the few arts that can’t be influenced by external forces.

Not to say that the art is meaningless, but it is so abstract and complex that its purpose is not to convey meaning but rather intends for the viewer to give it a meaning. This type of art is difficult to corrupt or alter because it is open to interpretation, unlike a lot of the paintings and images reviewed in Women and Film Studies which associate the female with an implied sexual or erotic connotation. Paintings such as “Girl In The Loft” by Anders Zorn aim chiefly to depict a naked woman, an attractive naked woman in some sexual position where she bares her entire body, especially at the most flattering angles. These types of paintings and sculptures come equipped with an attached meaning or denotation; there is only one literal thing happening within the painting or artwork.

In surreal paintings, there is usually an array of abstract and non-concrete things going on. They are things that don’t exactly make sense as a whole but can be picked apart or fit together to mean something to the individual. In this case, Berger is right when he says that “perception is the eye of the visible world”. In paintings such as “The Persistence Of Memory” by Dali or "Departure of The Winged Ship” By Vladimir Kush, there will never be one sole explanation of what is “literally” happening within the painting.

Surreal art is an art that is free from implicated meaning but open to whatever pre-conceived notions or emotions that the viewer might bring. It is free of manipulation or bias and cannot then suggest perverseness, or innocence, nor happiness or anger.