Lago de Garda 1949

Salvador Dalí created this watercolour painting of Lago de Garda, and well, it's kind of a dream, right? The way the colours wash over the paper, bleeding into each other, it feels like a memory more than a landscape. Look at how the mountain is just a suggestion, a soft blue shape with a tower perched on top. It makes you wonder if Dalí was even there, or if he just dreamt it all up. And then you've got these vibrant, almost cartoonish flowers bursting out of the foreground, with their crazy energy. There's a little figure in red with an umbrella in front of a sign with the lake’s name, like a strange dream you can’t quite shake off. Dalí, like Picabia or Duchamp, wasn't afraid to poke fun at the art world while simultaneously being a master of it, don't you think? Like, is this for real, or is he messing with us? And maybe, just maybe, that's the point.