Don Quichotte et l’âge atomique 1957

'Don Quichotte et l’âge atomique', or Don Quixote and the Atomic Age, by Salvador Dalí, is a painting that throws you right into the deep end, doesn't it? I mean, look at those massive black brushstrokes slashing across the canvas like some kind of cosmic graffiti. You can almost feel Dalí's hand moving, wrestling with the image, trying to make sense of this crazy world. There’s a figure down below, arms outstretched like he’s trying to hold back the apocalypse. He has got this strange outfit on with butterflies on the lower half of his body and he looks like an alien. He has got someone standing on his head! The paint’s kind of thin and watery in places, which gives it this dreamy, ethereal quality, but then those thick black marks bring you crashing back to reality. Dalí was always playing with these big themes. Artists are constantly riffing off each other, stealing ideas, and pushing boundaries. This painting is just Dalí's way of joining the conversation. It’s messy, it’s chaotic, but it’s also strangely beautiful.