Le Sommeil 

Here we see Salvador Dalí's vision of sleep, painted with oils on canvas. It’s a traditional medium, but Dali used it in a thoroughly untraditional way. Consider the surface of this artwork; it’s incredibly smooth, almost like a photograph, and is far from the expressionistic brushwork used by many artists. The seamlessness of the painting might be read as a rejection of the messy materiality of labor, presenting his visions as if they've materialized effortlessly. However, there's a different way to interpret this technical mastery. Look closely at the figures on the face. The image is painted in the manner of a fresco, suggesting the hard work that went into the creation of a mural, as a parallel to the artist’s own labor. By engaging deeply with his medium, and the history of labor that it implies, Dalí encourages us to expand our definition of what art can be.