Deux têtes empalées 1966

Salvador Dalí made this watercolour called "Deux têtes empalées" in 1966. Look how Dalí approaches the heads as a kind of loose form, like a vessel for colour and texture. The skull on the left has these great splatters of ink, while the head on the right is more like a smeared portrait. It's interesting to see the physical qualities of watercolour painting at play here. The way the water pools and stains, creating these unexpected gradients, it feels a lot like how thoughts can just suddenly appear in your mind, unbidden. Notice the red streaks that run down the page from each head, they pool at the bottom like spilt wine on a tablecloth. Dalí was always interested in dreams and the subconscious, and the way he used paint here, it reminds me of some of Philip Guston's later works. Both artists used a kind of cartoonish shorthand to tackle quite complex emotional material. Art is like a conversation between artists, across time.