Oh don't get me wrong, the quality of his work, his skill as a painter are unquestionable.
If I were to take a photo (as I can't paint) of a salmon on an old style telephone where the reciever should be, to me, although that would be surreal in that you wouldn't in reality have a salmon on a telephone reciever, it's trying to be surreal.
Perhaps it's that the surrealism is the subject of his artwork, rather than a blended in part of it.
It just feels to me as though Dali painted to create surreal paintings to keep up the interest in surrealism and therefore himself, rather than painting to express something inside.
Maybe I'm just too cynical, but I feel the same about Warhol, who's art I don't rate one iota.
I think if I ever had a dream in the style of either, I'd fall asleep out of boredom!
Now Giger on the other hand, I love the dreams I have in his style (even the ones without aliens).
When I look at most of his work (some of his sculptures are in a similar vein to Dali and I don't think they're his best work) it feels like it's actually come from him.
Perhaps it's because I know he's a perfectionist through reports of his work with various film productions such as Alien, the never made Ridley Scott Dune, and Species, and the care he has for his creations expressed in his distaste at how other modify or treat them.
He also appreciates others for their artistic ability rather than who they are (I know of someone who was invited to lunch with him because they had made and were selling Gigeresque chess boards, they thought they were in trouble, but he was very impressed), although having said that, he was a fan and aquaintance of Dali.
Or maybe I just like being able to play "spot the genitalia" with Giger's work
I'd love to have his dining table set.
