Reviews

50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship by Salvador Dalí

binaellis's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

2.25

found out dali admired hitler :/

adammck's review against another edition

4.0

Reliably bananas, cheekily catty and self-aggrandizing, and sneakily dispensing intermittent insights about surrealism and the art of art. You'll learn about the critical importance of spiders and sea urchins to your creative process - which honestly, as someone with a job and small children, resonates as advice no less ludicrous than when ballyhooed books on creativity are like "start your day with 90 minutes of meditation, then some aromatherapy and quiet journaling time!" Bring on the spiders!

solflo's review

challenging slow-paced

not giving this one a rating because... it's complicated. it's interesting in the way a trainwreck is. you really have to detach yourself when reading this one. dali was absolutely insane. of course intentionally as a part of his persona, but doesn't make the book any less bizarre. in his "takes" on modern / contemporary art of course, and in his... artistic advice. also i kept getting deja vus of my first year painting teacher and that sure was something.

obviously don't go in expecting to find anything you can apply to your artistic practice, but at least skim it if you have the chance. i think it's probably worth reading if you're into surrealism / like dali's art and want to know just how unbearable he must have been.

riaislost's review against another edition

2.0

First of all, the pictures in this book are awesome ! But nevertheless this book is a though read. Though there are some interesting tips for painting, many seem to be abstruse or simply don’t make any sense. If you are interested in Dali’s way of sketching you should definitely have look at this book. As long as you didn’t previously like Dali’s writing, reading this book like a novel won’t be too enjoyable.