Review – Dali’s Mustache

After finishing House of Leaves last week, I felt I needed to read something lighter. Luckily, I found, buried in the stack of unread books next to my bed, a copy of Dali’s Mustache. It was a gift from a friend who is well aware of my love of Dali’s work.

Fun fact: I was lucky enough to attend the grand reopening of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, back in 2011. I even picked up a couple of prints they were giving away for free. 

Back to the book. 

Philippe Halsman was a photographer active from the 1930s until his death in 1979. He was a pioneer in the art of photo manipulation (long before Photoshop) and it’s no surprise that he ended up in a friendship with surrealist painter, Salvador Dali. 

This book was a collaboration between the two, a pseudo-interview that allowed the two creators the opportunity to experiment and have fun. That’s really the theme of this book. Well, the main theme is Dali’s mustache, but fun is the second theme.

According to the postface written by Halsman, the project took many months and hundreds of photos. But the end result is silly, eye-opening, and made me laugh. Per Halsman, the project was collaborative, with both he and Dali coming up with ideas for poses and different things they could do with his facial hair. 

The layout is basically a question on a blank page, followed by a photo of Dali’s mustache in some sort of pose along with Dali’s short answer on the following page. None of the answers are serious, of course, because it’s Dali. But they do keep in line with the accompanying photos. 

What I also enjoyed about this book is the preface, written by Dali; the postface, written by Halsman; and the publisher’s notes at the end. The latter offers details on how some of the photos were composed and created, which was fascinating.

Halsman’s postface also breaks down a couple of the photos, like how difficult it was to find flies they could use in one of the shots, or how Dali’s mustache reacted to being pulled through the holes of a piece of Swiss cheese. 

Like I noted above, this is silly, surrealist fun.

I’ve been a fan of Dali since I first saw one of his paintings many years ago and I continue to find inspiration in not only his work, but the work of all surrealist artists.

I won’t say that you need to run out and pick up a copy of Dali’s Mustache, but if you do happen upon it in a bookstore I suggest you buy one. It can lighten your mood, make you laugh, and maybe even inspire you to do something creative and silly.

Have you ever been inspired by surrealist art? Or any particular painters or paintings?

RB