Endless Enigma

The paranoiac-critical method, created by Salvador Dalí, presented the manipulation of conventional images either by breaking up, or by decay, and added an equally important discovery: what are known as “paranoiac” or “double images” which are, in Dalí words, “the representation of an object which, without the least figurative or anatomical modification, is at the same time the representation of another absolutely different object.” These ambiguous images are perfectly discernible in paintings like L'homme invisible (The Invisible Man, 1929-1932), where there are at least six different types of these images, and Endless Enigma (1938). There are a number of precedents for these types of representations in art history, such as the Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s multifaceted figures of the 16^th century, or the phantasmagorical visions of Hieronymus Bosch.

Paloma Esteban Leal