Salvador Dali's, "The Invention of the Monsters" (1937), which is located at the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts surrealism through the artist's use of space, form, color, and iconography. In the following paper, I will discuss the developments of these elements in Dali's work.
             Dali juxtaposed forms in the nightmarish environment he created on canvas; it is haunting. He sets up his picture in parallel form between men and women. The women that have the double-faced masks are together, and the half-horse, half-females are together. It seems as though no matter how close they are to each other, they do not touch each other. Another characteristic of form would be with the little objects that are laying on the table. There is a human hand towards the lower left side of the drawing, holding an antique watch. Then there is another human hand holding a ball. The hand seems as though it could be the woman's hand that is sitting on the wooden altar. Towards the upper right-hand side of the table, lies a sculpture with two heads, perhaps this might have been a symbol of Dali's love that he has for his wife Gala since she was known for posing in his paintings. Based on Dali's Persistence of Memory, it seems as though he was still influenced by his previous painting in signifying that time was very important to him. Lastly, there is this dog that you can hardly see on the postcard, but you can actually see it in the real painting. It has been said that the blue dog, that was painted on the lower right-hand side of the painting, was done in an unstable pigment, that faded away within a few years from the artist's completion of his work. It was also said that this dog did not symbolize a monster of any kind.
             Dali's "Invention of the Monsters" is distinct in the way the artist treated the forms. For instance, the woman that is sitting on top of the wooden box is naked, and she is not fully developed. Half of her body is sit...