Member Reviews
Due to a passing in the family a few years ago and my subsequent health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for years after the bereavement. Thank you for the opportunity.
A well researched biography of Salvador Dali, providing insight into how his home life, the area and culture he grew up in, and family influenced his work. Of course this is perfect for any fan of Dali, but also for those interested in how art is shaped by environment.
I recommend " Salvador Dali at home ", it was an interesting and well written book. Thank you so much for giving me the chance to read this great writing!!
As a five year docent at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, FL I found this book breaks no new ground on Dalí’s life. Might be a good first Dalí book for a reader.
Das Leben Dalis in Zahlen (ausführliche timeline), großartigen Fotos und vielen interessanten Fakten über Land und Leute. Ist aber eher etwas für echte Fans.
Always been fascinated by Salvador Dali. So when this book available to read I jumped at the chance to request it. Salvador Dali at Home by Jackie De Burca was a good fascinating quick read and a very good insight into the life of Salvador Dali. His private life, his home, his culture and was beautifully illustrated with photos and his brilliant artwork.
A brilliant book about a talented great man who will always be admired for years to come.
This is ARC digital copy from NetGalley and White Lion Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Salvador Dali is a painter whose name you probably know; it is also possible that you do not fully understand him or his work. If that is true for you, this book provides a welcome opportunity to spend time with Dali and his family and to better understand the artist in context. The reader learns about Dali's parents' lives before he was born and the death of their earlier son whom they also named Salvador. The author speculates that, in this, may lie some of Dali's duality. Dali's home village, the places he lived, the teachers and the schools that influenced him are all acknowledged. There are quotes from Dali's own writings along with excellent painterly and photographic illustrations. If you would like to spend time with this enigmatic, surrealist, I encourage you to take a look at this book.
Thank you NetGalley and Quarto for this excellent read.
This was a beautiful book about Dali's private life, and his home Its well illustrated with photos and their a number of them I have seen the first time to know this genius a bit better
The Enfant terrible of Spanish art, Dali was, nevertheless, much more influenced by his background that I would have thought. This book offers an overview of the things that inspired Dali to become a leading name in the 20th century art world, a king (of art) as he liked to be in his childhood.
I especially liked the photos, some of which I saw now for the first time.
Beautiful book about Dali's private life, his home and his environment. Richly illustrated with photos and artworks (a number of them I have seen the first time) to know this genius a bit better.
A deservedly intelligent and comprehensive biography of Dali, which gives the reader a great sense of how much in his artwork and behaviour could be said to have been inspired by his upbringing, and more importantly, the environment he was growing, living and working in. That might make this sound like psychogeography or Pseuds' Corner waffle, but it's not – while being highly pictorial the book offers a lot of detail, and all about the right things, and all in the right way. I consider myself a fan of the artist but couldn't really have claimed to have read any biography of him. This taught me just enough for my tastes as a layman, and as a result I consider this book to have gone way beyond the limitations its emphasis and title imply. This is just a fabulous guide to Dali, with some very nice insight. I don't know how much you'd get from these pages if you've read ten books on the man this year, but I still think you should consider it, as for me this was wonderful.
White Lion Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Salvador Dalí at Home. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.
Salvador Dalí at Home reflects upon the famous artist's upbringing, connecting his love for the region in which he was born and lived to his works of art. This book is more about the composition of Dalí's family than about the artist himself. The author explores Dalí's relationships and his connection to the region in which he was born.
An issue I had with this book is that the author uses Dalí's autobiography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí" as fact, but decries the tome as "a wonderful web of unreliable memories, peppered with plenty of imagination..." (p.14). I am not convinced that the author fully demonstrated the premise that the environment in which Dalí grew up was instrumental in his vision as an artist.
There are beautiful photographs of the region in which Dalí lived, although I surmise that the landscape is vastly different now than when the artist lived. I did like seeing the representation of the artist's paintings, as I have always been a fan of Salvador Dalí's work. For such a short book, Salvador Dalí at Home is remarkably dense. I did learn a little about the artist's inspiration, but the delivery of the information did not hold my attention. This book did not do Dalí justice, as his vibrancy, imagination, and creativity did not shine through. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend Salvador Dalí at Home to other readers.
This was a fascinating biography of Dali. I knew next to nothing about him so it was really interesting to learn his background and how it influenced his work. The author did a good job of combining the facts with photos, presenting a compelling work.
This was very good insight into the life of Salvador Dali. He was a great man and to see the story of his life told through these pages were a blessing. I wish I could have met the man so famous for his paintings. I would love to visit and see his paintings as well. I am definitely going to add this to my to do list.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about Salvador Dali, then I strongly suggest you check out Salvador Dali at Home. Not only is it a great starting resource, but it’s incredibly in depth. Most of all it did a wonderful job applying context; connecting information about the artist to the paintings. That’s the sort of thing I really love in an art history book.
What I loved the most about this book is that you can tell how much research went into writing it – yet the information itself was presented neatly and cleanly. There’s nothing more frustrating that reading a biography where it feels like the author is spewing facts in your face. Here the details discovered all flow, and accompanying all of it are photos of Salvador Dali and his works. It’s all perfectly balanced and wonderfully done.
I wish I had been able to preview this in hardback format – I can only imagine how impressive it must look then. I’m going to have to check it out in store (and knowing me, pick up a copy for myself). Though I have little doubt that it’ll hold up to my expectations.
I gave this book a 5 out of 5 star review. It was an enjoyable biography and I would recommend. to others. Generously provided to me through NetGalley
I was very disappointed in this book, which is a book of essays accompanying an exhibit of Dali. I was hoping that it would be a profusely illustrated book showing how Dali's paintings reflected the landscape of his native Catalonia. I had seen some instances of this and wanted to explore it further.
Only one chapter deals with this. And the pictures & photographs it shows don't demonstrate this point.
And as is often the case on books on art exhibits, the essays are long and overly academic.
If your a Salvador Dali fan you’ll love this book......even if your not a fan you’ll enjoy reading about his life and the book has many pictures of not only him as a child with his family and an him as an adult but also pictures of his wonderful artwork....
Salvador Dali has fascinated art lovers for decades, and this book explores the influences which shaped who he was as a person and as an artist. Dali grew up a privileged only child in the early 1900's in Spain. His family indulged all his whims and desires. Dali was a standout at his Art School, although he cunningly managed to effect his dismissal during those years. He longed to travel to Paris to explore the open, free environment there, and his wishes came to fruition.
The photographs of locales, people and his works help to illuminate how this artistic genius came to be
This is ARC digital copy from NetGalley and White Lion Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Salvador Dalí at Home is very detailed overview of the artist, starting with his family’s circumstances before his birth right up to his death in 1989. There’s also numerous pictures of the artist and his works peppered throughout the book. I’m sure in a large hardback format they will look absolutely spectacular, unfortunately I was reading this through the kindle app on my phone so they weren’t nearly as impressive to look at.
The text is obviously very well researched and incredibly informative. De Burca has sourced numerous works and biographies and refers to them throughout. What I also quite liked about this book was how De Burca let the facts speak for themselves and kept any speculation about the artist’s motivations or feelings to an absolute minimum.
Overall, I really enjoyed this biography, particularly De Burca’s description of his childhood years which clearly helped shape the man he became. I feel this book was aimed at someone like me who quite liked what they’d seen of his work, but knew next to nothing of the artist himself. Does feel slightly unfortunate that I came away with an incredibly deep dislike of the Dali himself, and am completely aligned with George Orwell’s opinion of him.
Although, perhaps others maybe more sympathetic.