Out of Salvador Dali’s painting’s La Gare de Perpignan is the one I feel the strongest connection with.
What makes this artwork so intriguing and profound, is that it held a special significance to Dali. This being one of his most spiritual and personal paintings. He based it off his “vision of cosmogonic ecstasy” occurring in 1963, at La Gare de Perpignan.
Through Dali’s surrealistic techniques, he illustrates his mystical, liberating experience with beams of light emanating from an infinitesimal point in the far distance. To which, Dali finds his consciousness being drawn – symbolising his awareness transcending the physical realm.
Even from just a glimpse of this painting, I instantly feel a meaningful connection to what Dahli was conveying, reinforcing that no matter what, there is a non-physical point that we will inevitably be drawn back to and that consciousness exists independent of the body.
Dali communicates this in the painting through the two bodies, an opaque dark figure at the top representing the physical body, with the second body being drawn into the light representing his pure consciousness or essence returning to its source.
Having had a similar experience to what I believe Dahli had, I can relate to his understanding of reality and consciousness, although we interpret and communicate it differently. Dali’s artworks had a strong influence on me with his combination of technical skills and great imagination. It’s not so common that these two things come together in art.
I think it goes without saying – that what makes this painting invoke such strong feelings in me, is that it was one of his most powerful and enlightening experiences. As a result, he created this captivating masterpiece guiding the viewer’s consciousness into the light beyond the physical realm and into a state of cosmogonic ecstasy.