A Brief Analysis of Salvador Dali's "3 Sphinxes of Bikini"

7/16/2019 A Brief Analysis of Salvador Dali's "3 Sphinxes of Bikini"

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Prithvi Ramkumar

4/22/13

English 271

Description of a Surreal Painting: Final

The Three Sphinxes of Bikini

Artist: Salvador Dali

For reference, the Sphinx in the foreground I called the first Sphinx; the tree(s) I called the

second Sphinx, and the farthest Sphinx I called the third Sphinx.



While looking for surreal paintings by Salvador Dali, I stumbled past the “Three

Sphinxes of Bikini” and was immediately captivated by the symbolism and imagery. At first

glance, the three “Sphinxes” are immediately apparent in the flat landscape. The first and third

Sphinxes look like massive human heads, protruding from the ground as if they grew from it.

The hair of these Sphinxes is smoke-colored, and can be likened to a plume of smoke, perhaps

from an explosion. The second Sphinx is clearly two trees that join at the canopy to make the

shape of a human head, very similar to the other two Sphinxes. The conjunction of two trees to

make this Sphinx differentiates it from the others, leading me to believe that this Sphinx is more

significant than the other two. Off in the distance by the third Sphinx is a small mountain range,

which seems to separate the first two Sphinxes from the third. The sky is cloudy (or smoky) and

is illuminated by a pale yellow light that dissolves into a murky-green and eventually fades to

black. The shadows of the Sphinxes indicate a larger light source coming from the right (but not

depicted), and a white light emanates from behind the “neck” of the first Sphinx. I believe these

are both explosions. The landscape is pretty bleak- without animals, devoid of color, and draped

in an eerie pale-yellow veil that perverts the imagery, giving the impression of malice that not

only pervades the painting, but the human condition as well.

After a more exhaustive look at the painting, the imagery starts to have a more profound

meaning. I see the first and third Sphinxes as mushroom clouds and human heads at the same

time. The human head to me symbolizes the ego, and the ego manifests itself as the mushroom

cloud (in the painting) which is a symbol for destruction. I think the first and third Sphinxes are

symbols for the military-industrial complex which corrupt human values by profiting from war.

The size of the heads and the orientation of all 3 Sphinxes, suggest a conformity that effervesces

to the observer who is oriented in the same direction as all 3 of the Sphinxes. Maybe a political



critique is being made here: that the military-industrial complex is an institution that allows

people to avoid thinking. However, this could also be a more general observation that any social

structure/institution will orient people in the same direction. The second Sphinx is clearly a

symbol for nature. I think the way the two trees rise as individuals but meet together at the top is

a symbol for the way human societies should function and the broader point Dali may have been

trying to make is that nature embodies a system of morality that is ideal, and might be suggesting

a return to nature to better understand the world and what it means to be human.

One of the more complex interpretations of the painting I have is focused on the

perception of the first Sphinx. The first and third Sphinx are identical, but are separated. Though

we can’t see the “faces” of the Sphinxes, I get the impression that the first Sphinx is looking at

the other two. I also get the impression that the first Sphinx is a little more “human” than the

third. As the first Sphinx looks at the third from a detached perspective, it sees how the

destructive nature of the third Sphinx (a symbol for the atomic bomb) threatens the second

Sphinx and itself, without realizing it is the same as the third Sphinx (symbolically) and that its

existence threatens the second Sphinx as much as the third Sphinx does. I think Dali wanted the

observer to extrapolate this idea and apply it to the perception of self in the hope the observer

would realize that he or she contributes to the destruction of the world as much as the first and

third Sphinxes, though he or she probably doesn’t recognize it often, or at all.

The purpose of art is for the benefit of the observer- to affect the observer and their

perceptions. This painting is without absolute definition and meaning (as are most interesting

things in this universe) but that doesn’t stop it from affecting the observer. The meaning of this

painting to me comes from the change in perception that occurred in me while pondering it,



therefore, it must have a different meaning to everyone, but as long as the observer is affected,

the painting accomplishes its purpose.

A Brief Analysis of Salvador Dali's "3 Sphinxes of Bikini"

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