Giger's Homage To S.Beckett (1968)
inspired by Dali's The Great Masturbator


leading from

Homage to Beckett I, work 93

a) Recognising the great masturbator again
30th March 2016, an image of Giger's Homage to Beckett is posted by James Anthony Sergeant at the HR Giger - Art Club and Laura Reinbach states that she sees Dali in it. I had wondered before what might have inspired this painting and well, because of the flowing forms, there might have been Dali there, but then I decided that I had to work out which Dali it could be and then 4 hours later I look at it again, and I see that it must be roughly another reconfiguration of Dali's The Great Masturbator. I had noticed that Dali had used the painting for inspiration for National Park. (see:  HR Giger's National Park and Jean Cocteau's "Reveries of Opium", Children of Dali's "The Great Masturbator")


c. ii) Dali's The Great Masturbator (1929)

b) Transformed locust and downward facing head
The thing at the bottom a mutated version of the inverted locust, the downward facing humanoid head in the painting has been squashed somewhat but becomes part of the the lower body with the cheek transforming into an oval form, one might even want to compare it to the eye lid in Dali's painting, suggesting that it would then be a merger between the two because of the eyebrow line and eyelid shape showing up around the oval. What else takes form in Giger's painting is the merging of that shape with the soft architecture with the oval in it at the bottom right of Dali's painting which I will label as the rogue oval doughnut hole.

The head and the the legs of the locust have all been transformed by Giger into variations of the upper part of the lily to be found in Dali's painting, although the final thing's body looks like something made from dough. The wings have been transformed into some abstract part of the main semi humanoid upon which the dough like locust lies draped across

Great masturbator locust and lower half of Homage to Beckett

c) Transformed face of woman sniffing man's genitals
The head at the top being the man's shorts with the mouth being the woman's nose intersects with the testicle are. The general position of her eye had and face has been abstracted turned into the Cala lilly like form in Dali's painting as well.  Perhaps this area that would be the face has also been merged with the rogue oval doughnut hole as well as the head of the creature at the top.


woman's head and shorts in Dali's The Great Masturbator and head in Giger's Homage to Beckett


the lily from Dali's The Great Masturbator
d) Part of the lily beneath the clavicle and above the upper rib
However where the mouth of the deformed head appears can also be compared to the stamen of the lily with the curve of the head being the round upper part of the flower and the lower part of the petal
to the right of the rib beneath the clavicle of the woman being the white crescent shape in Giger's picture. Meanwhile the space between the clavicle and the rib become transforms into the oval space by the white crescent shape.


lily and clavicle from Dali's The Great Masturbator and comparative part from Giger's Homage to S Beckett



e) Transformed Woman's hair
The front of the woman's hair almost taking on a tentacle like form transforms into the pipe opening on the left.


Dali's The Great Masturbator's woman's hair and pipe opening from Giger's homage to Beckett


f) Transformation of soft architecture with hole and three branches
The rogue oval doughnut hole once again. This piece of soft architecture with hole and branches in Dali's The Great Masturbator and window with three ovals in Giger's Homage to Beckett. The window in Giger's painting with the three oval pipe openings at the side would be inspired by the shape at the bottom right with a hole in it as three branches next to or intersecting with it.
 
Soft architecture with hole and branches in Dali's The Great Masturbator
and window with three ovals in Giger's Homage to Becket


3 comments:

  1. Thank you for mentioning me and going into such great depth to analyse the two paintings. They are fantastic works of two equally erotic surrealists

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  2. Thanks for bringing up the subject. I've been getting into some depths with analysis of Giger's work. Probably a few more things to consider about this painting still.

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  3. Added another section showing the area of the Dali painting around the clavicle and upper rib and how that shows up in Giger's painting

    ReplyDelete