Critical Paranoia

The Spaniard Salvador Dali adds the ‘paranoiac-critical’ 22 method to the surrealist toolbox, writing that ‘I believe the moment is at hand when, by a paranoic and active effort of the mind, it will be possible (simultaneous to automatism and other passive states), to systematise confusion and thus to help discredit completely the world of reality.’ 23

“This postcard of African tribesmen by their huts [when rotated, right] holds a face, first discovered by Dali.” 29

Thus begins his use of the double image, as in the reproduction below, through the technique he terms ‘critical paranoia’. 9

Salvador Dali: Slave Market with disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940) 28