A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano Review

"A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano" by Salvador Dali, 1936

There’s no question that Salvador Dali is one of the most influential painters of all time. His landmark surrealist works push the boundaries of the painted image, and create a world unlike any other previously seen. The Art Institute of Chicago’s “A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano” (1936) stands as one of his most arresting works, utilizing his trademark otherworldly style to create an image that transcends space and time.

“A Chemist” depicts (in classic Dali style) a dream-like landscape occupied by various characters. The space they occupy is blank and bare, with clouds in the background. A chemist lifts a piano, a child holding a rope looks on, an undetermined womanly figure stands relaxed, a man leans lazily in the foreground, and a wizened old man who seems to be melting stares intently to away from it all. Far off in the distance we see a character meandering through the blank landscape – purposeless and barren.

The beauty of Dali is that his characters function both symbolically and viscerally. The painting’s greatest strength is its unexplainable emotional grab. The muted colors and flowing composition draw viewers into the world of Salvador Dali. Everything in the painting seems like it’s melting, and Dali’s sense of amiable line lets shapes bleed into the background and one another. The emotional effect of the piece is one of quiet reflection and austerity. We’re looking at the edges of the human mind, peering at characters created by the subconscious. They are frozen in time – the still products of a mind in contemplation.

The characters can also be read symbolically. The title of the piece suggest particular attention be paid to the chemist and his actions. Here Dali presents us with surreal duality – a man of science barely lifting a product of art. The piano can be molded and configured, suggesting music’s inherent scientific infusion. The rest of the characters provide less-obvious symbolic functionality. They act as observers to the chemist, but also seem to stand in as individual thoughts. We’re gazing at the freely associative subconscious of a surreal genius, and our very own intuition assigns symbolic meaning to these ghostly images.

The feeling of aimless wandering achieved through the colors and composition gives the painting its trademark among the vast Dali canon. There’s an incredible duality to the figures presented. They seem to be at once purposeful and purposeless. They function as symbols and emotional catalysts. They hint at concrete definition, yet avoid it at every turn. Dali’s success is in his elusiveness. “A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano” is affecting because of its haunting dreamscapes, surreal emotional power, and, ultimately, its inability to be concretely defined.