Cataluña and Castilla,Noucentisme and avant-garde: towards a reading of Salvador Dalí’s Autorretrato cubista (1923)

Salvador Dalí’s Autorretrato cubista is his only major painting done predominantly in the style of Analytic Cubism, although it also incorporates various examples of collage, typically associated with Synthetic Cubism. Close analysis of the compositional structure of the self-portrait, together with the identification and interpretation of the various objects and newspaper fragments glued to its surface, suggest the representation of a self divided and pulled simultaneously in different directions. The major lines of tension involve two oppositions: one between Cataluña and Castilla, that is to say, between a sympathetic stance towards Catalan nationalism versus Castilian centralism (tempered by the positive and horizon-expanding experience of student life in Madrid), and the other between the avant-garde and other artistic styles. This second tension manifests itself in the espousal of Analytic Cubism (with some features of Synthetic Cubism) and, at the same time, the inclusion of certain elements deriving from earlier tendencies, notably Noucentisme, a movement that in turn had very close links with Catalanism. In Autorretrato cubista, painted at the very end of 1923, it therefore seems possible to discern a complex and unresolved psychomachia of diverse and sometimes contradictory allegiances and influences played out on the canvas.