L'heure triangulaire (The Triangular Hour) is a relatively small artwork, measuring around 62cm tall by 48 cm wide. It is one of the artist's more simplistic compositions, but still well worthy of study. We find first a rockface in the foreground, with bright sky behind. There is a natural hole in the centre of the painting that allows us to view through the rock towards a desert landscape behind which holds a single figure, motionless on the sand. There are also rolling hills in the very far background, no doubt inspired by the artist's upbringing in the town of Figueras, Northern Spain. This bright, warm colour scheme is found in almost all of his surrealist period, where ever landscapes have been used across the background.
There are a few rocks placed delicately around the central construction, but mostly crucially we find a small bust as well as the melting clock as found in a number of this artist's paintings. Dali created a signature style with a number of surrealist items that occur again and again across multiple paintings and then again in other disciplines, such as sculpture, drawing and jewellery. These help us to draw some of his works from this period together, through this repetition. Surrealism is a style of painting that offers true freedom, Dali could essentially dive into his dreams and his conscious mind to find all manner of inspirations for his work during this period of his career.
The original artwork can be found at the Kagoshima City Museum of Art, Kagoshima, Japan and is one of the few Dali paintings to be found outside Europe and North America. The artist remains a truly global icon of 20th century art and so this dispersal of his original artworks helps to retain his popularity and reputation with younger audiences who may not be quite as aware of his impact. There is also a continued sharing of cultures today, more so than ever before, with Japanese art being popular in the west, and some Japanese cities now providing original artworks from western artists as well, with both regions aiming to provide a more comprehensive array of global art.
