Burning Giraffe Woman with Drawers by Salvador Dali Statue

Dali painted "Burning Giraffe" during his exile in the United States. Although Dal’ declared himself apolitical, "I am Dal’, and only that.", this painting shows his personal struggle with the battle in his home country. Characteristic are the opened draws in the blue female figure, which Dal’ on a later date described as "Femme-coccyx" (tail bone woman). This phenomenon can be traced back to Freud's psychoanalytical method, much admired by Dal’. He regarded him as an enormous step forward for civilization, witness his remark. "The only difference between immortal Greece and our era is Sigmund Freud who discovered that the human body, which in Greek times was merely neoplatonic, is now filled with secret drawers only to be opened through psychoanalysis." The opened drawers in this expressive, propped up female figure thus refer to the inner, subconscious within man. In Dal’'s own words his paintings form "a kind of allegory which serves to illustrate a certain insight, to follow the numerous narcissistic smells which ascend from each of our drawers.