Living Still Life

Living Still Life is an oil on canvas painted by Salvidor Dali in 1956. I chose this piece because I found it interesting that while the picture can be termed a still life, Dalí incorporates irony by making it evident that nothing in the image is actually still. Even the knife on the table, for example, although not seemingly moving at all is interpreted by the human brain to be in motion. The mind infers that no everyday object can simply hover in the air and that gravity must be pulling down on it; therefore, the knife must be in a falling motion.