Salvador Dali (1904-1989):
Spanish surrealist artist and showman noted for the "paranoiac-critical method" involving various forms of irrational association, notably using images which changed according to a viewer's perception.
"a house with its frame cut in half":
Doesn't refer to a specific Dali image, but "Suburbs of a Paranoiac-Critical Town: Afternoon on the Outskirts of European History" (1936) uses a similar concept.
"strange swans":
"Swans Reflecting Elephants" (1937)
"clocks that would melt": (Watches, not clocks, actually)
"The Persistence of Memory" (1931)
"The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory" (1952-4)
"burning giraffe":
"The Burning Giraffe" (1936-7)
René Magritte (1898-1967)
Belgian artist, one of the most prominent Surrealist painters whose bizarre flights of fancy blended horror, peril, comedy, and mystery. His works were characterized by particular symbols, including the female torso, the bourgeois "little man," the bowler hat, the castle, the rock, and the window.
"In the sky the sun shone, but the house was in night":
"The Dominion of Light" (1954)
"René's bowler hat nearly blocked all his sight":
"The Son of Man" (1964) (bowler and apple),"That's not a pipe" / "Ceci n'est pas une pipe":
"The Treachery of Images" (1929)
"This is not my beautiful house; this is not my beautiful wife; same as it ever was":
Quote from the song "Once in a Lifetime" (Talking Heads, 1980, from the album "Remain in Light")
The Magritte/Heads joke comes from a play in "Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind" by the Neo-Futurists in Chicago.
M. C. (Maurits Cornelis) Escher (1898-1972):
Dutch graphic artist, most recognized for spatial illusions, impossible buildings, repeating geometric patterns (tessellations), and his incredible techniques in woodcutting and lithography.
"On all of the desks there were lizards to spare":
"Reptiles" (1943, Lithograph),
following the study
"Lizards; Symmetry Drawing 25" (1939, India Ink, pencil, watercolor)
"Outside was inside":
"Convex and Concave" (1955, Lithograph)
"When he walked down the stairs... he walked up the stairs":
"Ascending and Descending" (1960, Lithograph), but also
"Relativity" (1953, Woodcut and lithograph), and others
"René and Georgette Magritte after the war":
Quote from the song "René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War" (Paul Simon, 1983, from the album "Hearts and Bones")
"Max and Yves..."
Max Ernst (1891-1976), German painter, sculptor, one of the leading advocates of irrationality in art, and an originator of the Automatism movement of Surrealism.
Yves Tanguy (1900-1955), French-born American surrealist artist.
