Biography: Salvador Dali – Part 2
December 28, 2009 by Portrait Painter
Filed under Abstract & Cubism
Meet Salvador Dali
Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism by which the real functioning of thought is expressed, by verbal, written, or artistic means.
Who: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali Domnech.
What: Master of Surrealism.
When: May 11, 1904-January 23, 1989.
Where: Born in Figueres, a small town in Spain bordering France.
Why: Imaginative and eccentric character who often did bizarre things to attract attention. Believed he was the reincarnation of his older brother, Salvador, who died nine months before his own birth, lending to an early inclination to surrealist thought.
How: In 1922, he began studying at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, where he experimented with Cubism (abstract art form where objects are broken up, analyzed and re-assembled) and Dada (purposely objected to every standard and accepted value of art). He was expelled in 1926, despite his astounding mastery of realistic painting. In 1929, he collaborated with Luis Buuel, a surrealistic film director, and met his muse and future wife, Gala. In 1931, he created one of his most famous works, The Persistence of Memory, of the surrealistic melting watch, suggesting Einstein’s relative theory of time. In 1934, art dealer Julian Levy introduced New York to Dali’s works, showing up at the exhibit in a glass case and a brassiere. In 1936, he was featured in the London International Surrealist Exhibition, arriving in a deep-sea diving suit. In 1944, he painted Dream Caused by the Flight of the Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening, influenced by Sigmund Freud and Dali’s exploration of dreams. In 1949, he returned to Catalonia, Spain. In 1959, he took part in the Homage to Surrealism exhibit, organized by Andre Breton, the founder of surrealism. From 1960 through 1974, his main focus of artistic energy was on the Dali Theatre and Museum in his hometown of Figueres. In 1989, Dali passed away of heart failure and was buried in the crypt of his museum.
Fun Facts:
- Though recognized as the father of surrealistic painting, Dali experimented with many unusual kinds of media, like his bulletist (shooting ink at a blank sheet of paper) work, holography, and his incorporation of optical illusions.
- Dali was fascinated with Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and human DNA.
- Symbolic images within Dali’s paintings include clocks, elephants, eggs and ants.
- Dali was an iconic influence for Andy Warhol.
- Other artistic endeavors include filmmaking, scriptwriting, theatre, fashion, photography, sculpture, scenery construction, writing, jewelry making, and an animated cartoon for Walt Disney.
- A donated sketch of the Crucifixion hung in New York City’s Rikers Island jail for 16 years before it was stolen in March 2003, and has yet to be recovered.
- Andre Breton, longtime friend and foe, nicknamed him Avida Dollars, an anagram implicative of Dali’s greediness.
- One of Dali’s most recognized characteristics is his upturned, waxed mustache.
- In a Sixty Minutes interview, Dali spoke only in third person and claimed, “Dali is immortal and will not die.”
- In 1982, King Juan Carlos of Spain bestowed him with the title Marquis of Pubol.
- The largest collections of Dali’s works are housed in the Dali Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain; and in the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.