Facts on Salvador Dali
 Salvador Felipe Dali I Domenech was born
onMay 11,
1904 in Figueres, Spain. His art career began early with his
attendance at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts
in Madrid. While at the Academy, Dali gained
recognition with his first one-man show in
1925. In 1926,
however, Dali was expelled from the Academy at which time
he moved to Paris where he rubbed elbows with Pablo
Picasso, and met the woman who would be his lover and
inspiration, Gala Eulard. In 1929 Dali held his first one-man show
in Paris and joined the group of artists
known as the Surrealists. His painting of melting clocks,
titled The Persistance of
Memory, is one of
the best-known surrealist works of all
time. Dali’s
membership as one of the Surrealists was short-lived, due
to his apolitical beliefs in the face of World War
II. In 1934 the
Surrealists put Dali “on trial” and decided to expel him
from their organization. By 1940, Dali moved away from surrealism
and was painting with a scientific and religious
focus.
 Dali and Gala escaped Europe during World War II and resided in
the United
States. The move proved to be very fruitful, as
Dali was awarded his first major exhibit at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York during
1941. In 1942
Dali published his autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador
Dali. In 1949 Dali and Gala returned
to Europe, living in Catalonia during the rein of Franco whom Dali
reportedly supported. In 1980 his love and muse, Gala, would
prove to be the downfall of Dali’s
career. Nearly
completely senile, Gala would dose Dali with a narcotic
cocktail that eventually damaged his nervous system,
causing him to shake continuously and
uncontrollably.
Gala died in the castle Dali
had purchased for her in 1982, and at that point the
artist lost his will to live. After several possible suicide attempts
and battles with heart failure, Dali died
onJanuary 23,
1989.
 While Dali is best known for his paintings,
he did not limit himself to this one
media.
He was consigned by James Edwards to
complete two works that would
be an integral part of
Dali’s surrealist period.
These are a sculpture
called Lobster
Telephone, which
is literally a plaster lobster attached to the earpiece
of an antique telephone, and the Mae West Lips
Sofa, which is a
piece of furniture/ sculpture modeled after the actress’
lips.
In addition he designed a logo for
Chupa Chups, a Spanish lollipop.
Dali was also involved in film, and
collaborated with masters such as Alfred Hitchcock (a
dream sequence in Spellbound, 1945), and Walt Disney
(Destino, 1946).
 Dali himself was often viewed as a work of
surrealist art.
Frequently seen sporting a heavily-waxed
handlebar mustache, long cape, walking stick and a
colorful turban, he was notoriously
eccentric.
He once appeared on The Tonight Show, toting a large leather rhinoceros
which he insisted on sitting upon, and was noted as
saying, “every morning upon awakening, I experience a
supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador
Dalí"
.
During an interview with 60 Minute’s Mike
Wallace, Dali continuously referred to himself in the third
person, and arrogantly stated, “Dali is immortal and will not
die.”
Indeed, the surrealist and his work remain a
cornerstone of modern art.
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