2. Salvador Domingo Feli-
pe Jacinto Dalí i Domè-
nech, Marquis of Dalí
de Púbol (May 11, 1904
– January 23, 1989),
commonly known as
Salvador Dalí was a
prominent Spanish Ca-
talan surrealist painter
born in Figueres.
Dalí was a skilled drafts-
man, best known for my passion for luxury
the striking and bizarre and my love of oriental
images in his surrealist clothes to a self-styled
work. His painterly ski- “Arab lineage,” claiming
lls are often attributed that his ancestors were
to the influence of Re- descended from the Mo-
naissance masters. His ors.
best-known work, The Dalí was highly imagi-
Persistence of Memory, native, and also had an
was completed in 1931. affinity for partaking in
Dalí’s expansive artistic unusual and grandiose
repertoire includes film, behavior. His eccentric
sculpture, and photogra- manner and attention-
phy, in collaboration with grabbing public actions
a range of artists in a sometimes drew more
variety of media. attention than his art-
Dalí attributed his “love work to the dismay of
of everything that is those who held his work
gilded and excessive, in high esteem and to
2
3. and to the irritation of
his critics.
Early life
Salvador Doménec
Felip Jacint Dalí i Do-
mènech was born on
May 11, 1904 at 8:45
a.m. in the town of
Figueres, in the Em-
pordà region, close
to the French border
in Catalonia, Spain.
Dalí’s older brother,
also named Salva-
dor (born October 12,
1901), had died of
gastroenteritis nine
months earlier, on
August 1, 1903. His
father, Salvador Dalí
i Cusí, was a middle-
class lawyer and no-
tary whose strict disci- his brother’s grave and
plinary approach was told by his parents that he
tempered by his wife, was his brother’s reincar-
Felipa Domenech Fe- nation, a concept which
rrés, who encouraged he came to believe.Of his
her son’s artistic en- brother, Dalí said, “... re-
deavors. When he was sembled each other like
five, Dalí was taken to two drops of water, but
3
4. we had different reflec- nized an exhibition of
tions. He “was probably his charcoal drawings
a first version of myself in their family home. He
but conceived too much had his first public exhi-
in the absolute.” bition at the Municipal
Dalí also had a sister, Theater in Figueres in
Ana María, who was 1919.
three years younger. In In February 1921, Dalí’s
1949, she published a mother died of breast
book about her brother, cancer. Dalí was sixteen
Dalí As Seen By His years old; he later said
Sister. His childhood his mother’s death “was
friends included future the greatest blow I had
FC Barcelona footba- experienced in my life. I
llers Sagibarba and worshipped her... I could
Josep Samitier. During not resign myself to the
holidays at the Catalan loss of a being on whom
resort of Cadaqués, the I counted to make invisi-
trio played football toge-
ther.
Dalí attended drawing
school. In 1916, Dalí
also discovered modern
painting on a summer
vacation trip to Cada-
qués with the family of
Ramon Pichot, a local
artist who made regular
trips to Paris. The next
year, Dalí’s father orga-
4
5. ble the unavoidable ble- Wild-eyed antics of Dalí
mishes of my soul.”After (left) and fellow surrea-
her death, Dalí’s father list artist Man Ray in
married his deceased Paris on June 16, 1934,
wife’s sister. Dalí did not photographed by Carl
resent this marriage, Van Vechten.
because he had a great In 1922, Dalí moved
love and respect for his into the Residencia de
aunt. Estudiantes (Students’
Madrid and Paris Residence) in Madrid
and studied at the Aca-
5
6. demia de San Fernando with Lorca had a strong
(School of Fine Arts). A element of mutual pas-
lean 1.72 m (5 ft. 7¾ in.) sion, but Dalí rejected
tall, Dalí already drew the poet’s sexual advan-
attention as an eccen- ces.
tric and dandy man. He However, it was his
wore long hair and side- paintings, in which he
burns, coat, stockings, experimented with Cu-
and knee breeches in bism, that earned him
the style of English aes- the most attention from
thetes of the late 19th his fellow students. At
century. the time of these early
At the Residencia, he works, Dalí probably did
became close friends not completely unders-
with (among others) Pe- tand the Cubist move-
pín Bello, Luis Buñuel, ment. His only informa-
and Federico García tion on Cubist art came
Lorca. The friendship from magazine articles
6
7. and a catalog given to work throughout his life.
him by Pichot, since the-
re were no Cubist artists Dalí was expelled from
in Madrid at the time. In the Academia in 1926,
1924, the still-unknown shortly before his final
Salvador Dalí illustrated exams, when he sta-
a book for the first time. ted that no one on the
It was a publication of faculty was competent
the Catalan poem “Les enough to examine him.
bruixes de Llers” (“The His mastery of painting
Witches of Llers”) by his skills was evidenced
friend and schoolmate, by his realistic Basket
poet Carles Fages de of Bread, painted in
Climent. Dalí also ex- 1926. That same year,
perimented with Dada, he made his first visit
which influenced his to Paris, where he met
7
8. with Pablo Picasso, in Barcelona attracted
whom the young Dalí much attention along
revered. Picasso had with mixtures of prai-
already heard favorable se and puzzled debate
reports about Dalí from from critics.
Joan Miró. As he deve- Dalí grew a flamboyant
loped his own style over moustache, influenced
the next few years, Dalí by seventeenth-century
made a number of wor- Spanish master painter
ks heavily influenced by Diego Velázquez. The
Picasso and Miró. moustache became an
Some trends in Dalí’s iconic trademark of his
work that would conti- appearance for the rest
nue throughout his life of his life.
were already evident in
the 1920s.
Exhibitions of his works
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