Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was a prominent surrealist painter known for his imaginative works that often explored dreams and reality. He gained fame for his unique style, characterized by vibrant colors, optical illusions, and exaggerated anatomy, with notable pieces including 'The Persistence of Memory' and 'Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man.' Dalí's health declined in the 1980s, leading to his death in 1989, and he was buried at the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Spain.

1. Salvador Dal
(1904 – 1989)

2. Surrealism
expression of the
imagination as
revealed in dreams,
free of the conscious
control of reason.

3. Biography :
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i
Domènech, 1st Marqués de Dalí de Pubol
was a surrealist painter.
Born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain
(close to the French border).
At 18, he studied Art at the School of Fine
Arts in Madrid.
He got a lot of attention because of his
appearance.
He wore his hair long,
with sideburns and wore knee
length pants and stockings
which were strange clothes for that time.

4. In 1924, he was expelled from the
School of Fine Arts for saying that no
one on the faculty of the school was
competent to test him.
Also in 1924 in Paris he met Pablo
Picasso, whom he admired and was
influenced by.
Dali married a Russian girl, Gala and
she has been depicted in many of his
works.
He grew a wild moustache, which
became a trademark of his personal
look for the rest of his life.
Landscape around Figueres
(1910)

5. His Paintings

6. The Persistence of Memory (1931)
His most famous painting, challenges the idea that time is
rigid. It is also said to be an interpretation of Einstein’s
theory of relativity–the warping of space & time by gravity.

7. Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New
Man (1943)
The painting shows the man
emerging from the egg to be
"new" nation, United States,
in the process of becoming a
new world power.
Africa and South America
are both enlarged,
representing the growing
importance of the Third
World,
while Europe is being
crushed by the man's hand,
indicating its diminishing
importance as an
international power. Blood
shows war.

8. Three Sphinxes of Bikini (1947)
Bikini Atoll was
a string of
islands where
nuclear testing
was done in the
1940s.
This painting is
said to depict
the three
“heads” of
humanity (the
human head),
Nature (the
trees) and
destruction (the
mushroom
cloud in the
distance).

9. Premonition of Civil War
(1936)
This painting
expresses the
destruction during the
Spanish Civil War.
The monster in this
painting is self
destructive just as a
Civil War is

10. Swans reflecting elephants (1937)
Here, the three swans in
front of bleak, leafless
trees are reflected in the
lake so that the swans'
heads become the
elephants' heads and the
trees become the bodies of
the elephants.
In the background of the
painting is a Catalonian
landscape depicted in fiery
fall colors, the brushwork
creating swirls in the cliffs
that surround the lake, to
contrast with the stillness
of the water

11. Les Elephants (1948)

12. The Temptation of St. Anthony,
(1946)

13. Sleep (1937)
Said to depict a monster help up by the crutches of reality

14. His style :
• Exploration of Colour Pallet
• Use of Optical Illusion
• Keeping personal trace in most of his paintings
•Exaggerated anatomy especially seen in his
popular paintings of long legged elephants
•Dali employed extensive symbolism in his
paintings

15. The Dali Atomicus, photo by Philippe Halsman (1948)
After World War II
ended, he returned
to Spain.
He had become
interested in
optical illusions as
a way of creating
false reality.
If you look closely
at this photo, you
can see the wires
holding up the
objects (something
we can do now
with computers!)
Dalí himself is the
man in mid air in
the center of the
photo.

16. As his health deteriorated in the
1980s, he was unable to continue
working.
In 1982, King Juan Carlos of Spain
bestowed upon him a title, making
him the Marquis of Dalí de
Púbol.The king visited Dalí in the
hospital shortly before he died of
heart failure on January 23, 1989.
He is buried at the Dalí theatre and
Museum in Figueres, Spain.

17. Thank
You…
Presented by :
Saptarshi Roy
FPT/12/25
FP (Tech) – 1
NIFT, Kolkata