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Salvador Dalí

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Salvador Dalí
Dalí, photo by Carl Van Vechten, November 29, 1939
EducationSan Fernando School of Fine Arts, Madrid
Known forPainting, Drawing, Photography, Sculpture
MovementCubism, Dada, Surrealism

Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí Domènech or Salvador Felip Jacint Dalí Domènech (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), known popularly as Salvador Dalí, was a Catalan-Spanish artist who became one of the most important painters of the 20th century. A skilled draftsman, he is best known for his surrealist work identified by its striking, bizarre, dreamlike images. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. In addition to painting, his artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, photography, and an Academy Award-nominated short cartoon, "Destino," on which he collaborated with Walt Disney; it was released posthumously in 2003.

An artist of great imagination, Dalí had an affinity for doing unusual things to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork.






Endeavors outside painting

Dalí was a versatile artist, not limiting himself only to painting in his artistic endeavors. Some of his more popular artistic works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also noted for his contributions to theatre, fashion, and photography, among other areas.

Politics and personality

File:Dali Self-portrait.jpg
Self-portrait, 1921

The politics of Salvador Dalí played a significant role in his emergence as an artist. He has sometimes been portrayed as a fascist supporter. The reality is probably somewhat more complex; in any event, he was probably not an anti-semite, given that he was a friendly acquaintance of famed architect and designer Paul Laszlo, who was ethnically Jewish.

In his youth, Dalí embraced for a time both anarchism and communism. His writings account various anecdotes of making radical political statements more to shock listeners than from any deep conviction, which was in keeping with Dalí's allegiance to the Dada movement. When he fell into the circle of mostly Marxist surrealists who denounced as enemies the monarchists on one hand and the anarchists on the other, Dalí explained to them that he personally was an anarcho-monarchist.

File:Dali on the Rocky Steps.jpg
Dalí on the Rocky Steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Dalí fled from fighting and refused to align himself with any group. After his return to Catalonia after World War II, Dalí became closer to the Franco regime. Some of Dalí's statements supported the repression enacted under Franco's fascist regime, congratulating Franco for his actions aimed "at clearing Spain of destructive forces." Dalí sent telegrams to Franco, "praising him for signing death warrants for political prisoners." Dalí even painted a portrait of Franco's grand-daughter. It is impossible to determine whether his tributes to Franco were sincere or whimsical; he also once sent a telegram praising the Conducător, Romanian Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu, for his adoption of a sceptre as part of his regalia. The Romanian daily newspaper Scînteia published it, without suspecting its mocking aspect. Dalí's eccentricities were tolerated by the Franco regime, since not many world-famous artists would accept living in Spain. One of Dalí's few possible bits of open disobedience was his continued praise of Federico García Lorca even in the years when Lorca's works were banned.

In Carlos Lozano's biography, Sex, Surrealism, Dalí and Me, produced by the collaboration of Clifford Thurlow, Lozano makes it clear that Dalí never stopped being a surrealist. As Dalí said of himself: "the only difference between me and the surrealists is that I am a surrealist." Everything, including his support for Franco and telegrams to Ceauşescu, must be seen in this light. Dalí is famous for having said "every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí."

Listing of selected works

Gala in the window (1933), Marbella

Dalí produced over 1,500 paintings in his career, in addition to producing illustrations for books, lithographs, designs for theater sets and costumes, a great number of drawings, dozens of sculptures, and various other projects, including an animated cartoon for Disney. Below is a chronological sample of important and representative work, as well as some notes on what Dalí did in particular years:

  • 1910 Landscape Near Figueras
  • 1913 Vilabertin
  • 1916 Fiesta in Figueras (begun 1914)
  • 1917 View of Cadaqués with Shadow of Mount Pani
  • 1918 Crepuscular Old Man (begun 1917)
  • 1919 Port of Cadaqués (Night) (begun 1918) and Self-portrait in the Studio
  • 1920 The Artist’s Father at Llane Beach and View of Portdogué (Port Aluger)
  • 1921 The Garden of Llaner (Cadaqués) (begun 1920) and Self-portrait
  • 1922 Cabaret Scene and Night Walking Dreams
  • 1923 Self Portrait with L'Humanite and Cubist Self Portrait with La Publicitat
  • 1924 Still Life (Syphon and Bottle of Rum) (for García Lorca) and Portrait of Luis Buñuel
  • 1925 Large Harlequin and Small Bottle of Rum, and a series of fine portraits of his sister Anna Maria, most notably Figure At A Window
  • 1926 Basket of Bread and Girl from Figueres
  • 1927 Composition With Three Figures (Neo-Cubist Academy) and Honey is Sweeter Than Blood (his first important surrealist work)
  • 1929 Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog) film in collaboration with Luis Buñuel, The Lugubrious Game, The Great Masturbator and The First Days of Spring
  • 1930 L'Âge d'Or (The Golden Age) film in collaboration with Luis Buñuel
  • 1931 The Persistence of Memory (his most famous work, featuring the "melting clocks"), The Old Age of William Tell, and William Tell and Gradiva
  • 1932 The Spectre of Sex Appeal, The Birth of Liquid Desires, Anthropomorphic Bread, and Fried Eggs on the Plate without the Plate. The Invisible Man (begun 1929) completed (although not to Dalí's own satisfaction).
Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936)
Rinoceronte vestido con puntillas (1956), Puerto José Banús

The largest collections of Dalí's work are at the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, followed by the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades, California. Espace Salvador Dalí on Montmartre in Paris, France contains a large collection of his drawings and smaller sculptures.

The unlikeliest venue for Dalí's work was the Rikers Island jail in New York City; a sketch of the Crucifixion he donated to the jail hung in the inmate dining room for 16 years before it was moved to the prison lobby for safekeeping. The drawing was stolen in March 2003 by 4 prison guards and has not been recovered.

Notable students/disciples

References

  1. ^ Dalí, Salvador. (2000) Dalí: 16 Art Stickers, Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-41074-9.
  2. Saladyga, Stephen Francis. "The Mindset of Salvador Dalí". lamplighter (Niagara University). Vol. 1 No. 3, Summer 2006. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference navarro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. Cite error: The named reference coversations was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. Cite error: The named reference artcyclopedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí. Smithsonian Magazine. 2005. Retrieved August 31, 2006.
  7. "The Salvador Dalí Online Exhibit". MicroVision. Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  8. ^ "Dalí picture sprung from jail". BBC. March 2, 2003. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

Galleries

Biographies and news

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