CRAZY OR GENIUS ?

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Salvador Dali is one of the best painters in the world. Salvador Dali is popularly

known as Dali. He is hugely popular around the world for creating a new genre in art

surrealism. Dali is known for his strange, right in the eye

bizarre images. Dali got strongly influenced by

thoughts, ideas and artworks of the Renaissance period.

Dali was eccentric by nature and he drew attention of his critics who remained mostly irritated by his weird antics and outrageous behaviour

and public actions. Dali was passionate about style,

statement making and luxury.

Family lifeSalvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí y Domenech was born on May 11, 1904, in Figueres, Spain, located 16 miles from the French border in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. His father, Salvador Dalí y Cusi, was a middle class lawyer and notary. Salvador's father had a strict disciplinary approach to raising children—a style of child-rearing which contrasted sharply with that of his mother, Felipa Domenech Ferres. She often indulged young Salvador in his art and early eccentricities.It has been said that young Salvador was a precocious and intelligent child, prone to fits of anger against his parents and schoolmates. Consequently, Dalí was subjected to furious acts of cruelty by more dominant students or his father. The elder Salvador wouldn't tolerate his son's outbursts or eccentricities, and punished him severely.

Their relationship deteriorated when Salvador was still young, exacerbated by competition between he and his father for Felipa's affection.

Dalí had an older brother, born nine months before him, also named Salvador, who died of gastroenteritis. Later in his life, Dalí often related the story that when he was 5 years old, his parents took him to the grave of his older brother and told him he was his brother's reincarnation. In the metaphysical prose he frequently used, Dalí recalled, "[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections." He "was probably a first version of myself, but conceived too much in the absolute."

Salvador, along with his younger sister Ana Maria and his parents, often spent time at their summer home in the coastal village of Cadaques. At an early age, Salvador was producing highly sophisticated drawings, and both of his parents strongly supported his artistic talent. It was here that his parents built him an art studio before he entered art school.

Upon recognizing his immense talent, Salvador Dalí's parents sent him to drawing school at the Colegio de Hermanos Maristas and the Instituto in Figueres, Spain, in 1916. He was not a serious student, preferring to daydream in class and stand out as the class eccentric, wearing odd clothing and long hair. After that first year at art school, he discovered modern painting in Cadaques while vacationing with his family. There, he also met Ramon Pichot, a local artist who frequently visited Paris. The following year, his father organized an exhibition of Salvador's charcoal drawings in the family home. By 1919, the young artist had his first public exhibition, at the Municipal Theatre of Figueres.

In 1921, Dalí's mother, Felipa, died of breast cancer. Dalí was 16 years old at the time, and was devastated by the loss. His father married his deceased wife's sister, which did not endear the younger Dalí any closer to his father, though he respected his aunt. Father and son would battle over many different issues throughout their lives, until the elder Dalí's death.

School and Surrealism In 1922, Dali enrolled at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. He stayed at

the school's student residence and soon brought his eccentricity to a new level, growing long hair and sideburns, and dressing in the style of English Aesthetes of the late 19th century. During this time, he was influenced by several different artistic styles, including Metaphysics and Cubism, which earned him attention from his fellow students—though he probably didn't yet understand the Cubist movement entirely.

In 1923, Dali was suspended from the academy for criticizing his teachers and allegedly starting a riot among students over the academy's choice of a professorship. That same year, he was arrested and briefly imprisoned in Gerona for allegedly supporting the Separatist movement, though Dali was actually apolitical at the time (and remained so throughout most of his life). He returned to the academy in 1926, but was permanently expelled shortly before his final exams for declaring that no member of the faculty was competent enough to examine him.

While in school, Dali began exploring many forms of art including classical painters like Raphael, Bronzino and Diego Velázquez (from whom he adopted his signature curled moustache). He also dabbled in avant-garde art movements such as Dada, a post-World War I anti-establishment movement. While Dali`s apolitical outlook on life prevented him from becoming a strict follower, the Dada philosophy influenced his work throughout his life.

Wife and Muse to Salvador Dalí

Dalí met his beloved wife, Gala, while she was still married to his friend, French poet Paul Eluard in 1929. Eluard diplomatically appeared as one of the witnesses at their wedding. The marriage offended Dalí’s family, who disapproved of Gala being both a mother and 10 years older than Dalí, and Dalí was disinherited by his Father as a result. Gala served as Dalí's muse through the most productive years of his artistic career. He often signed both his name and hers at the bottom of his paintings, reflecting the strength of their partnership. Gala was a frequent model for her husband, posing for sculptures and paintings including Portrait of Galerina (1945). The two sometimes participated in exhibitions together during the 1930s. Gala also managed the business side of Dalí's artistic career, handling all of the financial transactions associated with the sale of his work. Dalí and Gala were together until her death

In the Sixties Dalí got a pet ocelot called Babou, which accompanied him on a leash and a studded collar nearly everywhere he went – including, famously, in a restaurant in Manhattan. When a fellow diner became alarmed, he calmly told her that Babou was a normal cat that he had “painted over in an op art design”.

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Salvador Dali produced more than 1500 paintings in his lifetime. He also created

numerous drawings, illustrations, sculptures, short films, books and lithographs. Dali's paintings are often provocative and incredibly imaginative, which were not the

result of drug use. 

The Persistence of Memory

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Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man

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Facts about Salvador Dali Salvador also had an intense

fear of grasshoppers. He liked his wife because

she changed her clothes three times a day.

He was afraid to expose his feet.

When in public, he would jump up and down to get atention.

Dali hated to pay restaurant bills

His nick name was Avida Dollars, which, roughly translated means "eager for dollars".

He was kicked out of the official surrealist society in 1934.

At a posh New York costume party, Dali and his wife arrived dressed as the Lindbergh baby and the kidnapper. People were so offended that he had to issue a public apology.

Walt Disney and Salvador Dali collaborated on a short animated film called "Destino."

Dali designed the Chupa Chups logo.

Dali died of heart failure on 23rd January 1989. He was 84.

… "P.Halsman: Dalí,

what makes you tick?Dalí: My hairspring, of course." 

"P.Halsman: Dalí, why do you wear a mustache?Dalí: In order to pass unobserved." 

"P.Halsman: Dalí, what is surrealism?Dalí: Surrealism is myself." 

"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since." 

Quotes The only difference

between me and a madman is I'm not mad.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings

Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic

I am not strange. I am just not normal.

Let my enemies devour each other.

People always were arguing about Salvador Dali and they couldn`t answer the question

“Was he crazy or genius?”. For me he is genius with crazy ideas and behaves which

made him popular and gave his paintings something

special and becouse of this they`re unique as their

creator.

THANKS FOR WATCHING

Project is made by Ana Khvistani

17.12.2014