Early life Salvador Dalí was born on 11 May 1904, at 8:45 am, on the first floor of Carrer Monturiol, 20 in the town of Figueres, in the
Empordà region, close to the French border in Catalonia, Spain. Dalí's older brother, who had also been named Salvador (born 12 October 1901), had died of gastroenteritis nine months earlier, on 1 August 1903. His father, Salvador Luca Rafael Aniceto Dalí Cusí (1872–1950) was a middle-class lawyer and notary, an anti-clerical atheist and Catalan federalist, whose strict disciplinary approach was tempered by his wife, Felipa Domènech Ferrés (1874–1921), who encouraged her son's artistic endeavors. In the summer of 1912, the family moved to the top floor of Carrer Monturiol 24 (presently 10). Dalí later attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to an "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were descendants of the
Moors. Dalí was haunted by the idea of his dead brother throughout his life, mythologizing him in his writings and art. Dalí said of him, "[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections." He "was probably the first version of myself but conceived too much in the absolute". Dalí also had a sister, Anna Maria, who was three years younger, His childhood friends included future
FC Barcelona footballers
Emili Sagi-Barba and
Josep Samitier. During holidays at the Catalan resort town of
Cadaqués, the trio played football together. Dalí attended the Municipal Drawing School at Figueres in 1916 and also discovered modern painting on a summer vacation trip to Cadaqués with the family of
Ramon Pichot, a local artist who made regular trips to Paris. a site he would return to decades later. In early 1921 the Pichot family introduced Dalí to
Futurism. That same year, Dalí's uncle Anselm Domènech, who owned a bookshop in Barcelona, supplied him with books and magazines on
Cubism and contemporary art. On 6 February 1921, Dalí's mother died of uterine cancer. Dalí was 16 years old and later said his mother's death "was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. I worshipped her ... I could not resign myself to the loss of a being on whom I counted to make invisible the unavoidable blemishes of my soul." After the death of Dalí's mother, Dalí's father married her sister. Dalí did not resent this marriage, because he had great love and respect for his aunt. Dalí already drew attention as an eccentric and dandy. He had long hair and sideburns, coat, stockings, and knee-breeches in the style of English
aesthetes of the late 19th century. At the Residencia, he became close friends with
Pepín Bello,
Luis Buñuel,
Federico García Lorca, and others associated with the Madrid avant-garde group Ultra. The friendship with Lorca had a strong element of mutual passion, but Dalí said he rejected the poet's sexual advances. Dalí's friendship with Lorca was to remain one of his most emotionally intense relationships until the poet's death at the hands of
Nationalist forces in 1936 at the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War. Each Sunday morning, Dalí went to the Prado to study the works of the great masters. 'This was the start of a monk-like period for me, devoted entirely to solitary work: visits to the Prado, where, pencil in hand, I analyzed all of the great masterpieces, studio work, models, research.' Those paintings by Dalí in which he experimented with Cubism earned him the most attention from his fellow students, since there were no Cubist artists in Madrid at the time.
Cabaret Scene (1922) is a typical example of such work. Through his association with members of the Ultra group, Dalí became more acquainted with avant-garde movements, including
Dada and
Futurism. One of his earliest works to show a strong Futurist and Cubist influence was the watercolor
Night-Walking Dreams (1922). At this time, Dalí also read Freud and
Lautréamont who were to have a profound influence on his work. In May 1925, Dalí exhibited eleven works in a group exhibition held by the newly formed
Sociedad Ibérica de Artistas in Madrid. Seven of the works were in his Cubist mode and four in a more realist style. Several leading critics praised his work. Dalí held his first solo exhibition at
Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona, from 14 to 27 November 1925. This exhibition, before his exposure to Surrealism, included twenty-two works and was a critical and commercial success. In April 1926, Dalí made his first trip to Paris, where he met
Pablo Picasso, whom he revered. Dalí was also influenced by the work of
Yves Tanguy, and he later allegedly told Tanguy's niece, "I pinched everything from your uncle Yves." Dalí left the Royal Academy in 1926, shortly before his final exams. Later that year he exhibited again at Galeries Dalmau, from 31 December 1926 to 14 January 1927, with the support of the art critic . The show included twenty-three paintings and seven drawings, with the "Cubist" works displayed in a separate section from the "objective" works. The critical response was generally positive with
Composition with Three Figures (Neo-Cubist Academy) singled out for particular attention. '' (1929); oil on canvas, 110 cm × 150 cm,
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía From 1927, Dalí's work became increasingly influenced by Surrealism. Two of these works,
Honey is Sweeter than Blood (1927) and
Gadget and Hand (1927), were shown at the annual Autumn Salon (Saló de tardor) in Barcelona in October 1927. Dalí described the earlier of these works,
Honey is Sweeter than Blood, as "equidistant between Cubism and Surrealism". The works featured many elements that were to become characteristic of his Surrealist period including dreamlike images, precise draftsmanship, idiosyncratic iconography (such as rotting donkeys and dismembered bodies), and lighting and landscapes strongly evocative of his native Catalonia. The works provoked bemusement among the public and debate among critics about whether Dalí had become a Surrealist. Influenced by his reading of Freud, Dalí increasingly introduced suggestive sexual imagery and symbolism into his work. He submitted
Dialogue on the Beach (Unsatisfied Desires) (1928) to the Barcelona Autumn Salon for 1928; however, the work was rejected because "it was not fit to be exhibited in any gallery habitually visited by the numerous public little prepared for certain surprises." The resulting scandal was widely covered in the Barcelona press and prompted a popular Madrid illustrated weekly to publish an interview with Dalí. Some trends in Dalí's work that would continue throughout his life were already evident in the 1920s. Dalí was influenced by many styles of art, ranging from the most academically classic, to the most cutting-edge
avant-garde. His classical influences included
Raphael,
Bronzino,
Francisco de Zurbarán,
Vermeer and
Velázquez. Exhibitions of his works attracted much attention and a mixture of praise and puzzled debate from critics who noted an apparent inconsistency in his work by the use of both traditional and modern techniques and motifs between works and within individual works. In the mid-1920s Dalí grew a neatly trimmed mustache. In later decades he cultivated a more flamboyant one in the manner of 17th-century Spanish master painter
Diego Velázquez, and this mustache became a well known Dalí icon.
1929 to World War II In 1929, Dalí collaborated with Surrealist film director
Luis Buñuel on the short film (
An Andalusian Dog). His main contribution was to help Buñuel write the script for the film. Dalí later claimed to have also played a significant role in the filming of the project, but this is not substantiated by contemporary accounts. In August 1929, Dalí met his lifelong muse and future wife
Gala, born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. She was a Russian immigrant ten years his senior, who at that time was married to Surrealist poet
Paul Éluard. In works such as
The First Days of Spring,
The Great Masturbator and
The Lugubrious Game Dalí continued his exploration of the themes of sexual anxiety and unconscious desires. Dalí's first Paris exhibition was at the recently opened Goemans Gallery in November 1929 and featured eleven works. In his preface to the catalog,
André Breton described Dalí's new work as "the most hallucinatory that has been produced up to now". The exhibition was a commercial success but the critical response was divided. In 1931, Dalí painted one of his most famous works,
The Persistence of Memory, which developed a surrealistic image of soft, melting pocket watches. The general interpretation of the work is that the soft watches are a rejection of the assumption that time is rigid or deterministic. This idea is supported by other images in the work, such as the wide expanding landscape, and other limp watches shown being devoured by ants. Dalí had two important exhibitions at the Pierre Colle Gallery in Paris in June 1931 and May–June 1932. The earlier exhibition included sixteen paintings of which
The Persistence of Memory attracted the most attention. Some of the notable features of the exhibitions were the proliferation of images and references to Dalí's muse Gala and the inclusion of Surrealist Objects such as
Hypnagogic Clock and
Clock Based on the Decomposition of Bodies. Dalí's last, and largest, the exhibition at the Pierre Colle Gallery was held in June 1933 and included twenty-two paintings, ten drawings, and two objects. One critic noted Dalí's precise draftsmanship and attention to detail, describing him as a "paranoiac of geometrical temperament". Dalí's first New York exhibition was held at
Julien Levy's gallery in November–December 1933. The exhibition featured twenty-six works and was a commercial and critical success. The
New Yorker critic praised the precision and lack of sentimentality in the works, calling them "frozen nightmares". Dalí and Gala, having lived together since 1929, were civilly married on 30 January 1934 in Paris. They later remarried in a Church ceremony on 8 August 1958 at Sant Martí Vell. In addition to inspiring many artworks throughout her life, Gala would act as Dalí's business manager, supporting their extravagant lifestyle while adeptly steering clear of insolvency. Gala, who herself engaged in extra-marital affairs, seemed to tolerate Dalí's dalliances with younger muses, secure in her own position as his primary relationship. Dalí continued to paint her as they both aged, producing sympathetic and adoring images of her. The "tense, complex and ambiguous relationship" lasting over 50 years would later become the subject of an opera,
Jo, Dalí (
I, Dalí) by Catalan composer Xavier Benguerel. artist
Man Ray in Paris on 16 June 1934 Dalí's first visit to the United States in November 1934 attracted widespread press coverage. His second New York exhibition was held at the Julien Levy Gallery in November–December 1934 and was again a commercial and critical success. Dalí delivered three lectures on Surrealism at the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and other venues during which he told his audience for the first time that "[t]he only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad." The heiress
Caresse Crosby, the inventor of the brassiere, organized a farewell fancy dress ball for Dalí on 18 January 1935. Dalí wore a glass case on his chest containing a brassiere and Gala dressed as a woman giving birth through her head. A Paris newspaper later claimed that the Dalís had dressed as the
Lindbergh baby and his
kidnapper, a claim which Dalí denied. While the majority of the Surrealist group had become increasingly associated with leftist politics, Dalí maintained an ambiguous position on the subject of the proper relationship between politics and art. Leading Surrealist
André Breton accused Dalí of defending the "new" and "irrational" in "the
Hitler phenomenon", but Dalí quickly rejected this claim, saying, "I am Hitlerian neither in fact nor intention". Dalí insisted that Surrealism could exist in an apolitical context and refused to explicitly denounce fascism. Later in 1934, Dalí was subjected to a "trial", in which he narrowly avoided being expelled from the Surrealist group. To this, Dalí retorted, "The difference between the Surrealists and me is that I am a Surrealist." in 1936 In 1936, Dalí took part in the
London International Surrealist Exhibition. His lecture, titled , was delivered while wearing a deep-sea diving suit and helmet. He had arrived carrying a billiard cue and leading a pair of Russian wolfhounds and had to have the helmet unscrewed as he gasped for breath. He commented that "I just wanted to show that I was 'plunging deeply into the human mind." Dalí's first solo London exhibition was held at the Alex, Reid, and Lefevre Gallery the same year. The show included twenty-nine paintings and eighteen drawings. The critical response was generally favorable, although the Daily Telegraph critic wrote: "These pictures from the subconscious reveal so skilled a craftsman that the artist's return to full consciousness may be awaited with interest." In December 1936, Dalí participated in the
Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibition at MoMA and a solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. Both exhibitions attracted large attendances and widespread press coverage. The painting
Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936) attracted particular attention. Dalí later described it as, "a vast human body breaking out into monstrous excrescences of arms and legs tearing at one another in a delirium of auto-strangulation". On 14 December, Dalí, aged 32, was featured on the cover of
Time magazine. From 1936 Dalí's main patron in London was the wealthy
Edward James who would support him financially for two years. One of Dalí's most important paintings from the period of James' patronage was
The Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937). They also collaborated on two of the most enduring icons of the Surrealist movement: the
Lobster Telephone and the
Mae West Lips Sofa. Dalí was in London when the
Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936. When he later learned that his friend Lorca had been executed by
Nationalist forces, Dalí's claimed response was to shout: "Olé!" Dalí was to include frequent references to the poet in his art and writings for the remainder of his life. Nevertheless, Dalí avoided taking a public stand for or against the
Republic for the duration of the conflict. In January 1938, Dalí unveiled
Rainy Taxi, a three-dimensional artwork consisting of an automobile and two mannequin occupants being soaked with rain from within the taxi. The piece was first displayed at the Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris at the
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, organized by
André Breton and
Paul Éluard. The Exposition was designed by artist
Marcel Duchamp, who also served as host. In March that year, Dalí met
Sigmund Freud thanks to
Stefan Zweig. As Dalí sketched Freud's portrait, Freud whispered, "That boy looks like a fanatic." Dalí was delighted upon hearing later about this comment from his hero. In September 1938, Salvador Dalí was invited by
Gabrielle Coco Chanel to her house "La Pausa" in Roquebrune on the French Riviera. There he painted numerous paintings he later exhibited at Julien Levy Gallery in New York. This exhibition in March–April 1939 included twenty-one paintings and eleven drawings.
Life reported that no exhibition in New York had been so popular since Whistler's
Mother was shown in 1934. At the
1939 New York World's Fair, Dalí debuted his
Dream of Venus Surrealist pavilion, located in the Amusements Area of the exposition. It featured bizarre sculptures, statues, mermaids, and live nude models in "costumes" made of fresh seafood, an event photographed by Horst P. Horst, George Platt Lynes, and Murray Korman. Soon after
Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War in April 1939, Dalí wrote to Luis Buñuel denouncing socialism and Marxism and praising Catholicism and the
Falange. As a result, Buñuel broke off relations with Dalí. In the May issue of the Surrealist magazine
Minotaure, André Breton announced Dalí's expulsion from the Surrealist group, claiming that Dalí had espoused race war and that the over-refinement of his
paranoiac-critical method was a repudiation of Surrealist
automatism. This led many Surrealists to break off relations with Dalí. In 1949 Breton coined the derogatory nickname "Avida Dollars" (avid for dollars), an anagram for "Salvador Dalí". This was a derisive reference to the increasing commercialization of Dalí's work, and the perception that Dalí sought self-aggrandizement through fame and fortune.
World War II The outbreak of
World War II in September 1939 saw the Dalís in France. Following the German invasion, they were able to escape because on 20 June 1940 they were issued visas by
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, France. They crossed into Portugal and subsequently sailed on the
Excambion from Lisbon to New York in August 1940. Dalí and Gala were to live in the United States for eight years, splitting their time between New York and the
Monterey Peninsula, California. Dalí spent the winter of 1940–41 at Hampton Manor, the residence of
Caresse Crosby, in Caroline County, Virginia, where he worked on various projects including his autobiography and paintings for his upcoming exhibition. Dalí announced the death of the Surrealist movement and the return of classicism in his exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in April–May 1941. The exhibition included nineteen paintings (among them
Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire and
The Face of War) and other works
. In his catalog essay and media comments, Dalí proclaimed a return to form, control, structure and the
Golden Section. Sales however were disappointing and the majority of critics did not believe there had been a major change in Dalí's work. On 2 September 1941, he hosted
A Surrealistic Night in an Enchanted Forest in Monterey, a charity event which attracted national attention but raised little money for charity. and
Joan Miró from November 1941 to February 1942, Dalí being represented by forty-two paintings and sixteen drawings. Dalí's work attracted significant attention of critics and the exhibition later toured eight American cities, enhancing his reputation in America. In October 1942, Dalí's autobiography,
The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí was published simultaneously in New York and London and was reviewed widely by the press. Time magazine's reviewer called it "one of the most irresistible books of the year". George Orwell later wrote a scathing review in the
Saturday Book. A passage in the autobiography in which Dalí claimed that Buñuel was solely responsible for the anti-clericalism in the film ''L'Age d'Or
may have indirectly led to Buñuel resigning his position at MoMA in 1943 under pressure from the State Department. Dalí also published a novel Hidden Faces'' in 1944 with less critical and commercial success. In the catalog essay for his exhibition at the Knoedler Gallery in New York in 1943, Dalí continued his attack on the Surrealist movement, writing: "Surrealism will at least have served to give experimental proof that total sterility and attempts at automatizations have gone too far and have led to a totalitarian system. ... Today's laziness and the total lack of technique have reached their paroxysm in the psychological signification of the current use of the college
[collage]". The critical response to the society portraits in the exhibition, however, was generally negative. In November–December 1945 Dalí exhibited new work at the
Bignou Gallery in New York. The exhibition included eleven oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and illustrations. Works included
Basket of Bread,
Atomic and Uranian Melancholic Ideal, and
My Wife Nude Contemplating her own Body Transformed into Steps, the Three Vertebrae of a Column, Sky and Architecture. The exhibition was notable for works in Dalí's new classicism style and those heralding his "atomic period". During the war years, Dalí was also engaged in projects in various other fields. He executed designs for a number of ballets including
Labyrinth (1942),
Sentimental Colloquy,
Mad Tristan, and
The Cafe of Chinitas (all 1944). In 1945 he created the dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's film
Spellbound. He also produced artwork and designs for products such as perfumes, cosmetics, hosiery and ties.
Postwar in United States (1946–48) In 1946, Dalí worked with Walt Disney and animator John Hench on an unfinished animated film
Destino. Dalí exhibited new work at the Bignou Gallery from November 1947 to January 1948. The 14 oil paintings and other works in the exhibition reflected Dalí's increasing interest in atomic physics. Notable works included
Dematerialization Near the Nose of Nero (The Separation of the Atom), ''Intra-Atomic Equilibrium of a Swan's Feather
, and a study for Leda Atomica''. The proportions of the latter work were worked out in collaboration with a mathematician. In early 1948, Dalí's
50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship was published. The book was a mixture of anecdotes, practical advice on painting, and Dalínian polemics.
Later years in Spain In 1948, Dalí and Gala moved back into their house in Port Lligat, on the coast near
Cadaqués. For the next three decades, they would spend most of their time there, spending winters in Paris and New York. In 1960, André Breton unsuccessfully fought against the inclusion of Dalí's
Sistine Madonna in the ''Surrealist Intrusion in the Enchanter's Domain'' exhibition organized by Marcel Duchamp in New York. Breton and other Surrealists issued a tract to coincide with the exhibition denouncing Dalí as "the ex-apologist of Hitler ... and friend of Franco". In December 1949, Dalí's sister Anna Maria published her book
Salvador Dalí Seen by his Sister. Dalí was angered by passages that he considered derogatory towards his wife Gala and broke off relations with his family. When Dalí's father died in September 1950, Dalí learned that he had been virtually disinherited in his will. A two-year legal dispute followed over paintings and drawings Dalí had left in his family home, during which Dalí was accused of assaulting a public notary. As Dalí moved further towards embracing
Catholicism he introduced more religious iconography and themes in his painting. In 1949, he painted a study for
The Madonna of Port Lligat (first version, 1949) and showed it to
Pope Pius XII during an audience arranged to discuss Dalí's marriage to Gala. This work was a precursor to the phase Dalí dubbed "Nuclear Mysticism", a fusion of Einsteinian physics, classicism, and Catholic mysticism. In paintings such as
The Madonna of Port Lligat,
The Christ of Saint John of the Cross and
The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, Dalí sought to synthesize Christian iconography with images of material disintegration inspired by nuclear physics. His later Nuclear Mysticism works included
La Gare de Perpignan (1965) and
The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1968–70). Dalí's keen interest in natural science and mathematics was further manifested by the proliferation of images of DNA and
rhinoceros horn shapes in works from the mid-1950s. According to Dalí, the rhinoceros horn signifies divine geometry because it grows in a logarithmic spiral. Dalí was also fascinated by the
Tesseract (a four-dimensional cube), using it, for example, in
Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus). Dalí had been extensively using optical illusions such as double images,
anamorphosis,
negative space,
visual puns and ''
trompe-l'œil'' since his Surrealist period and this continued in his later work. At some point, Dalí had a glass floor installed in a room near his studio in Port Lligat. He made extensive use of it to study foreshortening, both from above and from below, incorporating dramatic perspectives of figures and objects into his paintings.
pointillism, enlarged
half-tone dot grids and stereoscopic images. He was among the first artists to employ
holography in an artistic manner. In Dalí's later years, young artists such as
Andy Warhol proclaimed him an important influence on
pop art. In 1960, Dalí began work on his
Theatre-Museum in his home town of
Figueres. It was his largest single project and a main focus of his energy through to 1974, when it opened. He continued to make additions through the mid-1980s. In 1955, Dalí met Nanita Kalaschnikoff, who was to become a close friend, muse, and model. At a French nightclub in 1965 Dalí met
Amanda Lear, a fashion model then known as Peki Oslo. Lear became his protégée and one of his muses. According to Lear, she and Dalí were united in a "spiritual marriage" on a deserted mountaintop.
Final years and death , 1972 , site of Dalí's baptism, first communion, and funeral in
Figueres displays his name and title. In 1968, Dalí bought the
Castle of Púbol for Gala, and from 1971 she would retreat there for weeks at a time, Dalí having agreed not to visit without her written permission. Gala died on 10 June 1982, at the age of 87. After her death, Dalí moved from Figueres to the castle in Púbol, where she was entombed. In 1982, King
Juan Carlos bestowed on Dalí the title of
Marqués de Dalí de Púbol (
Marquess of Dalí de Púbol) in the nobility of Spain,
Púbol being where Dalí then lived. The title was initially hereditary, but at Dalí's request was changed to life-only in 1983. From early 1984, Dalí's depression worsened and he refused food, leading to severe undernourishment. Dalí had previously stated his intention to put himself into a state of suspended animation as he had read that some microorganisms could do. In August 1984 a fire broke out in Dalí's bedroom and he was hospitalized with severe burns. Two judicial inquiries found that the fire was caused by an electrical fault and no findings of negligence were made. After his release from hospital Dalí moved to the Torre Galatea, an annex to the Dalí Theatre-Museum. There have been allegations that Dalí was forced by his guardians to sign blank canvases that could later be used in forgeries. It is also alleged that he knowingly sold otherwise-blank lithograph paper which he had signed, possibly producing over 50,000 such sheets from 1965 until his death. Dalí gave the king a drawing,
Head of Europa, which would turn out to be Dalí's final drawing. On the morning of 23 January 1989, Dalí died of cardiac arrest at the age of 84. He is buried in the crypt below the stage of his
Theatre-Museum in Figueres. The location is across the street from the church of
Sant Pere, where he had his baptism, first communion, and funeral, and is only from the house where he was born.
Exhumation On 26 June 2017, it was announced that a judge in Madrid had ordered the exhumation of Dalí's body in order to obtain samples for a paternity suit. Joan Manuel Sevillano, manager of the
Fundación Gala Salvador Dalí (The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation), denounced the exhumation as inappropriate. The exhumation took place on the evening of 20 July, and his DNA was extracted. On 6 September 2017, the Foundation stated that the tests carried out proved conclusively that Dalí and the claimant were not related. On 18 May 2020, a Spanish court dismissed an appeal from the claimant and ordered her to pay the costs of the exhumation. == Symbolism ==