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Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali is considered as one of the greatest masters of art of the twentieth centuryand the greatest artist of the surrealist art movement. During his lifetime the public got a picture of an excentric paranoid. After his death in 1989 his name remained in the headlines. But this time it was not funny at all. His personality caused a lot of controversy. Salvador Dali was born as the son of a prestigious notary in the small town of Figuera in Northern Spain. His talent as an artist showed at an early age. Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali received his first drawing lessons when he was ten years old. His art teachers were a then well known Spanish impressionist painter, Ramon Pichot, later an art professor at the Municipal Drawing School.
Dali began to study art at the Royal Academy of Art in Madrid. He was expelled twice and never took the final examinations. His opinion was that he's more qualified than those who should have examined him.
In 1928 Dali went to Paris where he met the Spanish painters Pablo Picasso & Joan Miro. He established himself as the principal figure of a group of surrealist artists grouped around Andre Breton. Breton was something like the theoretical "schoolmaster" of surrealism. Years later Breton turned away from Dali accusing him of excessive self-presentation, support of fascism and financial greediness.
By 1929 Dali had found his personal style that should make him famous. It was the world of the unconscious that's recalled during our dreams.
The surrealist theory's based on the theories of the psychologist Dr. Sigmund Freud. Recurring images of burning giraffes & melting watches became the artist surrealist trademarks. His great craftsmanship allowed him to execute his paintings in a nearly photorealistic style. Dali was a great admirer of the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael.
Meeting Gala was the most important event in Dali's life & decisive for his career. Gala was a Russian immigrant and ten years older than Dali. When he met her, she was married to Paul Eluard.
Gala decided to stay with Dali and became his companion, his muse, sexual partner, model in numerous works and his business manager. For him she was everything. Gala was a stabilizing factor in Dali's life. She managed his success in the 1930s with exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
Gala was legally divorced from her husband in 1932.
In 1934 Dali and Gala were married in a civil ceremony in Paris & in 1958 in church after Gala's former husband had died in 1952. From around 1965 on, the couple was seen less frequently together. But Gala continued to manage Dali's business affairs.
In 1933 Salvador Dali had his first one-man show in New York. Year later he visited the U.S. for the first time supported by a loan of US$500 from Pablo Picasso. Dali chose the U.S.A. as his permanent residence in 1940. He had a series of spectacular exhibitions, including a great retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Dali caused the attention of the media by playing the role of a surrealist clown. He made a lot of money and was contemptuously nicknamed Avida Dollars (greedy for dollars) by Andre Breton.Salvador Dali became "the darling" of the American High Society. Celebrities like Helena Rubinstein or Jack Warner gave him commissions for portraits. His art became a popular trademark and besides painting he pursued other activities - jewelry and clothing designs for Coco Chanel and film making with Alfred Hitchcock.
In 1948 Dali and Gala returned to Europe. Dali developed a lively interest in science, religion and history. He integrated things into his art that he had picked up from popular science magazines. Another source of inspiration're the great classical masters of painting like Velasquez, Raphael or the French painter Ingres. The artist said: "To be a surrealist forever is like spending your life painting nothing but eyes and noses."
In 1958 Dali began his series of large sized history paintings. Every year he painted one monumental painting during the summer months in Lligat. The most famous one, The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, can be seen at the Dali Museum in St.Petersburg, Florida. The artist's late art works combine more than ever his fantastic & limitless imaginations with his perfect & meticulous painting technique.
Salvador Dali is the only known artist who had two museums dedicated exclusively to his works at life time.
Category:
Artists
U.S.A.
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, May 11 2007, 4:52 PM EDT
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