For my essay i will be writing about the surrealist artist; Salvador Dali. He was born on May 11th 1904 in Figuers, Spain. Dali's parents were Salvador Dalí i Cusí who was a Lawyer and Felipa Domenech Ferrés, he also had a brother who was also named Salvador who died 9 months earlier. Dali's mother encouraged him in his artistic endeavours against his father's strict disciplinary manner.
When he was 5 his family visited the grave of his brother where he was told that he was a reincarnation of his brother, Dali came to believe this concept. In 1916 Dali attended drawing school, he also discovered modern painting on a holiday with Ramon Pichot's family (Who was a local artist that made regular trips to Paris) in Cadaques. The following year Dali's father arranged an exhibition of his charcoal drawings in their home. He had his first public exhibition in 1919 at the Municipal Theater in Figuers.
In February 1921 Dali's mother died from breast cancer, he was 16 at the time. later on he said that her 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." Some time after his mother's death Dali's Father married his mother's sister, Dali didn't resent this marriage mainly because of his respect and love of his Aunt.
In 1922, Dali moved into the Residencia de Estudiantes (students' residence) in Madrid where he studied at Academia de San Fernando (school of fine arts). Dali became close friends with Pepin Bello, Luis Benuel and Federico Garcia Lorca during his time at the students' residence. His friendship with Lorca had elements of mutual passion but he rejected Lorca's sexual advances.It was in his painting which he experimented with cubism which earned him the most attention from his fellow students. at the time Dali did not fully understand cubism, the only information he had was from magazine articles and a catalogue given to him by Pichot.
1924 Dali illustrated his first book. it was a publication for the poem "Les bruixes de Llers" (The witches of Llers) who was by his friend and schoolmate Carles Fages de Climent. Dali also experimented with Dada which would influence his work later in life. In 1926 just before his final exams Dali was expelled from the Academia, the reason for this was because he stated that no one on the faculty was competent enough to examine his work.
Later in the same year Dali made his first trip to Paris where he met Pablo Picasso, who Dali revered. Picasso had heard many favourable reports from Joan Miro about Dali's work. As he developed his own style over the next few years Dali made works influenced heavily influenced by Picasso and Miro. Some trends that would continue through his life were evident in the 1920's. Dali's other influences were from classic artists such as Raphael, Bronzino, Diego Velazquez and many more. Dali used both classical and modernist techniques in his works. Exhibitions of his work in Barcelona attracted much attention along with mixtures of praise and puzzled debates from critics. Dali grew a moustache which would become a trademark for the rest of his life.
In 1929 Dali collaborated on a short film with surrealist film director Luis Bunuel called Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog). Dali's main contribution was to write the script with Bunuel, later on Dali claimed that he made a significant role in filming but according to contemporary accounts doesn't carry much weight. In August, 1929 Dali met who would soon be his wife, Her name was Gala. her birth name Elena Ivanovna Diakonova who was a Russian imigrant, at the time she was married to surrealist poet Paul Eluard. In the same year Dali had important professional exhibitions in Paris and joined the surrealist group in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris. The group praised what Dali called the paranoiac-critical method of accessing
the subconscious for greater artistic creativity.
Meanwhile, Dali's relation with his father was close to breaking point, Don Salvador Dalí y Cusi strongly opposed his son's romance with Gala and saw his affiliation with the surrealists as bad influence on his morals. the final straw was when Dali's father read in a Barcelona newspaper that his son had recently exhibited in Paris his drawing of the "Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ" with a provocative inscription which said "Sometimes, I spit for fun on my mother's portrait".
Outraged by this, Don Salvador demanded that Dali publicly apologize but, out of fear of being kicked out of the Surrealist group Dali refused. This caused him to be thrown out of his home and his father to disown him. Dali's father told him never to set foot in Cadaquès again. The following summer Dali and Gala rented a small fisherman's cabin in the bay at Port Lligat. He bought the place and, over the years, gradually expanding and soon would become his beloved villa by the sea.
In 1931, Dali painted one of his most famous works, The Persistence of Memory which depicts several pocket watches melting. 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 the images in the piece such as the wide expansive landscape and the other limp watches which are being eaten by ants.
Dali was introduced to America by Art dealer Julian Levy in 1934. Thanks to Dali's exhibition in New York his work became very popular in America. Because of his popularity Social Register members organized the "Dali Ball" in celebration of his work, he showed up wearing a glass case on his chest containing a brassiere. Later in the same year both Dali and Gala attended a masquerade party in New York which was hosted for them by heiress Caresse Crosby. for thier costumes, they were dressed-up as the Lindbergh baby and his kidnapper. this caused such an uproar in the press that Dali had to apologize.
When Dali returned to Paris he was confronted by the Surrealists over his apology for an act of surrealism.
The majority of the Surrealists had become associated with leftist politics but Dali had an ambiguous stance on the proper relation between politics and art, this caused the leading Surrealist Andre Breton accusing Dali of defending fascism but Dali insisted that surrealism could exist in an apolitical context and refused to explicitly denounce fascism. later in 1934 Dali was tried before the Surrealists and was formally expelled from the group, in response to this Dali retorted "I myself am surrealism".
In 1936, Dali took part in the London International Surrealist Exhibition, his lecture was called Fantomes paranoiaques authentiques. Dali gave the lecture whilst wearing a diving suit and a helmet carrying a billiard cue and leading a pair of Russian wolfhounds. because of the diving helmet Dali had to take it off as he was gasping for air, he later commented that "I just wanted to show that i was plunging into the human mind". In that same year Dali was in the audience at the premiere of Joseph Cornell's film "Rose Hobart" at Jullien Levy's gallery. The series of short films was arranged by Levy were timed to take place at the same time of the first surrealist exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art featuring Dali's work.
Half way through the screening Dali kicked the projector over in a rage, Dali said that “My idea for a film is exactly that, and I was going to propose it to someone who would pay to have it made,” he also went on to say that "I never wrote it down or told anyone, but it is as if he had stolen it." Other versions of this claim add up to saying Levy stole Dali's thoughts. Dali's main patron in London at the time was the very wealthy Edward James who helped Dali to emerge in the art world by buying many of his works and supporting financially for 2 years. they also collaborated on the most enduring icons of surrealist art which are the lobster telephone and Mae West lips sofa.
In 1938 Dali, thanks to Stefan Zweig met Sigmund Freud. Later in that same year Dali was invited by Gabrielle Coco Channel to her house "La Pausa" in Roquebrune on the French Riviera, it was here where he painted many paintings which he would show at Levy's gallery in New York. In 1939, Andre Bretton coined the derogatory nickname "Avida Dollars" which is an anagram for Salvador Dali. Avida Dollars which means eager for dollars was used to describe Dali's increasing commercialization of his work. Some surrealists afterwards spoke of Dali in the past tense as if he was dead. Other members of the surrealist group would continue with harsh insults up till Dali's death and beyond.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD
http://www.virtualdali.com/
