Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dal i Domnech, Marqus de Dal de Pubol (11

May 1904 23 January 1989), known asSalvador Dal (Catalan: [so

i]; Spanish: [salao ali]), was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born
in Figueres,Catalonia, Spain.
Dal was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his
surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence
of Renaissance masters.[1][2] His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was
completed in August 1931. Dal's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture,
and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.
Dal attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury
and my love of oriental clothes"[3] to an "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were
descended from the Moors.
Dal was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose
behavior. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew
more attention than his artwork, to the dismay of those who held his work in high
esteem, and to the irritation of his critics.[4][5]
Contents
[hide]

1 Biography
o

1.1 Early life

1.2 Madrid and Paris

1.3 1929 to World War II

1.4 World War II

1.5 Later years in Spain

1.6 Final years and death

2 Symbolism
o

2.1 Science

3 Endeavors outside painting

o

3.1 Sculptures and other objects

3.2 Theatre and film

3.3 Fashion and photography

3.4 Architecture

3.5 Literary works

3.6 Graphic arts

3.7 Publicity

4 Politics and personality

5 Legacy

6 Listing of selected works

7 Dal museums and permanent exhibitions

8 Major temporary exhibitions

9 Gallery

10 See also

11 Notes

12 References

13 External links

Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]

The Dal family in 1910: from the upper left, aunt Maria Teresa, mother, father, Salvador Dal, aunt
Caterina (later became second wife of father), sister Anna Maria and grandmother Anna

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dal i Domnech was born on 11 May 1904, at
8:45 am GMT[6] in the town of Figueres, in theEmpord region, close to the French
border in Catalonia, Spain.[7] Dal's older brother, who was also named Salvador (born
October 12, 1901), had died of gastroenteritis nine months earlier, on August 1, 1903.
His father, Salvador Dal i Cus, was a middle-class lawyer and notary[8] whose strict
disciplinary approach was tempered by his wife, Felipa Domenech Ferrs, who
encouraged her son's artistic endeavors.[9]
When he was five, Dal was taken to his brother's grave and told by his parents that he
was his brother's reincarnation,[10] a concept which he came to believe.[11] Of his brother,
Dal said, "...[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different
reflections."[12] He "was probably a first version of myself but conceived too much in the
absolute."[12] Images of his long-dead brother would reappear embedded in his later
works, including Portrait of My Dead Brother (1963).
Dal also had a sister, Anna Maria, who was three years younger.[8] In 1949, she
published a book about her brother, Dal As Seen By His Sister.[13] His childhood friends
included future FC Barcelona footballers Sagibarba and Josep Samitier. During holidays
at the Catalan resort of Cadaqus, the trio played football together.
Dal attended drawing school. In 1916, Dal also discovered modern painting on a
summer vacation trip to Cadaqus with the family ofRamon Pichot, a local artist who
made regular trips to Paris.[8] The next year, Dal's father organized an exhibition of his
charcoal drawings in their family home. He had his first public exhibition at the Municipal
Theatre in Figueres in 1919, a site he would return to decades later.

In February 1921, Dal's mother died of breast cancer. Dal was 16 years old; he 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." [5][14] After her death, Dal's father
married his deceased wife's sister. Dal did not resent this marriage, because he had a
great love and respect for his aunt.[8]

Madrid and Paris[edit]

Wild-eyed antics of Dal (left) and fellow surrealist artist Man Ray in Paris on June 16, 1934

In 1922, Dal moved into the Residencia de Estudiantes (Students' Residence)

in Madrid[8] and studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. A lean
1.72 metres (5 ft 8 in) tall,[15] Dal already drew attention as an eccentric and dandy. He
had long hair andsideburns, coat, stockings, and knee-breeches in the style of
English aesthetes of the late 19th century.
At the Residencia, he became close friends with (among others) Pepn Bello, Luis
Buuel, and Federico Garca Lorca. The friendship with Lorca had a strong element of
mutual passion,[16] but Dal rejected the poet's sexual advances.[17]
However it was his paintings, in which he experimented with Cubism, that earned him
the most attention from his fellow students. His only information on Cubist art had come
from magazine articles and a catalog given to him by Pichot, since there were no Cubist
artists in Madrid at the time. In 1924, the still-unknown Salvador Dal illustrated a book
for the first time. It was a publication of the Catalan poemLes bruixes de Llers ("The
Witches of Llers") by his friend and schoolmate, poet Carles Fages de Climent. Dal
also experimented withDada, which influenced his work throughout his life.
Dal was expelled from the Academy in 1926, shortly before his final exams when he
was accused of starting an unrest.[5][18] His mastery of painting skills at that time was
evidenced by his realistic The Basket of Bread, painted in 1926.[19] That same year, he

made his first visit to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso, whom the young Dal revered.
Picasso had already heard favorable reports about Dal from Joan Mir, a fellow

[5]

Catalan who introduced him to many Surrealist friends. [5] As he developed his own style
over the next few years, Dal made a number of works heavily influenced by Picasso
and Mir.
Some trends in Dal's work that would continue throughout his life were already evident
in the 1920s. Dal devoured influences from many styles of art, ranging from the most
academically classic, to the most cutting-edge avant-garde.[20] His classical influences
included Raphael, Bronzino, Francisco de Zurbarn, Vermeer and Velzquez.[21] He
used both classical and modernist techniques, sometimes in separate works, and
sometimes combined. Exhibitions of his works in Barcelona attracted much attention
along with mixtures of praise and puzzled debate from critics.
Dal grew a flamboyant moustache, influenced by 17th-century Spanish master
painter Diego Velzquez. The moustache became an iconic trademark of his
appearance for the rest of his life.

1929 to World War II[edit]

In 1929, Dal collaborated with surrealist film director Luis Buuel on the short film Un
Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog). His main contribution was to help Buuel write the
script for the film. Dal later claimed to have also played a significant role in the filming
of the project, but this is not substantiated by contemporary accounts. [22] Also, in August
1929, Dal met his lifelong and primary muse, inspiration, and future wife Gala,[23] born
Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. She was a Russian immigrant ten years his senior, who at
that time was married to surrealist poet Paul luard. In the same year, Dal had
important professional exhibitions and officially joined the Surrealist group in
the Montparnassequarter of Paris. His work had already been heavily influenced by
surrealism for two years. The Surrealists hailed what Dal called his paranoiac-critical
method of accessing thesubconscious for greater artistic creativity.[8][9]
Meanwhile, Dal's relationship with his father was close to rupture. Don Salvador Dal y
Cusi strongly disapproved of his son's romance with Gala, and saw his connection to
the Surrealists as a bad influence on his morals. The final straw was when Don
Salvador read in a Barcelona newspaper that his son had recently exhibited in Paris a

drawing of theSacred Heart of Jesus Christ, with a provocative inscription: "Sometimes,

I spit for fun on my mother's portrait".[5][24]
Outraged, Don Salvador demanded that his son recant publicly. Dal refused, perhaps
out of fear of expulsion from the Surrealist group, and was violently thrown out of his
paternal home on December 28, 1929. His father told him that he would be disinherited,
and that he should never set foot in Cadaqus again. The following summer, Dal and
Gala rented a small fisherman's cabin in a nearby bay at Port Lligat. He bought the
place, and over the years enlarged it by buying the neighbouring fishermen cabins,
gradually building his much beloved villa by the sea. Dal's father would eventually
relent and come to accept his son's companion. [25]

The Persistence of Memory

In 1931, Dal painted one of his most famous works, The Persistence of Memory,
[26]

which introduced a surrealistic image of soft, meltingpocket watches. The general

interpretation of the work is that the soft watches are a rejection of the assumption that
time is rigid ordeterministic. 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.
[27]

Dal and Gala, having lived together since 1929, were married in 1934 in a semi-secret
civil ceremony. They later remarried in a Catholic ceremony in 1958. [28] In addition to
inspiring many artworks throughout her life, Gala would act as Dal's business manager,
supporting their extravagant lifestyle while adeptly steering clear of insolvency. Gala
seemed to tolerate Dal's dalliances with younger muses, secure in her own position as
his primary relationship. Dal continued to paint her as they both aged, producing
sympathetic and adoring images of his muse. The "tense, complex and ambiguous
relationship" lasting over 50 years would later become the subject of an opera, Jo,
Dal(I, Dal) by Catalan composer Xavier Benguerel.[29]

Dal was introduced to the United States by art dealer Julien Levy in 1934. The
exhibition in New York of Dal's works, including Persistence of Memory, created an
immediate sensation. Social Register listees feted him at a specially organized "Dal
Ball". He showed up wearing a gla