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Salvador Dalí

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Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11 1904 – January 23 1989), was a Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia.

Dalí 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.<ref name=Dali>Dalí, Salvador. (2000) Dalí: 16 Art Stickers, Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-41074-9.</ref> His best known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931.

Salvador Dalí's artistic repertoire also included film, sculpture, and photography. He collaborated with Walt Disney on the Academy Award-nominated short cartoon Destino, which was released posthumously in 2003. He also collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on Hitchcock's film Spellbound.

Dalí insisted on his "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors who occupied Southern Spain for nearly 800 years (711-1492), and attributed to these origins, "my love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes."<ref>Modèle:Cite book Gibson found out that "Dalí" (and its many variants) is an extremely common surname in Arab countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria or Egypt. On the other hand, also according to Gibson, Dalí's mother family, the Domènech of Barcelona, had Jewish roots.</ref>

Widely considered to be greatly imaginative, Dalí had an affinity for doing unusual things to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork.<ref>Saladyga, Stephen Francis. "The Mindset of Salvador Dalí". lamplighter (Niagara University). Vol. 1 No. 3, Summer 2006. Retrieved July 22 2006.</ref> The purposefully-sought notoriety led to broad public recognition and many purchases of his works by people from all walks of life.

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Biography

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Early life

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Self-portrait — by teenage Dalí in 1921

Dalí was born on May 11, 1904, at 8:47 am GMT<ref> According to his birth certificate. Salvador Dalí astrological chart on astrotheme.fr. Accessed 30 September 2006.</ref> in the town of Figueres, in the Empordà region close to the French border in Catalonia, Spain.<ref>Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, 1948, London: Vision Press, p.33</ref> Dalí's older brother, also named Salvador (b. October 12, 1901), had died of gastroenteritis, nine months earlier, on August 1, 1903. His father, Salvador Dalí i Cusí, was a middle-class lawyer and notary<ref name=Llongueras>Llongueras, Lluís. (2004) Dalí, Ediciones B — Mexico. ISBN 84-666-1343-9.</ref> whose strict disciplinarian approach was tempered by his wife, Felipa Domenech Ferrés, who encouraged her son's artistic endeavors.<ref name=Rojas>Rojas, Carlos. Salvador Dalí, Or the Art of Spitting on Your Mother's Portrait, Penn State Press (1993). ISBN 0-271-00842-3.</ref> When he was five, Dalí was taken to his brother's grave and told by his parents that he was his brother's reincarnation,<ref name=sina>Salvador Dalí. SINA.com. Retrieved on July 31 2006.</ref> which he came to believe.<ref>Salvador Dalí biography on astrodatabank.com. Accessed 30 September 2006.</ref> Of his brother, Dalí said: "… [we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections."<ref>Dalí, Secret Life, p.2</ref> He "was probably a first version of myself but conceived too much in the absolute."<ref>Dalí, Secret Life, p.2</ref>

Dalí also had a sister, Ana María, who was three years younger.<ref name=Llongueras /> In 1949 she published a book about her brother, Dalí As Seen By His Sister.<ref> Dalí Biography 1904–1989 — Part Two


. Retrieved on 2006-09-30. </ref> His childhood friends included future FC Barcelona footballers, Sagibarbá and Josep Samitier. During holidays at the Catalan resort of Cadaqués, the trio played football together.

Dalí attended drawing school. In 1916 Dalí also discovered modern painting on a summer vacation to Cadaqués with the family of Ramon Pichot, a local artist who made regular trips to Paris.<ref name=Llongueras /> The next year, Dalí's father organized an exhibition of his charcoal drawings in their family home. He had his first public exhibition at the Municipal Theater in Figueres in 1919.

In February 1921, Dalí’s mother died of breast cancer. Dalí was sixteen 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."<ref>Dalí, Secret Life, pp.152–153</ref> After her death, Dalí’s father married his deceased wife’s sister. Dalí did not resent this marriage as some do think, because he had a great love and respect toward his aunt.<ref name=Llongueras />

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Madrid and Paris

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Wild-eyed antics of Dalí (left) and fellow surrealist artist Man Ray in Paris on June 16, 1934, photographed by Carl Van Vechten

In 1922, Dalí moved into the Residencia de Estudiantes (Students' Residence) in Madrid<ref name=Llongueras /> and there studied at the Academia de San Fernando (School of Fine Arts). A lean 1.72 m <ref>As listed in his prison record of 1924, aged 20. However, his hairdresser and biographer, Luis Llongueras, states Dalí was 1.74 m tall.</ref> tall dandy, Dalí already drew attention as an eccentric, wearing long hair and sideburns, coat, stockings and knee breeches in the fashion style of the English aesthetes of the late 19th century. But his paintings, where he experimented with Cubism, earned him the most attention from his fellow students. In these earliest Cubist works, he probably did not completely understand the movement, since his only information on Cubist art came from a few magazine articles and a catalogue given to him by Pichot, and there were no Cubist artists in Madrid at the time.

Dalí also experimented with Dada, which influenced his work throughout his life. At the Residencia, he became close friends with, among others, Pepín Bello, Luis Buñuel, and the poet Federico García Lorca. The friendship with Lorca had a strong element of mutual passion,<ref>For more in-depth information about the Lorca-Dalí connection see Lorca-Dalí: el amor que no pudo ser and The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí, both by Ian Gibson.</ref> but Dalí fearfully rejected the erotic advances of the poet.<ref name=coversations>Bosquet, Alain, Conversations with Dalí, 1969. p. 19-20. (Portable Document File) (of Garcia Lorca) 'S.D.:He was homosexual, as everyone knows, and madly in love with me. He tried to screw me twice .... I was extremely annoyed, because I wasn’t homosexual, and I wasn’t interested in giving in. Besides, it hurts. So nothing came of it. But I felt awfully flattered vis-à-vis the prestige. Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dalí's asshole.'</ref>

Dalí was expelled from the Academia in 1926 shortly before his final exams when he stated that no one on the faculty was competent enough to examine him.<ref name=olga>Salvador Dalí: Olga's Gallery. Retrieved on July 22, 2006.</ref> His mastery of painting skills is well documented by that time in his flawlessly realistic Basket of Bread, which was painted in 1926.<ref>http://www.dali-gallery.com/html/galleries/painting05.htm</ref> That same year he made his first visit to Paris where he met with Pablo Picasso, whom young Dalí revered. Picasso had already heard favorable things about Dalí from Joan Miró. Dalí did a number of works heavily influenced by Picasso and Miró over the next few years as he developed his own style.

Some trends in Dalí's work that would continue throughout his life were already evident in the 1920s. Dalí devoured influences of all styles of art he could find and then produced works ranging from the most academically classic to the most cutting-edge avant-garde,<ref>Hodge, Nicola, and Libby Anson. The A–Z of Art: The World's Greatest and Most Popular Artists and Their Works. California: Thunder Bay Press, 1996. Online citation.</ref> sometimes in separate works and sometimes combined. Exhibitions of his works in Barcelona attracted much attention and mixtures of praise and puzzled debate from critics.

Dalí grew a flamboyant moustache, which became iconic of him; it was influenced by that of seventeenth century Spanish master painter Diego Velázquez.

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1929 through World War II

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The Persistence of Memory (1931) is one of Dalí's most famous works


In 1929, Dalí collaborated with the surrealistic film director Luis Buñuel on the short film Un chien andalou (An Andalusian Dog). He was mainly responsible for helping Buñuel write the script for the film.

Dalí later claimed to have been more heavily involved in the filming of the project, but this is not substantiated by contemporary accounts.<ref>Koller, Michael. Un Chien Andalou. senses of cinema January 2001. Retrieved on July 26, 2006.</ref>

Also that year he met his muse, inspiration, and future wife Gala,<ref name=unbound>Shelley, Landry. "Dalí Wows Crowd in Philadelphia". Unbound (The College of New Jersey) Spring 2005. Retrieved on July 22, 2006.</ref> born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, a Russian immigrant eleven years his senior who was then married to the surrealist poet Paul Éluard.

In the same year, Dalí had important professional exhibitions and officially joined the surrealist group in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris (although his work had already been heavily influenced by surrealism for two years). The surrealists hailed what Dalí called the Paranoiac-critical method of accessing the subconscious for greater artistic creativity.<ref name=Llongueras /><ref name=Rojas />

In 1931, Dalí painted one of his most famous works, The Persistence of Memory.<ref>Clocking in with Salvador Dalí: Salvador Dalí’s Melting Watches (PDF) from the Salvador Dalí Museum. Retrieved on August 19 2006.</ref> Sometimes called Soft Watches or Melting Clocks, the work introduced the surrealistic image of the soft, melting pocket watch.

The general interpretation of the work is that the soft watches debunk the assumption that time is rigid or deterministic, and this sense is supported by other images in the work, such as the wide expanding landscape and the ants and fly devouring the other watches.<ref name=Conquete>Salvador Dalí, La Conquête de l’irrationnel (Paris: Éditions surréalistes, 1935), p. 25.</ref>

Dalí and Gala, having lived together since 1929, were married in 1934 in a civil ceremony (They remarried in a Catholic ceremony in 195Image:Cool.gif.

Dalí was introduced to America by art dealer Julian Levy in 1934, and the exhibition of Dalí works (including Persistence) in New York created an immediate sensation. Social Register listees feted him at a specially organized "Dali Ball". He showed up wearing on his chest a glass case containing a brassiere. <ref> Current Biography 1940, pp219-220 </ref>

In 1936, Dalí took part in the London International Surrealist Exhibition. His lecture entitled Fantomes paranoiaques authentiques was delivered wearing a deep-sea diving suit.<ref>Jackaman, Rob. (1989) Course of English Surrealist Poetry Since the 1930s, Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 0-88946-932-6.</ref>

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." <ref> Current Biography 1940, p219 </ref>

Dali, instead of condemning Hitler as his fellow surrealists, developed an obsessive interest in what he called "the Hitler phenomenon" which was frowned upon by his predominantly Marxist surrealist colleagues. Then, when Francisco Franco came to power in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, Dalí was one of the few Spanish intellectuals supportive of the new regime <ref>[1]</ref> which eventually resulted in his official expulsion from the surrealist group.<ref name=unbound /> At this, Dalí retorted, "Le surréalisme, c'est moi."<ref name=olga /> André Breton coined the anagram "avida dollars" (for Salvador Dalí), which more or less translates to "eager for dollars,"<ref name=artcyclopedia>Artcyclopedia: Salvador Dalí. Retrieved September 4, 2006.</ref> by which he referred to Dalí after the period of his expulsion. The surrealists henceforth spoke of Dalí in the past tense, as if he was dead. At this stage his main patron was the very wealthy Edward James.

The surrealist movement and various members thereof (such as Ted Joans) would continue to issue extremely harsh polemics against Dalí until the time of his death and beyond.

"During this period Dali never stopped writing," wrote Robert and Nicolas Descharnes. <ref> Descharnes, Robert and Nicolas. Salvador Dali. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1993. p. 35. </ref> "In 1941, he drafted a film scenario for Jean Gabin called Moontide. He wrote catalogs for his exhibitions like that at the Knoedler Gallery [in New York City in 1943] where he expounded, '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.' He also wrote a novel ... published ... in 1944 ... about a fashion salon for automobiles. This got a drawing by Edwin Cox in The Miami Herald showing him dressing an automobile in an evening gown."<ref> Descharnes, Robert and Nicolas. Salvador Dali. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1993. p. 35. </ref>

As World War II started in Europe, Dalí and Gala moved to the United States in 1940, where they lived for eight years. After the move, Dalí returned to the practice of Catholicism. In 1942, he published his autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí.

An Italian friar, Gabriele Maria Berardi, claimed to have performed an exorcism on Dalí while he was in France in 1947. <ref>Dalí's gift to exorcist uncovered Catholic News 14 Oct. 2005</ref> The friar's estate contained a sculpture of Christ on the cross which Dalí had given his exorcist to thank him. <ref>Dali's gift to exorcist uncovered Catholic News 14 Oct. 2005</ref> The sculpture was discovered in 2005 and two Spanish experts in Surrealism confirmed that there were adequate stylistic reasons to believe the sculpture was made by Dalí. <ref>Dalí's gift to exorcist uncovered Catholic News 14 Oct. 2005</ref>

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Later years in Catalonia

Starting in 1949, Dalí spent his remaining years back in his beloved Catalonia. The fact that he chose to live in Spain while it was ruled by Franco drew criticism from progressives and many other artists.<ref name=navarro>Navarro, Vicente, Ph.D. "The Jackboot of Dada: Salvador Dalí, Fascist". Counterpunch. December 6, 2003. Retrieved July 22, 2006.</ref> As such, it is probable that at least some of the common dismissal of Dalí's later works had more to do with politics than the actual merits of the works themselves. In 1959, André Breton organized an exhibit called, Homage to Surrealism, celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of Surrealism, which contained works by Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Enrique Tábara, and Eugenio Granell. Breton vehemently fought against the inclusion of Dalí's Sistine Madonna in the International Surrealism Exhibition in New York the following year.<ref name=lopez>López, Ignacio Javier. The Old Age of William Tell (A study of Buñuel's Tristana). MLN 116 (2001): 295–314.</ref>

Late in his career, Dalí did not confine himself to painting but experimented with many unusual or novel media and processes: he made bulletist works<ref name=bp>The Phantasmagoric Universe—Espace Dalí À Montmartre. Bonjour Paris. Retrieved on August 22, 2006.</ref> and was among the first artists to employ holography in an artistic manner.<ref name=holo>The History and Development of Holography. Holophile. Retrieved on August 22, 2006.</ref> Several of his works incorporate optical illusions. In his later years, young artists like Andy Warhol proclaimed Dalí an important influence on pop art.<ref name=warhol>Hello, Dalí. Carnegie Magazine. Retrieved on August 22, 2006.</ref> Dalí also had a keen interest in natural science and mathematics. This is manifested in several of his paintings, notably in the 1950s when he painted his subjects as composed of rhinoceros horns, signifying divine geometry (as the rhinoceros horn grows according to a logarithmic spiral) and chastity (as Dalí linked the rhinoceros to the Virgin Mary).<ref>Elliott H. King in Dawn Ades (ed.), Dalí, Bompiani Arte, Milan, 2004, p. 456.</ref> Dalí was also fascinated by DNA and the hypercube - a 4-dimensional cube - and an unfolding of a hypercube is featured in the painting Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus).

Dalí’s post-World War II period bore the hallmarks of technical virtuosity and an interest in optical illusions, science and religion. Increasingly Catholic, and inspired by the shock of Hiroshima, he labeled this period "Nuclear Mysticism". In paintings such as The Madonna of Port-Lligat (first version) of 1949 and Corpus Hypercubus, 1954, Dalí sought to synthesize Christian iconography with images of material disintegration inspired by nuclear physics.<ref>Salvador Dalí Bio, Art on 5th Retrieved July 22 2006.</ref> “Nuclear Mysticism” included such notable pieces as La Gare de Perpignan, 1965, and Hallucinogenic Toreador, 1968–1970. In 1960, Dalí began work on the Dalí Theatre and Museum in his home town of Figueres; it was his largest single project and the main focus of his energy through 1974. He continued to make additions through the mid-1980s.

In 1968, Dalí filmed a television advertisement for Lanvin chocolates<ref>Salvador Dali at Le Meurice Paris and St Regis in New York Andreas Augustin, ehotelier.com, 2007</ref> and in 1969 designed the Chupa Chups logo. Also in 1969, He was responsible for creating the advertising aspect of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, and created a large metal sculpture, which stood on the stage at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

In the television programme Dirty Dalì: A Private View broadcast on Channel 4 on June 3, 2007, the art critic Brian Sewell described his acquaintance with Dalí in the late 1960s, which included lying down in the fetal position without trousers in the armpit of a figure of Christ and masturbating for Dalí who pretended to take photos while fumbling in his own trousers.<ref>Scotsman review of Dirty Dalí</ref><ref>The Dali I knew By Brian Sewell, thisislondon.co.uk</ref>

In 1980, Dalí's health took a catastrophic turn. His near-senile wife Gala was dosing him with a dangerous cocktail of non-prescribed medicine that damaged his nervous system, thus causing an untimely end to his artistic ability. At 76 years old, the 'ever-healthy' Dalí was a complete wreck, his right hand trembling terribly, Parkinson-like.<ref>Ian Gibson (1997). The Shameful Life of Salvador Dali. W. W. Norton & Company. </ref>

In 1982, King Juan Carlos of Spain bestowed on Dalí the title Marquis of Pubol, for which Dalí later paid him by giving him a drawing (Head of Europa, which would turn out to be Dalí's final drawing) after the king visited him on his deathbed.

Gala died on June 10, 1982. After Gala's death, Dalí lost much of his will to live. He deliberately dehydrated himself—possibly as a suicide attempt, possibly in an attempt to put himself into a state of suspended animation, as he had read that some microorganisms could do. He moved from Figueres to the castle in Púbol which he had bought for Gala and was the site of her death. In 1984, a fire broke out in his bedroom<ref>"Dalí Resting at Castle After Injury in Fire". The New York Times. September 1, 1984. Retrieved July 22, 2006</ref> under unclear circumstances—possibly a suicide attempt by Dalí, possibly simple negligence by his staff.<ref name=olga /> In any case, Dalí was rescued and returned to Figueres where a group of his friends, patrons, and fellow artists saw to it that he was comfortable living in his Theater-Museum for his final years.

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The Temptation of St. Anthony (1946) contained Dalí's symbolic elephant, Musee d'Art Moderne in Brussels

There have been allegations that his guardians forced Dalí to sign blank canvasses that would later (even after his death) be used and sold as originals.<ref name="scandal">Modèle:Cite book</ref> As a result, art dealers tend to be wary of late works attributed to Dalí. He died of heart failure at Figueres on January 23, 1989 at the age of 84, and he is buried in the crypt of his Teatro Museo in Figueres.

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Symbolism

Dalí employed extensive symbolism in his work. For instance, the hallmark soft watches that first appear in The Persistence of Memory suggest Einstein's theory that time is relative and not fixed.<ref name=Conquete /> The idea for clocks functioning symbolically in this way came to Dalí when he was staring at a runny piece of Camembert cheese during a hot day in August.<ref>Salvador Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (New York: Dial Press, 1942), p. 317.</ref>

The elephant is also a recurring image in Dalí's works. It first appeared in his 1944 work Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening. The elephants, inspired by Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture base in Rome of an elephant carrying an ancient obelisk,<ref>Michael Taylor in Dawn Ades (ed.), Dalí (Milan: Bompiani, 2004), p. 342</ref> are portrayed "with long, multi-jointed, almost invisible legs of desire"<ref name=countycollection>Dalí Universe Collection. County Hall Gallery. Retrieved on July 28, 2006.</ref> along with obelisks on their backs. Coupled with the image of their brittle legs, these encumbrances, noted for their phallic overtones, create a sense of phantom reality. "The elephant is a distortion in space," one analysis explains, "its spindly legs contrasting the idea of weightlessness with structure."<ref name=countycollection /> … I am painting pictures which make me die for joy, I am creating with an absolute naturalness, without the slightest aesthetic concern, I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly. —Salvador Dalí, in Dawn Ades, Dalí and Surrealism.

The egg is another common Dalíesque image. He connects the egg to the prenatal and intrauterine, thus using it to symbolize hope and love;<ref name=symb>"Salvador Dalí's symbolism". County Hall Gallery. Retrieved on July 28, 2006</ref> it appears in The Great Masturbator and The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. Various animals appear throughout his work as well: ants point to death, decay, and immense sexual desire; the snail is connected to the human head (he saw a snail on a bicycle outside Freud’s house when he first met Sigmund Freud); and locusts are a symbol of waste and fear.<ref name=symb />

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Endeavors outside painting

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Rinoceronte vestido con puntillas (1956), Puerto José Banús
Dalí was a versatile artist, not limiting himself only to painting in his artistic endeavors. Some of his more popular artistic works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also noted for his contributions to theatre, fashion, and photography, among other areas.

Two of the most popular objects of the surrealist movement were the Lobster Telephone and the Mae West Lips Sofa, completed by Dalí in 1936 and 1937, respectively. The Scottish patron Edward James commissioned both of these pieces from Dalí; James, an eccentric who had inherited a large English estate when he was five, was one of the foremost supporters of the surrealists in the 1930s.<ref name=natgalaust> Lobster telephone. National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved on August 4, 2006.</ref> "Lobsters and telephones had strong sexual connotations for [Dalí]" according to the display caption for the Lobster Telephone at the Tate Gallery, "and he drew a close analogy between food and sex."<ref name=tate> Tate Collection | Lobster Telephone by Salvador Dalí. Tate Online. Retrieved on August 4, 2006.</ref> The telephone was functional, and James purchased four of them from Dalí to replace the phones in his retreat home. One now appears at the Tate Gallery; the second can be found at the German Telephone Museum in Frankfurt; the third belongs to the Edward James Foundation; and the fourth is at the National Gallery of Australia.<ref name=natgalaust />

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Gala in the window (1933), Marbella

The wood and satin Mae West Lips Sofa was shaped after the lips of actress Mae West, whom Dalí apparently found fascinating.<ref name=unbound /> West was previously the subject of Dalí's 1935 painting The Face of Mae West. The Mae West Lips Sofa currently resides at the Brighton and Hove Museum in England.

During the years between 1941 and 1970 Dalí was also responsible for creating a striking ensemble of jewels, 39 in total. The jewels created are intricate and some contain actual moving parts. The most famous jewel created by Dalí, "The Royal Heart", is crafted using gold and is encrusted with forty-six rubies, forty-two diamonds and four emeralds, and is created in such a way that the center "beats" much like a real heart. Dalí himself commented that "Without an audience, without the presence of spectators, these jewels would not fulfill the function for which they came into being. The viewer, then, is the ultimate artist." (Dalí, 1959.) The Dali —Joies (The Jewels of Dali) collection can be seen at the Dali Theater Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, where it is on permanent exhibition.

In theatre, Dalí is remembered for constructing the scenery for García Lorca's 1927 romantic play Mariana Pineda.<ref>Federico García Lorca. Pegásos. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.</ref> For Bacchanale (1939), a ballet based on and set to the music of Richard Wagner's 1845 opera Tannhäuser, Dalí provided both the set design and the libretto.<ref name=designws>Dalí Rotterdam Museum Boijmans. Paris Contemporary Designs. Retrieved on August 8, 2006.</ref> Bacchanale was followed by set designs for Labyrinth in 1941 and The Three-Cornered Hat in 1949.<ref>Past Exhibitions. Haggerty Museum of Art. Retrieved August 8, 2006.</ref>

Dalí also delved into the realms of filmmaking, most notably playing a large role in the production of Un Chien Andalou, a 17-minute French art film co-written with Luis Buñuel that is widely remembered for its graphic opening scene simulating the slashing of a human eyeball with a razor. Dalí collaborated again with Luis Buñuel on the 1930 film, L'Âge d'Or, and went on to write a number of filmscripts, very few of which made it past conception. The most well-known of his film projects is probably the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, which heavily delves into themes of psychoanalysis. He also worked on a Disney cartoon production Destino; completed in 2003 by Baker Bloodworth and Roy Disney, it contains dream-like images of strange figures flying and walking about. Dalí completed only one other film in his lifetime: Impressions of Upper Mongolia (1975), in which he narrated a story about an expedition in search of giant hallucinogenic mushrooms. The imagery was based on microscopic uric acid stains on the brass band of a ballpoint pen on which Dalí had been urinating for several weeks.<ref>Elliott H. King, Dalí, Surrealism and Cinema, Kamera Books 2007, p. 169.</ref>

Dalí built a repertoire in the fashion and photography industries as well. In fashion, his cooperation with the Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli is well-known, where Dalí was hired by Schiaparelli to produce a white dress with a lobster print. Other designs Dalí made for her include a shoe-shaped hat and a pink belt with lips for a buckle. He was also involved in creating textile designs and perfume bottles. With Christian Dior in 1950, Dalí created a special "costume for the year 2045."<ref name=designws /> Photographers with whom he collaborated include Man Ray, Brassaï, Cecil Beaton, and Philippe Halsman.

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A photograph from the Dalí Atomica series (194Image:Cool.gif by Philippe Halsman

With Man Ray and Brassaï, Dalí photographed nature; with the others, he explored a range of obscure topics, including with Halsman the Dalí Atomica series (194Image:Cool.gif—inspired by his painting Leda Atomica—which in one photograph depicts "a painter’s easel, three cats, a bucket of water and Dalí himself floating in the air."<ref name=designws />

References to Dalí in the context of science are made in terms of his fascination with the paradigm shift that accompanied the birth of quantum mechanics in the twentieth century. Inspired by Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle, in 1958 he wrote in his "Anti-Matter Manifesto": "In the Surrealist period I wanted to create the iconography of the interior world and the world of the marvelous, of my father Freud. Today the exterior world and that of physics, has transcended the one of psychology. My father today is Dr. Heisenberg."<ref name=triangle>Dalí: Explorations into the domain of science. The Triangle Online. Retrieved August 8, 2006.</ref>

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The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) was Dalí's way of ushering in the new science of physics above psychology

In this respect, The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, which appeared in 1954, in hearkening back to The Persistence of Memory and portraying that painting in fragmentation and disintegration, summarizes Dalí's acknowledgment of the new science.<ref name=triangle />

Architectural achievements include his Port Lligat house near Cadaqués as well as the Dream of Venus surrealist pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair which contained within it a number of unusual sculptures and statues. His literary works include The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942), Diary of a Genius (1952–1963), and Oui: The Paranoid-Critical Revolution (1927–1933). The artist worked extensively in the graphic arts producing many etchings and lithographs. While his early work in printmaking is equal in quality to his important paintings as he grew older, he would sell the rights to images but not be involved in the print-production itself. In addition, a large number of unauthorized fakes were produced in the eighties and nineties thus further confusing the Dalí print market.

One of Dalí's most unorthodox artistic creations may have been an entire person. At a French nightclub in 1965 Dalí met Amanda Lear, a fashion model then known as Peki D'Oslo.<ref name=Prose>Prose, Francine. (2000) The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Arists they Inspired. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0060555254.</ref> Lear became his protegé and muse,<ref name=Prose>Prose, The Lives of the Muses.</ref> writing about their affair in the authorized biography My Life With Dalí (1986).<ref name=Lear>Lear, Amanda. (1986) My Life with Dalí. Beaufort Books. ISBN 0825303737.</ref> Transfixed by the mannish, larger-than-life Lear, Dalí masterminded her successful transition from modeling to the music world, advising her on self-presentation and helping spin mysterious stories about her origin as she took the disco-art scene by storm. According to Lear, she and Dalí were united in a "spiritual marriage" on a deserted mountaintop,<ref name=Prose>Prose, The Lives of the Muses.</ref> and it has been speculated that Dalí financed Lear's sex reassignment surgery. Referred to as Dalí's "Frankenstein,"<ref name=Lozano>Lozano, Carlos. (2000) Sex, Surrealism, Dalí, and Me. Razor Books Ltd. ISBN 0953820505.</ref> some believe Lear's name is a pun on the French "L'Amant Dalí," or Lover of Dalí. Lear took the place of an earlier muse, Ultra Violet (Isabelle Collin Dufresne), who had left Dalí's side to join the Factory of Andy Warhol.<ref name=Etherington-Smith>Etherington-Smith, Meredith. (1995) The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dali. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306806622.</ref>

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Politics and personality

Image:Salvador Dali NYWTS.jpg
Making antics in the 1960s

Salvador Dalí's politics played a significant role in his emergence as an artist. He has sometimes been portrayed as a supporter of the authoritarian Franco.<ref name=navarro /><ref>Modèle:Cite journal</ref> André Breton, leader of the surrealist movement, made a strong effort to dissociate his name from surrealists proper. The reality is probably somewhat more complex; in any event, he was not an antisemite, as he was a friendly acquaintance of famed architect and designer Paul László, who was Jewish. He also professed great admiration for Freud (whom he met), and Einstein, both Jewish, as can be verified throughout his writings. In his critical review of Dalí's autobiography Secret Life, George Orwell wrote "One ought to be able to hold in one’s head simultaneously the two facts that Dalí is a good draughtsman and a disgusting human being."<ref name="Orwell Review">Modèle:Cite journal</ref> The misunderstanding probably arises from Dalí's deliberately provocative scorn for the communist leanings of his peers, and the fact that he painted Hitler on more than one occasion.[citation needed] However, as he correctly pointed out to his critics at the time, it was impossible for him to have been a supporter of Hitler, who would have "done away with hysterics" such as Dalí.

In his youth, Dalí embraced for a time both anarchism and communism. His writings account various anecdotes of making radical political statements more to shock listeners than from any deep conviction, which was in keeping with Dalí's allegiance to the Dada movement. As he grew older his political allegiances changed, especially as the Surrealist movement went through transformations under the leadership of the Trotskyist Andre Breton who is said to have called Dalí in for questioning on his politics. In his 1970 book Dali by Dali, Dalí was declaring himself an anarchist and monarchist giving rise to speculations of Anarcho-Monarchism.

While in New York City in 1942, he denounced his colleague, surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel, as an atheist, causing Buñuel to be fired from his position at the Museum of Modern Art and subsequently blacklisted from the American film industry.<ref>"In his book The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, I was described as an atheist, an accusation that at the time was worse than being called a Communist. Ironically, at the same moment that Dalí's book appeared, a man named Prendergast who was part of the Catholic lobby in Washington began using his influence with government officials to get me fired. [At Buñuel's job at the Museum of Modern Art he was tasked with selecting and distributing anti-Nazi propaganda films to North and South America, and he was also supposed work on producing such films.] I knew nothing at all about it, but one day when I arrived at my office, I found my two secretaries in tears. They showed me an article in a movie magazine called Motion Picture Herald about a certain peculiar character named Luis Buñuel, author of the scandalous L'Âge d'Or and now an editor at the Museum of Modern Art. Slander wasn't exactly new to me, so I shrugged it off, but my secretaries insisted that this was really very serious. When I went into the projection room, the projectionist, who'd also read the piece, greeted me by wagging his finger in my face and smirking, "Bad Boy!"
Finally, I too became concerned and went to see Iris, who was also in tears. I felt as if I'd suddenly been sentenced to the electric chair. She told me that the year before, when Dalí's book had appeared, Pendergast had lodged several protests with the State Department, which in turn began to pressure the museum to fire me. They'd managed to keep things quiet for a year; but now, with this article, the scandal had gone public, on the same day that American troops disembarked in Africa.
Although the director of the museum, Alfred Barr, advised me not to give in, I decided to resign, and found myself once again out on the street, forty-three and jobless." Modèle:Cite book</ref>

With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Dalí fled from fighting and refused to align himself with any group. Likewise, after World War II, George Orwell criticized Dalí for "scuttl[ing] off like rat as soon as France is in danger" after Dalí prospered there for years: "When the European War approaches he has one preoccupation only: how to find a place which has good cookery and from which he can make a quick bolt if danger comes too near."<ref name="Orwell Review"/> After his return to Catalonia after World War II, Dalí became closer to the Franco regime. Some of Dalí's statements supported the Franco regime, congratulating Franco for his actions aimed "at clearing Spain of destructive forces". Dalí, being a Catholic, was almost certainly referring to the communists and anarchists who had killed almost 7,000 priests and nuns during the Spanish Civil War. Dalí sent telegrams to Franco, "praising him for signing death warrants for political prisoners."<ref name=navarro /> Dalí even met Franco personally<ref>Salvador Dalí pictured with Francisco Franco</ref> and painted a portrait of Franco's granddaughter. It is impossible to determine whether his tributes to Franco were sincere or whimsical; he also once sent a telegram praising the Conducător, Romanian Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu, for his adoption of a scepter as part of his regalia. The Romanian daily newspaper Scînteia published it, without suspecting its mocking aspect. One of Dalí's few possible bits of open disobedience was his continued praise of Federico García Lorca even in the years when Lorca's works were banned.<ref name=coversations />

Dalí was a colorful and imposing presence in his ever-present long cape, walking stick, haughty expression, and upturned waxed mustache, famous for having said that "every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí."<ref name=smithsonian>The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí. Smithsonian Magazine. 2005. Retrieved August 31, 2006</ref> The entertainer Cher and her husband Sonny Bono, when young, came to a party at Dalí's expensive residence in New York's Plaza Hotel and were startled when Cher sat down on an oddly-shaped sexual vibrator left in an easy chair. When signing autographs for fans, Dalí would always keep their pens. When interviewed by Mike Wallace on his 60 Minutes television show, Dalí kept referring to himself in the third person, and told the startled Mr. Wallace matter-of factly that "Dalí is immortal and will not die". During another television appearance, on the Tonight Show, Dalí carried with him a leather rhinoceros and refused to sit upon anything else.

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Listing of selected works

Image:Dali on the Rocky Steps.jpg
The Philadelphia Museum of Art used a surreal entrance display including its steps, for the 2005 Salvador Dalí exhibition

Dalí produced over 1,500 paintings in his career,<ref> The Salvador Dalí Online Exhibit 

. MicroVision

. Retrieved on 2006-06-13. </ref> in addition to producing illustrations for books, lithographs, designs for theater sets and costumes, a great number of drawings, dozens of sculptures, and various other projects, including an animated cartoon for Disney. Below is a chronological sample of important and representative work, as well as some notes on what Dalí did in particular years:<ref name=Dali />

In Carlos Lozano's biography, Sex, Surrealism, Dalí, and Me, produced by the collaboration of Clifford Thurlow, Lozano makes it clear that Dalí never stopped being a surrealist. As Dalí said of himself: "the only difference between me and the surrealists is that I am a surrealist."<ref name=artcyclopedia /> 

   Dalí picture sprung from jail 
     
 " , BBC
  , March 2, 2003
 
 . </ref>

The largest collections of Dalí's work are at the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, followed by the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida which contains the collection of A. Reynolds Morse & Eleanor R. Morse. It holds over 1,500 works from Dalí. Other particularly significant collections include the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades, California. Espace Dalí in Montmartre, Paris, France, as well as the Dalí Universe in London, England, contain a large collection of his drawings and sculptures.

The unlikeliest venue for Dalí's work was the Rikers Island jail in New York City; a sketch of the Crucifixion he donated to the jail hung in the inmate dining room for 16 years before it was moved to the prison lobby for safekeeping. The drawing was stolen in March 2003 and has not been recovered.<ref name="jail" />

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References

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External links

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Wikimedia Commons propose des documents multimédia libres sur Salvador Dalí.

  • Espace Dalí—The unique permanent exhibition in France (Museum & Dalí Fine Art Galleries)
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Biographies and news

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Other links

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Exhibitions

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