Judging the success of an artist is not an easy thing to quantify. Damien Hirst is currently the world’s most expensive living artist at the end of 2007; but he could walk into this room now and I would not recognise him. In fact, if he did walk in the room now I would be most shocked as I am typing this sitting on the toilet. Tranquilo dear reader; I jest! Surely one of the most instantly recognisable artists is also one of Spain’s most famous sons; Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, or simply Salvador Dalí.
Dalí’s eccentric appearance was not something adopted to suit the image of a successful surrealist artist; as young as 18 he was already wearing clothes that made him stand out from the crowd such as a large coat, knee breeches and stockings in the style of the Aesthetic Dress fashion movement of the 1880’s/1890’s. And this was in the early 1920’s! There are in fact well-known photographs of Oscar Wilde wearing such clothes on his speaking tour of America in 1882. Dalí topped off this, by then dated fashion with long hair and sideburns.
So how did Dalí, from the relatively unfashionable town of Figueres, in the Girona province of Spain become the pin-up boy for surrealism and create the paintings that still to this day adorn the walls of student flats the world over?
Dalí was born on 11th may 1904. His father Salvador Dalí i Cusí was a lawyer and a strict disciplinarian. However Dalí ‘s mother Felipa Domenech Ferrés encouraged the artistic skills the young Dalí was displaying.
In 1916, when he was 12, Dalí attended the Municipal Drawing School in Figueres. Over the course of this year and the next, Dalí would draw stories for his sister Anna Maria, 4 years his junior, when she was ill. Also in this year Dalí spent periods at the Molí de la Torre estate owned by the Pichot family. The Pichot family was a family of intellectuals and artists, and via the collection of art owned by Ramon Pichot, Dalí discovered Impressionism.
Despite the strictness of his father, it was he who organised Dalí’s first exhibition. This was in 1917 and was a display of the young Salvador’s charcoal drawings. His next exhibition in 1919 was shared with other young artists and was held in the Municipal Theatre in Figueres. This theatre some years later would become the Dalí Theatre-Museum. Also in 1919 Dalí founded a magazine called Stadium in which he wrote of his favourite artists which included Goya, El Greco, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. The following year Dalí’s father, again playing a part in his artistic career despite his strictness, told him that if he was certain he wanted to follow an artistic career, it would be on condition that he went to Madrid to train to be a teacher at the Fine Arts School, which Dalí duly did.
In 1921 Dalí’s mother died. The sixteen year old took the death badly and later said he “worshipped” his mother. Oddly, his father married Dalí’s aunt Catalina Domenech Ferrés the following year. As odd as this may seem, Dalí did resent his father marrying his aunt as he “loved and respected her”.
Another of the Pichot family, Pepito, is thought to have given Dalí his first exposure to Cubism when he gave him the futuristic catalogue Pittura Scultura Futuriste in 1922 that he had acquired in Paris. Cubism is the art movement pioneered by fellow Spaniard Pablo Picasso. In cubism, items in a painting are separated into a number of pieces, assessed, and put back together abstractly. Thus allowing the artist to depict objects from a number of viewpoints rather than just one, allowing the artist to represent the subject in a wider, more detailed context.
After some exhibitions in the early to mid-1920’s, Dalí designed the costumes and set for García Lorca’s first performance of Mariana Pineda in 1927. By now his artistic style was showing strong surrealist influences but it was during the early 1930’s that he had his own style – the style we now associate with his well known work. One of Dalí’s best known works entitled The Persistence of Memory was exhibited in Paris in 1931. Although the title of the painting may not be familiar with some people, many would have seen the picture with its withered, melting pocket watches on a stark foreground and a clear sea and bright blue sky in the distance. This iconic work summarises what a surrealist painting is better than words ever could.
Dalí’s rise to fame was greatly enhanced by the art dealer Julian Levy who arranged an exhibition in America in 1934. The exhibition, which included the painting The Persistence of Memory, was an immediate success and Dalí became very much in demand in social circles. The Social Register, an American directory of names considered to be the social elite, arranged a Dalí Ball in his honour, Dalí did not disappoint, turning up wearing a glass box on his chest that contained a bra.
Later on in his life, the surrealist movement turned its back on Dalí, this was due to a number of reasons. Dalí attended a fancy dress party dressed somewhat tastelessly as Charles Augustus Lindbergh Junior, a baby that was kidnapped and murdered and was a very big news story in America in the early 1930’s. After the fancy dress party Dalí apologised for his garb, for which the surrealists put him on trial, as it would appear surrealists do not apologise for any of their actions (I wonder if that includes standing on your foot). More serious a “crime” was his support of the Franco regime in Spain. Dalí was outcast from the surrealists who saw him as a money-grabber who sought fame. Much of Dalí’s money came to him from Edward James, a British millionaire whose father was an American railroad magnate. James sponsored Dalí for a number of years and even appeared in a very famous Dalí painting Swans Reflecting Elephants.
In 1940 Dalí and his wife Gala moved to the USA where they were to remain for 8 years. Whilst in America Dalí teamed up with Walt Disney and began work on a short animated cartoon. Despite being worked on for eight months between 1945 and 1946, the project was shelved due to financial problems experienced by Disney around the time of World War Two. The cartoon “discovered” in 1999 by Walt’s nephew Roy Edward Disney and was eventually released in 2003. The film which showed a female dancer dancing through scenery inspired by Dalí’s paintings was critically acclaimed and was nominated for a 2003 Academy Award for Animated Short Film.
This just shows the versatility of Dalí as an artist whose other work includes sculpture, objects such as Mae West Lips Sofa, theatre, fashion, writing and photography.
Dalí saw out his life in his much-loved Catalonia after moving back there in 1949. He remained as active as ever and in 1968 filmed a television advertisement for Lanvin chocolates. In 1969 he designed the Chupa Chups logo.
In 1980 when he was 76 his wife Gala accidentally gave Dalí a near-fatal mixture of prescribed drugs. Dalí survived but the cocktail damaged his nervous system so badly that his right hand had a constant shake. He would never paint again.
Dalí died on June 10th 1982. Earlier that year King Juan Carlos of Spain gave Dalí the title Marquis of Pubol. Dalí reciprocated with a drawing entitled Head of Europa This proved to be Dalí's last ever drawing.
Should you wish to view some of the works of Salvador Dalí, they can be seen at:
The Theatre-Museum Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Square, 5, E-17600 Figueres.
Dalí Jewels, Corner between Mª Àngels Vayreda Street and Pujada del Castell Street
E-17600 Figueres.
House-Museum Salvador Dalí, Portlligat, E-17488 Cadaqués.
House-Museum Gala Dalí Castle, Gala Dalí Square, E-17120 Púbol-la Pera.
