Dalí, Salvador

Salvador Dalí born in Figueras (Catalonia) on 11.5. 1904, died on 23. 1. 1989. One of the most famous Spanish painters of this century. Studied at the Madrid Art Academy 1921-1926; travels through Europe and the USA. 1940-1948 in New York and California, then mostly in Port Lligat (on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, near his birthplace). From 1923 influenced by Futurist and 'Metaphysical Painting' in Italy (Chirico). Two years later he came into contact with the Cubists and above all the Surrealists in Paris. From 1929 to around 1935 Dalí belonged to the Surrealist circle around Breton. On his travels in Italy he studied the Renaissance and Baroque and adopted an old-master painting method. In his paintings, indissolubly realistic and fantastic views, naturalistic and dreamlike perspectives appear. He is a hallucinatory draughtsman. After 1945 the motifs are often repeated. His extensive graphic, painterly and sculptural oeuvre then also includes portraits, religious images, book illustrations, objects, jewellery, stage sets. In 1944 he published ' La vie secrète de S. D.; in 1968 ' Dalí says...'. In 1973 his collected essays were published under the title 'Salvador Dalí. The Conquest of the Irrational'. This biography is subject to copyright. (c) Evi Kliemand, 1998. All rights reserved. Reproduced with kind permission of the author.