Salvador Dalí, icon of Surrealism and one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
Salvador Dalí was born in Catalonia in 1904, and over the course of the next 84 years, he firmly established himself as one of the leading artists of the 20th century. Known for his Surrealist work imbued with bizarre images and dreamlike scenes, his art has pervaded contemporary culture, and his influence can still be keenly felt many decades after his death.
He is in fact one of the most popular artists in today’s market, especially in the US and the UK, and Dalí prints (which account for 75% of his work sold at auction) tend to fetch between £100 and £500, though some can attain much higher prices.
Dalí is known almost as much for his extravagant moustache and eccentric personality as he is for his striking images and technical talent. It is therefore interesting to know some facts about the artist when considering his art; below are seven things you might not have known about Salvador Dalí.
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He Was A Precocious Child
Salvador Dalí is well-known for his draughtsmanship and technical abilities, which are well-demonstrated in print series such as Les Amours de Cassandre. His remarkable skill was evident even when he was a child, and his parents recognised his talents and encouraged him to pursue art.
In 1922, Dalí enrolled in an art school in Madrid, where he cultivated his eccentric personality and outlandish style. It was here that he also encountered some of the texts that would go on to affect his work; the influence of Sigmund Freud, for instance, is clear to see in many Dalí pieces, including prints like Figura de Cajones.
Despite his obvious talent, Dalí was a difficult student, and in 1926, he was permanently expelled before sitting his final exams after he declared: “I am infinitely more intelligent than these three professors, and I therefore refuse to be examined by them. I know this subject much too well.”
His Most Expensive Print Sold For £220,000
Salvador Dalí’s print, Figura de Cajones, dates from 1937, and it was sold by Sotheby’s in April 1989 for £220,000. The print features Dalí’s trademark Surrealist imagery, showing a distorted, naked figure with drawers protruding from their body. Drawers are a recurring motif in Dalí’s art, representing the subconscious workings of the mind, a concept he was fascinated by after he first read Sigmund Freud.
Figura de Cajones sold by Sotheby’s in 1989
His Family Life Was Complex
Dalí was born nine months after the death of his older brother at the age of two, who had also been named Salvador. This led Dalí to believe he was his brother’s reincarnation, an idea that pursued and haunted him throughout his life. He once wrote: “[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections.”
Dalí’s family life was further complicated by a difficult relationship with his father, which continued to worsen as the years went by. Matters weren’t helped when Dalí’s mother died from cancer when the artist was only 16, or when his father married his mother’s sister just a year later. Dalí wrote that his mother’s death “was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life.”
His Wife Was His Muse
In 1929, Dalí met Elena Ivanova Diakonova (known as Gala), a Russian immigrant 10 years his senior who was, at the time, married to the Surrealist poet Paul Éluard. Gala and Dalí quickly began an affair and started living together, and they were married in 1934. Gala was Dalí’s muse and model, but she also took care of the legal and financial aspects of the artist’s life and business, something her husband was uninterested by.
Their relationship was complicated, and Gala openly had numerous affairs which Dalí mostly encouraged. They grew more distant in their later years, with Gala spending most of her time at a small medieval castle Dalí had bought for her, but her influence on the artist remains clear to this day. In the 1930s, Dalí even began signing his paintings with both of their names, stating: “it is mostly with your blood, Gala, that I paint my pictures.”
Salvador Dali and his wife Gala
He Met Some Famous Artists and Writers, Including Sigmund Freud
Dalí’s work was heavily-influenced by the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and he was delighted when he finally got the chance to meet him in 1938 in London. Dalí was disappointed by the meeting as Freud remained aloof and cryptic throughout, and the artist did not feel he was taken seriously enough. Later, however, Freud wrote to a mutual acquaintance of theirs thanking him for organising the meeting, and implying he was more impressed than he’d let on.
Dalí also got the opportunity to meet several famous artists throughout his life, including Picasso, whom he greatly admired, though the relationship was tinged by rivalry as Dalí’s reputation grew. Dalí also knew Joan Miró, a fellow Catalan Surrealist artist who introduced Dalí to many members of the movement.
He Developed The Paranoiac-Critical Method
Dalí developed the paranoiac-critical method in the 1930s, and it drove much of his – and others’ – art from that point onwards. The technique involved tapping into the subconscious by inducing a paranoid state, and the artist would then paint what he had witnessed, resulting in the bizarre, incongruous images that dominate his paintings and prints.
Much of Dalí’s most famous work was created using this method, including several of his most sought-after prints such as Les Chants de Maldoror. The artist said the aim of the paranoiac-critical method was “to systemise confusion and thus help to discredit completely the world of reality.”
Salvador Dali’s House
He Built A Bizarre House On The Coast
Salvador Dalí lived most of his life in a small village on the Catalan coast, and beaches often form the backdrop of his work (including the sought-after print, Fantastic Beach Scene). In 1930, Dalí bought a small fisherman’s hut in the village, then proceeded to acquire the neighbouring ones over a number of years until he’d created a bizarre, labyrinthine palace adorned with strange, eclectic pieces of art and furniture. He and Gala lived there for many years, and it is still possible to visit the house today.
