Salvador Dalí facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Most Illustrious
Salvador Dalí, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol
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Dalí in 1939
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| Born |
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech
May 11, 1904 |
| Died | January 23, 1989 (aged 84) |
| Resting place | Crypt at Dalí Theatre and Museum, Figueres |
| Education | San Fernando School of Fine Arts, Madrid, Spain |
| Known for | Painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, writing, film, and jewelry |
| Movement | Cubism, Dada, Surrealism |
| Spouse(s) |
Gala Dalí
(m. 1934; d. 1982) |
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Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquis of Dalí de Púbol (May 11, 1904 - January 23, 1989) was a Spanish Surrealist artist. He was born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, and received his formal education in fine arts in Madrid. He was influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance masters. From there, he moved to Cubism and newer art styles. He moved closer to Surrealism in the late 1920s.
Dalí lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940. He returned to Spain in 1948. He expressed his artistic ideas through painting, graphic arts, film, sculpture, and photography. He also wrote fiction, poetry, autobiography, essays, and criticism. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork.
Contents
Biography
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Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904, in the town of Figueres, close to the French border in Catalonia, Spain. His father was a lawyer and notary. His parents had a son, also named Salvador, who died nine months before Salvador was born. Dalí was haunted by the idea of his dead brother throughout his life. Images of his brother would reappear in his later works. His sister, Anna Maria, was three years younger than he.
Dalí began art school at age 12 and discovered modern painting on a summer vacation trip to Cadaqués with the family of Ramon Pichot. The next year, Dalí's father organized an exhibition of his charcoal drawings in their family home. His first public exhibition was in 1918. In 1921, the Pichot family introduced Dalí to Futurismand his uncle gave him books and magazines about Cubism and contemporary art.
On February 6, 1921, Dalí's mother, who had always encouraged his artwork, died of cancer. After her death, Dalí's father married her sister. Dalí did not resent this marriage, because he had great love and respect for his aunt.
In 1922, Dalí began his studies at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in Madrid. He became close friends with Pepín Bello, Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca. He also began a lifelong relationship with Prado Museum, which he thought was "incontestably the best museum of old paintings in the world." He spent much time studying the great masters.
Dalí's Cubism paintings brought attention to him, since there were no Cubist artists in Madrid at the time. His artwork drew attention because he presented his work in so many different styles. He held his first solo exhibition at Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona before he learned about Surrealism and more exhibitions after he started painting as a Surrealist in 1927.
Meanwhile, Dalí's relationship with his father was strained. Dalí lived with Gala, born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, a Russian immigrant ten years his senior. His father did not approve of this and saw his connection to the Surrealists as a bad influence on his morals. Dalí and Gala rented a small fisherman's cabin in a nearby bay at Port Lligat. He soon bought the cabin, and over the years enlarged it by buying neighboring ones, gradually building his beloved villa by the sea.
Though Dalí and Gala had lived together since 1929, they were officially married on January 20, 1934, in Paris. Gala was her husband's business manager and inspiration. Dalí continued to paint her as they both aged.
After World War II began, the Dalís escaped France and sailed to the United States. They lived there for eight years, splitting their time between New York and the Monterey Peninsula, California. In 1941 and 1942, held art exhibitions and published his autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí. During the rest of his time in the United States, Dalí remained busy. He created artwork and designs for ballets and products such as perfumes, cosmetics, hosiery, (coverings for the feet and leg), and ties.
In 1948, Dalí and Gala moved back into their house in Port Lligat. For the next thirty years, they spent most of their time there.
Dalí used optical illusions in his art. He was one of the first artists to use holography in an art. In Dalí's later years, young artists such as Andy Warhol proclaimed him an important influence on pop art.
In 1960, Dalí began work on his Dalí Theatre and Museum in his home town of Figueres. It was his largest single project and a main focus of his energy through to 1974, when it opened. He continued to make additions through the mid-1980s.
In 1968, Dalí bought a castle in Púbol for Gala. Beginning in 1971, she would go there by herself and not let him join her. He slipped into depression and his health began to fail. He was treated for Parkinson-like symptoms, including a severe tremor in his right arm.
Gala died on June 10, 1982, and was entombed at Púbol. For the next six years, Dalí lived there. On the morning of January 23, 1989, Dalí died of cardiac arrest at the age of 84. He is buried below the stage of his Theatre-Museum in Figueres. The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation currently serves as his official estate.
Symbolism
Food and eating have a central place in Dalí's thoughts and work. He associated food with beauty. He used bread, eggs, and sea urchins in many of his paintings.
Dalí began to use the rhinoceros and rhinoceros horn shapes in huch of his art from the mid-1950s. He also used donkeys, ants, locusts, and elephants.
Dalí's life-long interest in science and mathematics was often reflected in his work. His soft watches have been interpreted as references to Einstein's theory of the relativity of time and space. Images of atomic particles appeared in his work soon after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and strands of DNA appeared from the mid-1950s.
Endeavors outside painting
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Dalí was a versatile artist. Some of his more popular works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also remembered for his contributions to theater, fashion, jewelry, photography, literature, and architecture.
Legacy
Two major museums are devoted to Dalí's work: the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.
Dalí's life and work have been an important influence on pop art, other Surrealists, and contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. He has been portrayed on film by Robert Pattinson in Little Ashes (2008), by Adrien Brody in Midnight in Paris (2011), and by Ben Kingsley in Daliland. The Salvador Dalí Desert in Bolivia and the Dalí crater on the planet Mercury are named for him.
Honors
- 1964: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
- 1972: Associate member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium
- 1978: Associate member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France
- 1981: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III
- 1982: Created 1st Marquess of Dalí of Púbol, by King Juan Carlos
Dalí museums and permanent exhibitions
- Dalí Theatre-Museum – Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, holds the largest collection of Dalí's work
- Gala Dalí House-Museum – Castle of Púbol in Púbol, Catalonia, Spain
- Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Reina Sofia Museum) – Madrid, Spain, holds a significant collection
- Salvador Dalí House Museum – Port Lligat, Catalonia, Spain
- Salvador Dalí Museum – St Petersburg, Florida, contains the collection of Reynolds and Eleanor Morse, and over 1500 works by Dalí, including seven large "masterworks".
Salvador Dalí quotes
- "Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."
- "Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."
- "Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad."
- "The painter is not the one who is inspired, but the one who is able to inspire others."
Interesting facts about Salvador Dalí
- Dalí believed he was the reincarnation of his brother, also named Salvador, who died nine months before he was born.
- He had a phobia of grasshoppers.
- Dalí was expelled (removed) from the same art school not just once, but twice.
- Dalí once collaborated on an experimental animated film called Destino with Walt Disney.
- He made good money as a commercial artist, designing art and logos for big brands.
- Salvador Dalí had an ocelot named Babou.
- Dalí arrived at a lecture dressed in a diving suit and helmet.
- He also took a Rolls-Royce Phantom II filled with cauliflower on a Spain-Paris road trip.
- Dalí’s upturned mustache may be the most famous facial hair of art history.
- He designed a jeweled-ruby heart that actually beats: The Royal Heart.
- He compiled a cookbook (Les dîners de Gala) with recipes for extravagant dinners he hosted with Gala.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Portrait of Salvador Dalí, Paris, 16 June 1934
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Dalí, photographed by Studio Harcourt in 1936
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Portrait of Dalí by Allan Warren, 1972
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Church of Sant Pere in Figueres, site of Dalí's baptism, first communion, and funeral
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Dalí's crypt at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres displays his name and title
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Homage to Newton (1985), Bronze with dark patina. UOB Plaza, Singapore. Dalí's homage to Isaac Newton, with an open torso and suspended heart to indicate "open-heartedness," and an open head indicating "open-mindedness"
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Gala in the Window (1933), Marbella
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The Rainbow (1972), M.T. Abraham Foundation
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Rinoceronte vestido con puntillas (1956), Puerto José Banús
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Plaza de Dalí (Dalí Square), Madrid
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Perseo (Perseus), Marbella
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Children at Dalí exhibition in Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul
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See also
In Spanish: Salvador Dalí para niños
- List of Spanish artists
- Salvador Dalí and Dance
