Salvador Dali

Guide Note

Spanish artist Salvador Dali was one of the preeminent artists of the surrealist movement and his works are among the most recognizable and admired by the public. Like many of his contemporaries, Dali was influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, which inspired him to adopt a "paranoiac critical" approach to viewing the world and celebrate the irrationalities within it.

In addition to his work as a painter, Dali was also an accomplished writer, printmaker, draftsman, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker and set designer. He collaborated on films with both Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock

Fast Facts

1. Full name: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech
2. Born: May 11, 1904 Figueres, Catalonia, Spain
3. Died: January 23, 1989 Figueres, Catalonia, Spain
4. Published an autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dali in 1942
5. Influenced by Renaissance masters
6. Introduced surrealist art to the United States

Dali was a shameless self promoter: While only in his twenties, he proclaimed himself a genius and his wife created an anagram of his name '"Ávida Dollars" (hungry for dollars) to describe his exploits. He was the first surrealist to earn a healthy income for his art, and fellow surrealists expelled him from the school during a trial in 1934.