Salvador Dali and his surreal paintings. Biography of Salvador Dali, interesting facts and quotes from Dali's friends

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May 11, 1904 at 8 hours 45 minutes in Spain in Catalonia (northeast of Spain), Figueres, little Dali was born. Full name Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech. His parents are Don Salvador Dali y Cusi and Dona Felipa Domenech. Salvador means "Savior" in Spanish. They named El Salvador in honor of his deceased brother. He died of meningitis a year before Dali was born in 1903. Dali also had a younger sister Anna-Maria, who in the future will be the image of many of his paintings. The parents of little Dali were brought up in different ways. Since from childhood he stood out for his impulsive and eccentric character, his father literally went berserk at his antics. Mom, on the contrary, allowed him absolutely everything.

I pi got into bed almost until the age of eight - only for the sake of his pleasure. In the house I reigned and commanded. Nothing was impossible for me. My father and mother did not pray for me (The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself)

The desire for creativity in Dali manifested itself from early childhood. From the age of 4, he already begins to draw with zeal, not experienced for a child. At the age of six, Dali attracted the image of Napoleon and identifying himself with him, he felt the need for power. Wearing a masquerade costume of the king, he received great pleasure from his appearance. Well, he painted the first picture when he was 10 years old. It was a small landscape in the impressionistic style, painted oil paints on a wooden board. Then Salvador began to take drawing lessons from Professor Juan Nunez. Thus, at the age of 14, it was safe to see the talent of Salvador Dali in the incarnation.

When he was almost 15 years old, Dali was expelled from the monastic school for bad behavior. But for him it was not a failure, he passed the exams perfectly and entered the institute. In Spain, schools of secondary education were called institutions. And in 1921 he graduated from the institute with excellent marks.
After he entered the Madrid Art Academy. When Dali was 16 years old, he began to get involved along with painting and literature, began to write. Publishes his essays in a self-made publication "Studio". And generally leads enough active life. He managed to serve a day in prison for participating in student unrest.

Salvador Dali dreamed of creating own style in painting. In the early 1920s, he admired the work of the Futurists. At the same time, he makes friends with famous poets of that time (Garcia Lorca, Luis Bonuel). The relationship between Dali and Lorca was very close. In 1926, Lorca's poem "Ode to Salvador Dali" was published, and in 1927, Dali designed the scenery and costumes for the production of Lorca's "Mariana Pineda".
In 1921 Dali's mother dies. The father would later marry another woman. For Dali, this looks like a betrayal. Later in his works, he displays the image of a father who wants to destroy his son. This event left its mark on the artist's work.

In 1923, Dali became very interested in the work of Pablo Picasso. At the same time, problems began at the academy. He was suspended from school for a year for misconduct.

In 1925, Dali held his first solo exhibition at the Dalmau Gallery. He submitted 27 paintings and 5 drawings.

In 1926, Dali completely stopped making efforts to study, because. disappointed in the school. And they kicked him out after the incident. He did not agree with the teachers' decision regarding one of the painting teachers, then got up and left the hall. Immediately, a brawl broke out in the hall. Of course, Dali was considered guilty, although he did not even know about what happened, in the end he ends up in prison, though not for long. But soon he returned to the academy. Eventually, his behavior led to his expulsion from the academy for his refusal to take the oral exam. As soon as he finds out that his last question is about Raphael, Dali said: "... I don't know less than three professors put together, and I refuse to answer them, because I am better informed on this issue."

In 1927, Dali went to Italy to get acquainted with the painting of the Renaissance. While he was not yet in the Surrealist group led by André Breton and Max Ernst, he later joined them in 1929. Breton studied Freud's work in depth. He said that by discovering unexpressed thoughts and desires hidden in the subconscious, surrealism could create a new way of life and a way of perceiving it.

In 1928, he leaves for Paris, in search of himself.

In early 1929, Dali tried himself as a director. The first film based on his script by Luis Bonuel was released. The film was called Andalusian Dog. Surprisingly, the film script was written in 6 days! The premiere was sensational, as the film itself was very extravagant. Considered a classic of surrealism. Consisted of a set of frames and scenes. It was small short film conceived to hurt the bourgeoisie and ridicule the principles of the avant-garde.

In Dali's personal life until 1929 there was nothing bright and significant. Of course, he walked, there were numerous connections with girls, but they never went far. And just in 1929, Dali truly fell in love. HER name was Elena Dyakonova or Gala. Russian by origin, was 10 years older than him. She was married to the writer Paul Eluard, but their relationship was already falling apart. Her fleeting movements, gestures, her expressiveness are like the second New Symphony: it gives out the architectonic contours of a perfect soul, crystallizing in the grace of the body itself, in the fragrance of the skin, in the sparkling sea foam of her life. Expressing the exquisite breath of feelings, plasticity and expressiveness materialize in an impeccable architecture of flesh and blood. . (The Secret Life of Salvador Dali)

They met when Dali returned to Cadaqués to work on an exhibition of his paintings. Among the guests of the exhibition was Paul Eluard with his then wife Gala. Gala became Dali's inspiration in many of his works. He painted all kinds of portraits of her, as well as various images based on their relationship and passion. First kiss, - wrote Dali later, - when our teeth collided and our tongues intertwined, was only the beginning of that hunger that made us bite and gnaw each other to the very essence of our being ". Such images often appeared in Dali's subsequent works: chops on the human body, fried eggs, cannibalism - all these images are reminiscent of the young man's violent sexual liberation.

Dali wrote in an absolutely unique style. It seems that he painted images known to everyone: animals, objects. But he assembled them and connected them in a completely unthinkable way. Could connect the body of a woman with a rhinoceros, for example, or a melted watch. Dali himself would call it "the paranoid-critical method".

In 1929, Dali had his first solo exhibition in Paris at the Geman Gallery, after which he began his journey to the pinnacle of fame.

In 1930 paintings by Dali began to make him famous. Freud's work influenced his work. In his paintings, he reflected the sexual experiences of a person, as well as destruction, death. His masterpieces such as "The Persistence of Memory" were created. Dali also creates numerous models from various objects.

In 1932, the premiere of the second film based on the script by Dali, The Golden Age, took place in London.

Gala divorces her husband in 1934 and marries Dali. This woman was throughout Dali's life his muse, deity.

Between 1936 and 1937, Dali worked on one of his most famous paintings, Metamorphoses of Narcissus, and a book of the same name immediately appeared.
In 1939, Dali had a serious quarrel with his father. The father was unhappy with his son's connection with Gala and forbade Dali to appear in the house.

After the occupation in 1940 from France, Dali moved to the United States in California. There he opens his workshop. She writes her own famous book"The Secret Life of Salvador Dali". After marrying Gala, Dali leaves the surrealist group, because. his and the group's views begin to diverge. “I don’t give a damn about the gossip that Andre Breton can spread about me, he just doesn’t want to forgive me for the fact that I remain the last and only surrealist, but it’s still necessary that one fine day the whole world, having read these lines , found out how everything really happened." ("The Diary of a Genius").

In 1948, Dali returned to his homeland. Begins to get involved in religious-fiction themes.

In 1953, a large-scale exhibition was held in Rome. He exhibits 24 paintings, 27 drawings, 102 watercolors.

In 1956, Dali began a period when the idea of an Angel was the inspiration for his second work. God for him is an elusive concept and not amenable to any specification. God for him is not a cosmic concept either, because this would impose certain restrictions on him. Dali sees God in a set of conflicting thoughts that cannot be reduced to any structured idea. But Dali did believe in the existence of angels. He spoke of this as follows: “Whatever dreams fall to my lot, they are able to give me pleasure only if they have complete certainty. Therefore, if I already experience such pleasure when approaching angelic images, then I have every reason believe that angels really exist."

Meanwhile, in 1959, since his father no longer wanted to let Dali in, he and Gala settled down to live in Port Lligat. Dali's paintings were already very popular, sold for a lot of money, and he himself was famous. He often communicates with William Tell. Under impressions, he creates such works as "The Riddle of William Tell" and "William Tell".

Basically, Dali worked on several topics: the paranoid-critical method, the Freudian-sexual theme, the theory of modern physics and sometimes religious motives.

In the 60s, the relationship between Gala and Dali cracked. Gala asked to buy another house in order to move out. After that, their relationship was already only the remnants of a past bright life, but the image of Gala never left Dali and continued to be an inspiration.
In 1973, the "Dali Museum" opens in Figueres, incredible in its content. Until now, he is amazed by the audience with his surreal appearance.
In 1980, Dali began to have health problems. The death of Franco, head of state of Spain, shocked and frightened Dali. Doctors suspect he has Parkinson's disease. Dali's father died from this disease.

Gala died on June 10, 1982. For Dali, this was a terrible blow. He did not participate in the funeral. They say that Dali entered the crypt only a few hours later. "Look, I'm not crying," was all he said. The death of Gala for Dali was a huge blow in his life. What the artist lost with the departure of Gala was known only to him. He walked alone through the rooms of their house, saying something about happiness and the beauty of Gala. He stopped painting, sat for hours in the dining room, where all the shutters were closed.
The last work "Dovetail" was completed in 1983.

In 1983, Dali's health seemed to have risen, he began to go out for a walk. But these changes were short-lived.

On August 30, 1984, a fire broke out in Dali's house. The burns on his body covered 18% of the skin surface.
By February 1985, Dali's health was on the mend again and he even gave interviews to the newspaper.
But in November 1988, Dali was admitted to the hospital. The diagnosis is heart failure. January 23, 1989 Salvador Dali passed away. He was 84 years old.

At his request, the body was embalmed and kept in his museum for a week. Dali was buried in the very center of his own museum under a simple slab without inscriptions. The life of Salvador Dali has always been bright and eventful, he himself was distinguished by his extraordinary and extravagant behavior. He changed unusual costumes, the style of his mustache, constantly praised his talent in written books ("The Diary of a Genius", "Dali According to Dali", "Dali's Golden Book", "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali"). On one occasion he lectured at the London Group Rooms in 1936. It was held as part of the International Surrealist Exhibition. Dali appeared in a deep-sea diver's suit.

Salvador Dali painted his first painting when he was 10 years old. It was a small impressionistic landscape, painted on a wooden board with oil paints. The talent of a genius was torn to the surface. Dali spent whole days sitting in a small room specially allocated to him, painting pictures.

"... I knew what I wanted: to be given a laundry under the roof of our house. And they gave it to me, allowing me to furnish the workshop to my liking. Of the two laundries, one, abandoned, served as a pantry. it was heaped up, and I took possession of it the very next day. It was so cramped that the cement tub occupied it almost entirely. Such proportions, as I have already said, revived intrauterine joys in me. Inside the cement tub, I put a chair, on it, instead of desktop, laid the board horizontally. When it was very hot, I undressed and turned on the tap, filling the tub to the waist. The water came from a tank next door, and was always warm from the sun. "

The theme of most of the early works was landscapes in the vicinity of Figueres and Cadaqués. Another expanse for Dali's fantasy was the ruins of a Roman city near Ampurius. Love for one's native places can be traced in many of Dali's works. Already at the age of 14 it was impossible to doubt Dali's ability to draw.
At the age of 14 he had his first solo exhibition at the Municipal Theater of Figueres. Young Dali stubbornly seeks his own style, but for now he is mastering all the styles he liked: impressionism, cubism, pointillism. "He painted passionately and greedily, like a man possessed"- Salvador Dali will say about himself in the third person.
At the age of sixteen, Dali began to express his thoughts on paper. From that time on, painting and literature were equally parts of his creative life. In 1919 he published essays on Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, Michelangelo and Leonardo in his self-made publication Studium.
In 1921, at the age of 17, he became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.

"... Soon I began to attend classes at the Academy of Fine Arts. And it took all my time. I did not hang out on the streets, I never went to the cinema, I did not visit my comrades in the Residence. I returned and locked myself in my room to continue work alone. On Sunday mornings I went to the Prado Museum and took catalogs of paintings from different schools. The journey from the Residence to the Academy and back cost one peseta. For many months this peseta was my only daily expense. Father, notified by the director and poet Markin (under the tutelage of whom he left me) that I was leading the life of a hermit, I was worried. Several times he wrote me, advising me to travel around the neighborhood, go to the theater, take breaks from work. But it was all in vain. From the Academy to the room, from the room to the Academy, one peseta a day and not a centime more. My inner life was content with this. And all sorts of entertainment disgusted me. "

Around 1923, Dali began his experiments with Cubism, often even locking himself in his room to paint. At that time, most of his colleagues tried their artistic abilities and strengths in impressionism, which Dali was fond of a few years before. When Dali's comrades saw him working on cubist paintings, his authority immediately rose, and he became not just a member, but one of the leaders of an influential group of young Spanish intellectuals, among whom were the future film director Luis Bunuel and the poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Acquaintance with them had a great influence on Dali's life.

In 1921 Dali's mother dies.
In 1926, 22-year-old Salvador Dali was expelled from the walls of the Academy. Disagreeing with the decision of the teachers regarding one of the teachers of painting, he got up and left the hall, after which a brawl began in the hall. Of course, Dali was considered the instigator, although he had no idea about what had happened, for a short time he even ended up in prison.
But soon he returned to the academy.

"... My exile ended and I returned to Madrid, where the group was impatiently waiting for me. Without me, they claimed, everything was "not thank God." Their imagination was hungry for my ideas. I was given a standing ovation, ordered special ties, postponed places in the theater, packed my suitcases, looked after my health, obeyed my every whim, and, like a cavalry squadron, attacked Madrid in order to overcome at any cost the difficulties that prevented the realization of my most unimaginable fantasies.

In spite of outstanding abilities exhibited by Dalí in academic pursuits, his eccentric dress and demeanor eventually led to his expulsion for his refusal to take the oral exam. When he learned that his last question would be the question of Raphael, Dali unexpectedly declared: "... I do not know less than three professors put together, and I refuse to answer them, because I am better informed on this issue."
But by that time his first solo exhibition had already taken place in Barcelona, a short trip to Paris, acquaintance with Picasso.

"... For the first time I spent only a week in Paris with my aunt and sister. There were three important visits: to Versailles, to the Grevin Museum and to Picasso. I was introduced to Picasso by the cubist artist Manuel Angelo Ortiz from Granada, whom Lorca introduced me to. I came to Picasso on the Rue La Boetie so excited and respectful, as if he were at the reception of the pope himself.

Other important event was the decision of Dali to officially join the movement of the Parisian surrealists. With the support of a friend, the artist Joan Miro, he joined their ranks in 1929. Andre Breton treated this dressed-up dandy - a Spaniard who painted pictures - puzzles, with a fair amount of distrust.
In 1929, his first solo exhibition was held in Paris at the Goeman's Gallery, after which he began his journey to the top of fame. In the same year, in January, he met his friend from the San Fernando Academy, Luis Bunuel, who offered to work together on a script for a film known as "Andalusian Dog"(Un Chien andalou). ("Andalusian puppies" Madrid youth called people from the south of Spain. This nickname meant "slobbery", "slob", "klutz", "sissy").
Now this film is a classic of surrealism. It was a short film designed to shock and hurt the bourgeoisie and ridicule the extremes of the avant-garde. Among the most shocking shots there is to this day the famous scene, which, as you know, was invented by Dali, where the human eye is cut in half with a blade. The decomposing donkeys seen in other scenes were also part of Dalí's contribution to the film.
After the film's first public screening in October 1929 at the Théâtre des Ursulines in Paris, Buñuel and Dalí immediately became famous and celebrated.

Two years after The Andalusian Dog, The Golden Age came out. Critics accepted New film with delight. But then he became a bone of contention between Bunuel and Dali: each claimed that he did more for the film than the other. However, despite the controversy, their collaboration left a deep mark on the lives of both artists and sent Dali on the path of surrealism.
Despite a relatively short "official" connection with the surrealist movement and the Breton group, Dali initially and forever remains an artist who personifies surrealism.
But even among the surrealists, Salvador Dali turned out to be a real troublemaker of surrealist restlessness, he advocated surrealism without shores, declaring: "Surrealism is me!" and, dissatisfied with the principle of mental automatism proposed by Breton and based on a spontaneous, uncontrolled creative act, the Spanish master defines the method he invented as "paranoid-critical activity."
Dali's break with the surrealists was also facilitated by his delusional political statements. His admiration for Adolf Hitler and monarchist tendencies ran counter to Breton's ideas. Dali's final break with the Breton group takes place in 1939.

The father, dissatisfied with his son's connection with Gala Eluard, forbade Dali to appear in his house, and thereby laid the foundation for a conflict between them. According to his subsequent stories, the artist, tormented by remorse, cut off all his hair and buried it in his beloved Cadaqués.

"... A few days later I received a letter from my father, who informed me that I was finally expelled from the family ... My first reaction to the letter was to cut off my hair. But I did it differently: I shaved my head, then buried it in the ground his hair, sacrificing it along with empty shells sea urchins eaten at dinner."

With virtually no money, Dali and Gala moved into a small house in a fishing village in Port Ligat, where they found shelter. There, in seclusion, they spent many hours together, and Dali worked hard to earn money, because although he was already recognized by that time, he still struggled to make ends meet. At that time, Dali began to become more and more involved in surrealism, his work now differed significantly even from those abstract paintings that he painted in the early twenties. The main theme for many of his works is now the confrontation with his father.
Image deserted coast firmly settled in the mind of Dali at that time. The artist painted a deserted beach and rocks in Cadaqués without any specific thematic focus. As he later claimed, the void was filled for him when he saw a piece of camembert cheese. The cheese became soft and began to melt on the plate. This sight caused a certain image in the subconscious of the artist, and he began to fill the landscape with melting hours, thus creating one of the most strong images our time. Dali named the painting "The Persistence of Memory" .

"... Deciding to write a clock, I wrote them soft. It was one evening, I was tired, I had a migraine - an extremely rare ailment for me. We had to go to the cinema with friends, but at the last moment I decided to stay at home. Gala will go with them, and I'll go to bed early. We ate very tasty cheese, then I was left alone, sitting leaning on the table and thinking about how "super soft" melted cheese. I got up and went to the workshop to, as usual, , cast a glance at my work. The picture I was going to paint was a landscape of the outskirts of Port Lligat, rocks, as if illuminated by a dim evening light. In the foreground, I sketched a chopped off trunk of a leafless olive tree. This landscape is the basis for a canvas with some idea, but what? I needed a marvelous image, but I could not find it. I went to turn off the light, and when I went out, I literally "saw" the solution: two pairs of soft clocks, one hanging plaintively from an olive branch. Despite the migraine, I cooked palette and set to work. two hours, when Gala returned from the cinema, the picture, which was to become one of the most famous, was completed. "

"The Persistence of Memory" was completed in 1931 and has become a symbol of the modern concept of the relativity of time. A year after the exhibition in the Pierre Colet Gallery in Paris, Dali's most famous painting was bought by the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Unable to visit his father's house in Cadaques due to his father's ban, Dali received money from the patron of the arts Viscount Charles de Noel for sale of paintings, built new house on the beach, near Port Lligat.

Now Dali was convinced, more than ever, that his goal was to learn to paint like the great masters of the Renaissance, and that with the help of their technique he would be able to express the ideas that prompted him to paint. Thanks to meetings with Bunuel and numerous disputes with Lorca, who spent a lot of time with him in Cadaques, Dali opened up new broad ways thinking.
By 1934, Gala had already divorced her husband, and Dali could marry her. The amazing feature of this married couple was that they felt and understood each other. Gala, in literally, lived the life of Dali, and he, in turn, deified her, admired her.
The outbreak of the civil war prevented Dalí from returning to Spain in 1936. Dali's fear for the fate of his country and its people was reflected in his paintings, painted during the war. Among them is the tragic and terrifying "Premonition of Civil War" in 1936. Dali liked to emphasize that this painting was a test of the genius of his intuition, since it was completed 6 months before the start. civil war in Spain in July 1936.

Between 1936 and 1937, Salvador Dali painted one of the most famous paintings, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. At the same time, his literary work entitled "Metamorphoses of Narcissus. A paranoid theme" is published. By the way, earlier (1935) in the work "The Conquest of the Irrational" Dali formulated the theory of the paranoid-critical method. In this method, he used various forms of irrational associations, especially images that change depending on visual perception - so, for example, a group of fighting soldiers can suddenly turn into a woman's face. Distinctive feature Dali was that, no matter how bizarre his images were, they were always painted in an impeccable "academic" manner, with that photographic accuracy that most avant-garde artists considered old-fashioned.

Although Dali often expressed the idea that the events of world life, such as wars, had little to do with the world of art, he was greatly worried about the events in Spain. In 1938, when the war reached climax, was written "Spain". During the Spanish Civil War, Dalí and Gala visited Italy to view the work of the Renaissance artists Dalí most admired. They also visited Sicily. This journey inspired the artist to write African Impressions in 1938.

In 1940, Dali and Gala, just weeks before the Nazi invasion, left France on a transatlantic flight ordered and paid for by Picasso. They stayed in the States for eight years. It was there that Salvador Dali wrote, probably one of his best books - a biography - "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, written by himself". When this book was published in 1942, it immediately attracted serious criticism from the press and supporters of the Puritan society.
During the years spent by Gala and Dali in America, Dali made a fortune. In doing so, some critics argue, he paid with his reputation as an artist. Among the artistic intelligentsia, his extravagances were considered as antics in order to draw attention to himself and his work. And Dali's traditional style of writing was considered unsuitable for the twentieth century (at that time, artists were busy looking for a new language to express new ideas born in modern society).

During his stay in America, Dali worked as a jeweler, designer, photojournalist, illustrator, portraitist, decorator, window dresser, made scenery for the Hitchcock film The House of Dr. psychoanalytic analysis of Salvador Dali's mustache). At the same time he writes the novel "Hidden Faces". His performance is amazing.
His texts, films, installations, photo essays and ballet performances are distinguished by irony and paradox, fused into a single whole in the same peculiar manner that is characteristic of his painting. Despite the monstrous eclecticism, the combination of the incompatible, the mixture (obviously deliberate) of soft and hard styles - his compositions are built according to the rules of academic art. The cacophony of plots (deformed objects, distorted images, fragments human body etc.) is "pacified", harmonized by the jewelry technique, which reproduces the texture of museum painting.

A new vision of the world was born in Dali after the explosion over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Having experienced a deep impression of the discoveries that led to the creation of the atomic bomb, the artist painted a whole series of paintings dedicated to the atom (for example, "The splitting of the atom", 1947).
But nostalgia for their homeland takes its toll and in 1948 they return to Spain. While in Port Lligat, Dali turns to religious-fiction themes in his creations.
On the eve of the Cold War, Dali develops the theory of "atomic art" published in the same year in the "Mystical Manifesto". Dali sets himself the goal of conveying to the viewer the idea of the constancy of spiritual being even after the disappearance of matter ( "Raphael's Exploding Head", 1951). The fragmented forms in this painting, as well as others painted during this period, are rooted in Dalí's interest in nuclear physics. The head looks like one of Raphael's Madonnas - classically clear and calm images; at the same time, it includes the dome of the Roman Pantheon with a stream of light falling inward. Both images are clearly distinguishable, despite the explosion that breaks the entire structure into small fragments in the shape of a rhinoceros horn.
These studies have reached highest point in "Galatea of the Spheres", 1952, where Gala's head consists of rotating spheres.

Rhinoceros horn became for Dali new symbol, is most fully embodied by him in the painting "Rhinoceros Figure of Ilissus Phidias", 1954. The painting dates back to the time that Dali called as "almost divine strict period of the rhinoceros horn", arguing that the bend of this horn is the only absolutely accurate logarithmic spiral in nature, and therefore the only perfect form.
In the same year, he also painted "A young virgin self-sodomed by her own chastity". The painting depicted a naked woman threatened by several rhinoceros horns.
Dali was fascinated by the new ideas of the theory of relativity. This prompted him to return to "The Persistence of Memory" 1931. Now in "The Disintegration of Memory Persistence",1952-54, Dali depicted his soft watch below sea level, where brick-like stones stretch into perspective. Memory itself was decomposing, since time no longer existed in the meaning given to it by Dali.

His international fame continued to grow, based both on his flamboyance and his sense of public taste, and on his incredible prolific output in painting, graphic works and book illustrations, as well as a designer in jewelry, clothes, stage costumes, shop interiors. He continued to surprise the public with his extravagant appearances. For example, in Rome, he appeared in the "Metaphysical Cube" (a simple white box covered with scientific badges). Most of the spectators who came to see Dali's performances were simply attracted by the eccentric celebrity.
In 1959, Dalí and Gala truly made their home in Port Lligat. By that time, no one could doubt the genius of the great artist. His paintings were bought for a lot of money by admirers and lovers of luxury. The huge canvases painted by Dali in the 60s were estimated at huge sums. Many millionaires considered it chic to have paintings by Salvador Dali in their collection.

In 1965, Dali met a student of an art college, part-time model, nineteen-year-old Amanda Lear, a future pop star. A couple of weeks after their meeting in Paris, when Amanda was returning home to London, Dali solemnly announced: "Now we will always be together." And over the next eight years, they really almost never parted. In addition, Gala herself blessed their union. Muse Dali calmly gave her husband into the caring hands of a young girl, knowing full well that Dali would never leave her and to anyone. There was no intimate relationship in the traditional sense between him and Amanda. Dali could only look at her and enjoy. In Cadaques, Amanda spent several seasons in a row every summer. Dali, lounging in an armchair, enjoyed the beauty of his nymph. Dali was afraid of bodily contacts, considering them too rough and mundane, but visual eroticism brought him real pleasure. He could endlessly watch Amanda wash herself, so when they stayed in hotels, they often booked rooms with communicating baths.

Everything was going great, but when Amanda decided to step out of Dali's shadow and pursue her own career, their love and friendship collapsed. Dali did not forgive her for the success that fell upon her. Geniuses do not like it when something that belongs to them undivided suddenly slips out of their hands. And someone else's success for them is an unbearable torment. How is it possible, his "baby" (despite the fact that Amanda's height is 176 cm) allowed herself to become independent and successful! For a long time they almost did not communicate, seeing each other only in 1978 at Christmas in Paris.

The next day, Gala called Amanda and asked her to urgently come to her. When Amanda appeared at her place, she saw that an open Bible was lying in front of Gala, and right next to it was an icon of the Kazan Mother of God, taken out of Russia. “Swear to me on the Bible,” 84-year-old Gala strictly ordered that when I am gone, you will marry Dali. I cannot die leaving him unattended. Amanda swore without hesitation. And a year later she married the Marquis Allen Philippe Malagnac. Dali refused to accept the newlyweds, and Gala no longer spoke to her until her death.

Beginning around 1970, Dali's health began to deteriorate. Although his creative energy did not decrease, thoughts of death and immortality began to disturb him. He believed in the possibility of immortality, including the immortality of the body, and explored ways to preserve the body through freezing and DNA transplantation in order to be born again.

More important, however, was the preservation of the works, which became his main project. He put all his energy into it. The artist came up with the idea to build a museum for his works. He soon set about rebuilding the theater in Figueres, his homeland, badly damaged during the Spanish Civil War. A gigantic geodesic dome was erected over the stage. Auditorium was cleared and divided into sectors in which his works of different genres could be presented, including Mae West's bedroom and large paintings, such as "The Hallucinogenic Toreador". Dali himself painted the entrance foyer, depicting himself and Gala washing gold in Figueres, with their feet hanging from the ceiling. The Salon was called the Palace of the Winds, after the poem of the same name, which tells the legend of the east wind, whose love married and lives in the west, so whenever he approaches her, he is forced to turn, while his tears fall to the ground. This legend was very much liked by Dali, the great mystic, who devoted another part of his museum to eroticism. As he often liked to point out, erotica differs from pornography in that the former brings everyone happiness, while the latter only brings bad luck.
Many other works and other trinkets were exhibited at the Dalí Theatre-Museum. The salon opened in September 1974 and looked less like a museum than a bazaar. There, among other things, were the results of Dali's experiments with holography, from which he hoped to create global three-dimensional images. (His holograms were first exhibited at the Knedler Gallery in New York in 1972. He stopped experimenting in 1975.) In addition, the Dali Theatre-Museum exhibits double spectroscopic paintings depicting a naked Gala against a painting by Claude Laurent and other works of art, created by Dali. More about the Theater-Museum.

In 1968-1970, the painting "The Hallucinogenic Toreador" was created - a masterpiece of metamorphism. The artist himself called this huge canvas "the whole Dali in one picture", since it is a whole anthology of his images. Upstairs, the spiritual head of Gala dominates the entire stage, and in the lower right corner stands six-year-old Dali, dressed as a sailor (as he portrayed himself in The Phantom of Sexual Attraction in 1932). In addition to many images from earlier works, there is a series of Venus de Milo in the picture, gradually turning and simultaneously changing gender. The bullfighter himself is not easy to see - until we realize that the naked torso of Venus second from the right can be perceived as part of his face (the right chest corresponds to the nose, the shadow on the stomach - the mouth), and the green shadow on her drapery - like a tie. To the left, a sequined bullfighter's jacket glimmers, merging with the rocks, which reveal the head of a dying bull.

Dali's popularity grew. The demand for his work has become crazy. Book publishers, magazines, fashion houses and theater directors fought for it. He has already created illustrations for many masterpieces of world literature, such as the Bible, " The Divine Comedy"Dante," Lost heaven"Milton, Freud's God and Monotheism, Ovid's The Art of Love. He published books dedicated to himself and his art, in which he unrestrainedly praises his talent ("Diary of a Genius", "Dali According to Dali", "Dali's Golden Book" , "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali"). He was always distinguished by a bizarre demeanor, constantly changing extravagant costumes and the style of his mustache.

The cult of Dali, the abundance of his works in different genres and styles led to the emergence of numerous fakes, which caused great problems in the global art market. Dalí himself was involved in a scandal in 1960 when he signed many clean sheets paper intended for making impressions from lithographic stones held by dealers in Paris. An allegation was made for the illegal use of these blank sheets. However, Dali remained imperturbable and in the 1970s continued to lead his hectic and active life, as always continuing to search for new plastic ways to explore his amazing world of art.

In the late 60s, the relationship between Dali and Gala began to fade. And at the request of Gala, Dali was forced to buy her his castle, where she spent a lot of time in the company of young people. The rest of their life together was smoldering firebrands that were once a bright fire of passion ... Galya was already about 70 years old, but the more she grew old, the more she wanted love. "El Salvador doesn't care, each of us has our own life", - she convinced her husband's friends, dragging them into bed. "I allow Gala to have as many lovers as she wants Dali said. - I even encourage her because it turns me on". Young lovers Gala mercilessly robbed her. She gave them paintings by Dali, bought houses, studios, cars. And Dali was saved from loneliness by his favorites, young beautiful women, from whom he did not need anything but their beauty. In public, he always pretended that they were lovers. But he knew that it was all just a game. The woman of his soul was only Gala.

All her life with Dali, Gala played the role of a gray cardinal, preferring to remain in the background. Some considered her driving force Dali, others - a witch, weaving intrigues ... Gala managed her husband's constantly growing wealth with efficient efficiency. It was she who closely followed private transactions for the purchase of his paintings. She was needed physically and morally, so when Gala died in June 1982, the artist suffered a heavy loss. Among the works created by Dali a few weeks before her death is "Three famous mysteries of Gala", 1982.

Dali did not participate in the funeral. According to eyewitnesses, he entered the crypt only a few hours later. "Look I'm not crying"- everything he said. After the death of Gala, Dali's life became gray, all his madness and surrealistic fun were gone forever. What Dali lost with the departure of Gala was known only to him. Alone, he wandered through the rooms of their house, muttering incoherent phrases about happiness and about how beautiful Gala was. He did not draw anything, but only sat for hours in the dining room, where all the shutters were closed.

After her death, his health began to deteriorate rapidly. Doctors suspected Dalí had Parkinson's disease. This disease once became fatal for his father. Dali almost stopped appearing in society. Despite this, his popularity grew. Among the awards that rained down on Dali like a cornucopia was membership in the Academy of Fine Arts of France. Spain bestowed upon him the highest honor, awarding him the Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic, presented to him by King Juan Carlos. Dali was declared Marquis de Pubol in 1982. Despite all this, Dali was unhappy and felt bad. He threw himself into work. All his life he admired by Italian artists Renaissance, so he began to paint pictures inspired by the heads of Giuliano de Medici, Moses and Adam (located in Sistine Chapel) by Michelangelo and his "Descent from the Cross" in St. Peter's Church in Rome.

The last years of his life, the artist spent all alone in the castle of Gala in Pubol, where Dali moved after her death, and later in his room at the Dali Theater-Museum.
His last work - "Dovetail", Dali finished in 1983. This is a simple calligraphic composition on a white sheet, inspired by the catastrophe theory.

By the end of 1983, his spirits seemed to have lifted somewhat. He sometimes began to walk in the garden, began to paint pictures. But, alas, it did not last long. Old age took precedence over a brilliant mind. On August 30, 1984, a fire broke out in Dali's house. Burns on the artist's body covered 18% of the skin. After that, his health deteriorated further.

By February 1985, Dali's health improved somewhat and he was able to give an interview to the largest Spanish newspaper Pais. But in November 1988, Dali was admitted to the clinic with a diagnosis of heart failure. Salvador Dali died on January 23, 1989 at the age of 84.

He bequeathed to bury himself not next to his surreal Madonna, in the tomb of Pubol, and in the city where he was born, in Figueres. The embalmed body of Salvador Dali, dressed in a white tunic, was buried at the Figueres Theater Museum, under a geodesic dome. Thousands of people came to say goodbye to the great genius. Salvador Dali was buried in the center of his museum. He left his fortune and his works to Spain.

Message about the death of the artist in the Soviet press:
"Salvador Dali, the world famous spanish artist. He died today in a hospital in the Spanish city of Figueres at the age of 85 after prolonged illness. Dali was the largest representative of surrealism - the avant-garde trend in artistic culture of the twentieth century, which was especially popular in the West in the 30s. Salvador Dali was a member of the Spanish and French academies of arts. He is the author of many books and screenplays. Exhibitions of Dali's works were held in many countries of the world, including recently in the Soviet Union.

"For fifty years now I have entertained mankind", - Salvador Dali once wrote in his biography. It entertains to this day and will continue to entertain if humanity does not disappear and painting does not perish under technical progress.

Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in the Spanish city of Figueres (Catalonia). His real name is Salvador Jacinto Dali Domench Cusi Farres. His father called him Salvador, which means "Savior" in Spanish.

The first son who appeared in the family died, and the parents wanted the second to become their consolation, the savior of the ancient family. As Dali wrote in his shocking "Diary of a Genius": "At six years old I wanted to become a cook, at seven - Napoleon. Since then, my ambitions have been steadily growing. And today I long to become none other than Salvador Dali." Most of all, Dali loved himself, they say about such people - Narcissus. He talked a lot about himself, published personal diaries. He was confident in his uniqueness.

The only thing that separates me from a crazy person is that I'm normal.

Dali Salvador

Dali claimed to have been a genius already in the womb. he adored his mother, because she endured the Savior, that is, him, and when his mother died, he could not recover from the blow. But not much time passed, and Dali, for advertising purposes, inscribed blasphemous words on one of his own paintings hanging at an exhibition in Paris: "I spit on my mother." Salvador's father forbade his son to return home, but Dali did not care: painting became his family and home.

Whether Dali is a genius or not, we will not judge, he was always evaluated differently, but talent was always evident. An excellent landscape has been preserved, which he painted at the age of 6, and at the age of 14 his personal exhibition No. 1 took place at the municipal theater of Figueres. At the age of 17, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (another name is graduate School fine arts).

The teachers appreciated his drawings quite highly. The poet Rafael Alberti recalled: “I have great love for Salvador Dali, a young man. His talent from God was supported by an amazing capacity for work. Very often, closing himself in his room and working furiously, he forgot to go down to the dining room. day attended the Academy of Arts and learned to draw there to the point of exhaustion. But in my head young talent always lived the thought: how to become famous? How to stand out from the huge circle of talent? How unusual is it to enter the world of art to be remembered? Vanity is a powerful lever for a gifted person. It leads someone to a feat, it forces someone to show the best sides character and soul, Dali decided to go in a completely different way: he decided to shock!

In 1926, Dali was expelled from the Academy for impudence, then he was imprisoned for a short time. Well, these scandals only play into his hands! Having started an independent road in painting, Dali began to fight with common sense. In addition to the fact that he non-stop wrote his terrible fantasies, he behaved in a very original way. Here are some of his antics. Once in Rome, he appeared in the park of Princess Pallavicini, lit by torches, from a cubic egg and delivered a speech in Latin.

In Madrid, Dali once delivered a speech addressed to Picasso. Its purpose is to invite Picasso to Spain. "Picasso is Spaniard - and I am also Spaniard! Picasso is a genius - and I am also a genius! Picasso is a communist - and neither am I!". The audience groaned. In New York, Dali appeared, dressed in a golden space suit and being inside an outlandish machine of his own invention - a transparent sphere. In Nice, Dali announced his intention to start creating the film "Wheelbarrow in the Flesh" with the brilliant actress Anna Magnani in leading role. Moreover, he claimed that according to the plot, the heroine falls in love with a wheelbarrow.

Salvador Dali was a genius of self-promotion, so his next tirade is quite clear: “Our time is the era of cretins, the era of consumption, and I would be the last idiot if I didn’t shake everything possible out of the cretins of this era.” ... Dali, who adored everything unconventional, everything "on the contrary", was married to an amazing woman who was quite a match for him. Her real name is Elena Dmitrievna Dyakonova, although she went down in history under the name Gala. Gala means "holiday" in French. In fact, it was so: for Dali, Gala became a celebration of inspiration, the main model. They did not part for 53 years.

The marriage of Dali and Gala was rather strange, rather it was a creative union. Dali could not live without his “half”: in everyday life he was a rather impractical, notorious person, he was afraid of everything: riding an elevator, and concluding contracts. Gala said: "In the morning, El Salvador makes mistakes, and in the afternoon I correct them, tearing up the agreements he signed lightly." They were an eternal couple - ice and fire.

News and publications related to Dali Salvador

Salvador Dali, 1939

1. Translated from Spanish, "Salvador" means "savior." Salvador Dali had an older brother who died of meningitis a few years before the birth of the future artist. Desperate parents found solace in the birth of Salvador, later telling him that he was the reincarnation of his older brother.

2. The full name of Salvador Dali is Salvador Domenech Felipe Jacinth Dali and Domenech, Marquis de Dali de Pubol.

3. The first exhibition of paintings by Salvador Dali took place at the Municipal Theater of Figueres when he was 14 years old.

4. As a child, Dali was an unbridled and capricious child. With his willfulness, he achieved literally everything that a small child could wish for.

5. Salvador Dali served a short term in prison. He was arrested by the civil guards, but since the investigation did not find any reason to keep him for a long time, Salvador was released.

6. Entering the Academy of Fine Arts, Salvador had to pass an exam in painting. 6 days were given for everything - during this time Dali had to complete the drawing of the antique model in full sheet. On the third day, the examiner noted that his drawing was too small, and, violating the rules of the exam, he would not enter the academy. Salvador erased the drawing and on the last day of the exam presented a new ideal version of the model, only it turned out to be even smaller than the first drawing. Despite breaking the rules, the jury accepted his work because it was perfect.

Salvador and Gala, 1958

7. A landmark event in the life of El Salvador was a meeting with Gala Eluard (Elna Ivanovna Dyakonova), who at that time was the wife of the French poet Paul Eluard. Later, Gala became a muse, assistant, lover, and then the wife of El Salvador.

8. When Salvador was 7 years old, his father was forced to drag him to school. He made such a scandal that all the street vendors ran to the screams. Not only did little Dali learn nothing during his first year of study, he even forgot the alphabet. Salvador believed that he owed this to Mr. Traiter, who is mentioned in his biography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself."

9. Salvador Dali is the author of the Chupa Chups packaging design. Chupa Chups founder Enric Bernat asked El Salvador to bring something new to the wrapper, as the candy's growing popularity required a recognizable design. In less than an hour, the artist sketched out a package design for him, which is now known as the Chupa-Chups logo, although in a slightly modified form.

Dali with his father, 1948

10. A desert in Bolivia and a crater on the planet Mercury are named after Salvador Dali.

11. Art dealers fear recent works Salvador Dali, since there is an opinion that during his life the artist signed blank canvases and blank sheets of paper so that they could be used for fakes after his death.

12. In addition to visual puns, which were an integral part of the image of Dali, the artist also expressed surrealism in words, often building sentences on vague allusions and wordplay. Sometimes he spoke in a strange combination of French, Spanish, Catalan and English, which seemed like a fun, but at the same time incomprehensible game.

13. The artist's most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory, is quite small - 24×33 centimeters.

14. Salvador was so afraid of grasshoppers that it sometimes drove him to a nervous breakdown. As a child, his classmates often used it. “If I were on the edge of an abyss and a grasshopper jumped in my face, I would rather throw myself into the abyss than endure his touch. This horror has remained the mystery of my life.

Sources:

1 en.wikipedia.org

2 Biography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself", 1942.

3en.wikipedia.org

4 en.wikipedia.org

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Much is known about Salvador Dali, but even more remains unknown. Being a narcissistic egocentrist, a real narcissist, the artist talked a lot about himself, published diaries, biographies, wrote many poems, articles and other literary works, but all this only thickened the fog around his life. It is sometimes simply impossible to distinguish the truth from deliberate lies in the name of advertising. With my own hands Salvador Dali created a myth about himself. And, as you know, legends are just legends in which truth is dissolved in fiction.

So, the biography of Salvador Dali:

On May 11, 1904, a boy was born in the family of Don Salvador Dali y Cusi and Dona Felipa Domenech in the small Spanish town of Figueras in northeastern Spain, not far from Barcelona, who was destined to become one of the greatest geniuses of the Surrealist era in the future. His name was Salvador Dali. In his biography, Dali writes:

“... The child in question was born at 20 Monturiol Street at 8.45 am on 11 May of this year. He is now named Salvador Felipe Jacinto. Calle Monturiol, 20. Paternal ancestors: Don Galo Dali Vinas, born and buried in Cadaqués, and Doña Teresa Cusi Marco, a native of Rosas His maternal ancestors: Don Anselmo Domenech Serra and Dona Maria Ferres Sadurni, natives of Barcelona Witnesses : Don José Mercader, native of La Bisbala in the province of Gerona, tanner, living in Calzada de los Monjas, 20, and Don Emilio Baig, native of Figueres, musician, living in Perelada, 5, both adults.

Salvador in Spanish means "Savior" - that's what his father called him after his first son died. The second was intended to continue the ancient family.

"... My brother died of meningitis seven years, three years before my birth. Desperate father and mother found no other consolation than my birth. My brother and I were like two drops of water: the same seal of genius, then same expression of unreasonable anxiety. We differed in some psychological traits. Moreover, his look was different - as if shrouded in melancholy, "irresistible" thoughtfulness.

The third child in the Dali family was a girl born in 1908. Ana Maria Dali became one of Salvador Dali's best childhood friends and subsequently posed for many of his works. (cm. portraits of Ana Maria) Ana Maria replaced the mother of the completely helpless and impractical Dali in life, and was his only female model until the moment when he met Gala Eluard. Gala took on the role of Dali's only model, which caused the ongoing hostility of Anna Maria

Talent for painting manifested itself in Dali enough in young age. At the age of four, he tried to draw with amazing diligence for such a small child. At the age of six, Dali attracted the image of Napoleon and, as if identifying himself with him, he felt the need for some kind of power. Wearing a masquerade costume of the king, he received great pleasure from his appearance.

"... In the house I reigned and commanded. Nothing was impossible for me. My father and mother did not pray for me. On the day of the Infanta, I received, among countless gifts, a magnificent costume of the king with a cape lined with a real ermine, and a crown of gold and precious stones. And for a long time I kept this brilliant (albeit masquerade) confirmation of my chosenness."

Despite Dalí's outstanding ability in his academic pursuits, his eccentric dress and demeanor eventually led to his expulsion for his refusal to take the oral exam. When he learned that his last question would be the question of Raphael, Dali unexpectedly declared: "... I do not know less than three professors put together, and I refuse to answer them, because I am better informed on this issue."
But by that time his first solo exhibition had already taken place in Barcelona, a short trip to Paris, acquaintance with Picasso.

The name and work of Dali attracted close attention in artistic circles. In the paintings of Dali of that time, one can notice the influence of cubism ( "Young Women", 1923).
In 1928 Dali became famous all over the world. His painting "Basket of Bread" among others was exhibited on International Exhibition Carnegie International Exposition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This work is an example of a completely different artistic style. The painting is written in such a beautiful and real style, you can even say that it is almost photorealistic.

Like many artists, Dali began working in those artistic styles which were popular at the time. In his works early period(1914 - 1927) you can see the influence of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio and Cezanne. Towards the end of this period of his work, surrealistic qualities begin to appear in Dali's works, reflecting not so much real world how much of his inner private world.

The personal life of Salvador Dali until 1929 did not have bright moments (unless you count his many hobbies with unreal girls, girls and women).
Dali, who acquired professional skills very early, mastered drawing and the secrets of academic painting, and also went through the school of cubism, in order to be at the level of his time, had to move on, because. the heroic time of cubism was over, and, improving in classical skills, he could only count on the role of an ordinary provincial artist. It should be noted that already his youthful work: seascapes, landscapes of Cadaques, portraits of peasant women, still lifes and other works of 1918-1921 - indicate that Dali, developing this direction, could enter Spanish painting as interesting artist... And yet to say "in the history of painting" would be an exaggeration. In the same way, he would have been lost in history if, following the example of his idol Velasquez, he became a portrait painter, because. his portraits are far from the most successful in his work. Their scrupulous "academic" writing does not replace the deep psychological characteristics characteristic of great classical art.

The unconditional genius of Dali was that he chose best way to realize his modest pictorial gift and satisfy more than immodest ambition.
This was extremely well matched by the surrealistic theory, which Dali, obviously, met before his first surrealistic "paranoid" paintings appeared ( "Honey is sweeter than blood", 1926). These works are preceded by variations on a theme "Venus and the Sailor", 1925, "Flying Woman", 1926, and "Portrait of a Girl in a Landscape (Cadaqués)", the same time - marked by the influence of Picasso, as well as the Figure at the Window, 1925, "Woman in front of the Peña Segat rocks", 1926 - imitating the manner of "metaphysical" painting by De Chirico. These works have everything that makes painting come true; everything but independence. Their secondary nature is obvious.
In 1926 there was a sharp turning point. It is hard to believe that the dismembered female corpse and the decomposing carcass of a donkey ( "Honey is sweeter than blood") - a picture of horror and despair written in the same year as charming with its simplicity, harmony and chastity "Portrait of a Girl in a Landscape (Cadaqués)" and "Woman in front of the Peña Segat rocks".

The year 1929 came - a fatal year for Dali, when two important events took place in his life. Both had a profound effect on further fate Salvador Dali, who was destined to become one of the the greatest artists of all time. He was always afraid of his "greatness", and now he stood on the threshold of a new era. The era in which he was elevated to the status of a Master.
The first and most important event was his meeting with Gala Eluard in Cadaques, who became his muse, assistant, lover, and then wife. At that time she was married, but despite this, since they met, they have not parted again. At the beginning of their acquaintance, Gala saved Dali from a serious mental crisis, and without her support and faith in his genius, he would hardly have turned out to be that artist. Dali created a pompous cult of Gala, who appears in many of his works, eventually in an almost divine guise.

"... I went to the window that overlooked the beach. She was already there. Who is She? Do not interrupt me. Enough of what I say: She was already there. Gala, Eluard's wife. It was she! Galuchka Rediviva! I recognized her by her naked back. Her body was delicate, like that of a child. The line of the shoulders was almost perfectly rounded, and the muscles of the waist, outwardly fragile, were athletically tense, like those of a teenager. But the curve of the waist was truly feminine. Graceful combination slender, vigorous torso, aspen waist and tender hips made her even more desirable.(more about Gala Dali)

Another important event was Dali's decision to officially join the Parisian surrealist movement. With the support of a friend, the artist Joan Miro, he joined their ranks in 1929. Andre Breton treated this dressed-up dandy - a Spaniard who painted pictures - puzzles, with a fair amount of distrust.
In 1929, his first solo exhibition was held in Paris at the Goeman's Gallery, after which he began his journey to the top of fame. In the same year, in January, he met his friend from the San Fernando Academy, Luis Bunuel, who offered to work together on a script for a film known as "Andalusian Dog"(Un Chien andalou). ("Andalusian puppies" Madrid youth called people from the south of Spain. This nickname meant "slobbery", "slob", "klutz", "sissy").
Now this film is a classic of surrealism. It was a short film designed to shock and hurt the bourgeoisie and ridicule the extremes of the avant-garde. Among the most shocking shots there is to this day the famous scene, which, as you know, was invented by Dali, where the human eye is cut in half with a blade. The decomposing donkeys seen in other scenes were also part of Dalí's contribution to the film.
After the film's first public screening in October 1929 at the Théâtre des Ursulines in Paris, Buñuel and Dalí immediately became famous and celebrated.

Two years after The Andalusian Dog, The Golden Age came out. Critics received the new film with enthusiasm. But then he became a bone of contention between Bunuel and Dali: each claimed that he did more for the film than the other. However, despite the controversy, their collaboration left a deep mark on the lives of both artists and sent Dali on the path of surrealism.
Despite a relatively short "official" connection with the surrealist movement and the Breton group, Dali initially and forever remains an artist who personifies surrealism.
But even among the surrealists, Salvador Dali turned out to be a real troublemaker of surrealistic restlessness, he advocated surrealism without shores, declaring: "Surrealism is me!" and, dissatisfied with the principle of mental automatism proposed by Breton and based on a spontaneous, uncontrolled creative act, the Spanish master defines the method he invented as "paranoid-critical activity."
Dali's break with the surrealists was also facilitated by his delusional political statements. His admiration for Adolf Hitler and monarchist tendencies ran counter to Breton's ideas. Dali's final break with the Breton group takes place in 1939.

With virtually no money, Dali and Gala moved into a small house in a fishing village in Port Ligat, where they found shelter. There, in seclusion, they spent many hours together, and Dali worked hard to earn money, because although he was already recognized by that time, he still struggled to make ends meet. At that time, Dali began to become more and more involved in surrealism, his work now differed significantly even from those abstract paintings that he painted in the early twenties. The main theme for many of his works is now the confrontation with his father.
The image of the deserted shore was firmly planted in Dali's mind at that time. The artist painted a deserted beach and rocks in Cadaqués without any specific thematic focus. As he later claimed, the void was filled for him when he saw a piece of camembert cheese. The cheese became soft and began to melt on the plate. This sight evoked a certain image in the artist's subconscious, and he began to fill the landscape with melting hours, thus creating one of the most powerful images of our time. Dali named the painting "The Persistence of Memory".

"... Deciding to write a clock, I wrote them soft. It was one evening, I was tired, I had a migraine - an extremely rare ailment for me. We had to go to the cinema with friends, but in last moment I decided to stay at home. Gala will go with them, and I will go to bed early. We ate very tasty cheese, then I was left alone, sitting leaning on the table and thinking about how "super soft" processed cheese. I got up and went to the studio to take a look at my work as usual. The picture I was going to paint was a landscape of the outskirts of Port Lligat, rocks, as if illuminated by a dim evening light. In the foreground, I sketched the chopped off trunk of a leafless olive tree. This landscape is the basis for a canvas with some idea, but what? I needed a marvelous image, but I did not find it. I went to turn off the light, and when I got out, I literally “saw” the solution: two pairs of soft clocks, one hanging plaintively from an olive branch. Despite the migraine, I prepared my palette and set to work. Two hours later, when Gala returned from the cinema, the picture, which was to become one of the most famous, was completed. "

"The Persistence of Memory" was completed in 1931 and has become a symbol of the modern concept of the relativity of time. A year after the exhibition in the Pierre Colet Gallery in Paris, Dali's most famous painting was bought by the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Unable to visit his father's house in Cadaques due to his father's ban, Dali built a new house on the seashore, near Port Lligat, with money received from the patron of arts Viscount Charles de Noel for the sale of paintings.

Now Dali was convinced, more than ever, that his goal was to learn to paint like the great masters of the Renaissance, and that with the help of their technique he would be able to express the ideas that prompted him to paint. Thanks to meetings with Bunuel and numerous disputes with Lorca, who spent a lot of time with him in Cadaqués, new broad ways of thinking opened up for Dali.
By 1934, Gala had already divorced her husband, and Dali could marry her. The amazing feature of this married couple was that they felt and understood each other. Gala, in the literal sense, lived the life of Dali, and he, in turn, deified her, admired her.
The outbreak of the civil war prevented Dalí from returning to Spain in 1936. Dali's fear for the fate of his country and its people was reflected in his paintings, painted during the war. Among them is the tragic and terrifying "Premonition of Civil War" in 1936. Dali liked to point out that this painting was a test of the genius of his intuition, since it was completed 6 months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936.

Between 1936 and 1937 Salvador Dali wrote one of the most famous paintings"Metamorphosis of Narcissus". At the same time, his literary work entitled "Metamorphoses of Narcissus. A paranoid theme" is published. By the way, earlier (1935) in the work "The Conquest of the Irrational" Dali formulated the theory of the paranoid-critical method. In this method, he used various forms of irrational associations, especially images that change depending on visual perception - so, for example, a group of fighting soldiers can suddenly turn into a woman's face. A distinctive feature of Dali was that, no matter how bizarre his images were, they were always painted in an impeccable "academic" manner, with that photographic accuracy that most avant-garde artists considered old-fashioned.

Although Dali often expressed the idea that the events of world life, such as wars, had little to do with the world of art, he was greatly worried about the events in Spain. In 1938, as the war reached its climax, Spain was written. During the Spanish Civil War, Dalí and Gala visited Italy to view the work of the Renaissance artists Dalí most admired. They also visited Sicily. This journey inspired the artist to paint "African Impressions" in 1938.

In 1940, Dali and Gala, just weeks before the Nazi invasion, left France on a transatlantic flight ordered and paid for by Picasso. They stayed in the States for eight years. It was there that Salvador Dali wrote, probably one of his best books - a biography - "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, written by himself." When this book was published in 1942, it immediately attracted serious criticism from the press and supporters of the Puritan society.
During the years spent by Gala and Dali in America, Dali made a fortune. In doing so, some critics argue, he paid with his reputation as an artist. Among the artistic intelligentsia, his extravagances were considered as antics in order to draw attention to himself and his work. And Dali's traditional style of writing was considered unsuitable for the twentieth century (at that time, artists were busy looking for a new language to express new ideas born in modern society).

During his stay in America, Dali worked as a jeweler, designer, photojournalist, illustrator, portraitist, decorator, window dresser, made scenery for the Hitchcock film The House of Dr. psychoanalytic analysis of Salvador Dali's mustache). At the same time he writes the novel "Hidden Faces". His performance is amazing.
His texts, films, installations, photo essays and ballet performances are distinguished by irony and paradox, fused into a single whole in the same peculiar manner that is characteristic of his painting. Despite the monstrous eclecticism, the combination of the incompatible, the mixture (obviously deliberate) of soft and hard styles - his compositions are built according to the rules of academic art. The cacophony of plots (deformed objects, distorted images, fragments of the human body, etc.) is "pacified", harmonized by the jewelry technique, which reproduces the texture of museum painting.

A new vision of the world was born in Dali after the explosion over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Having experienced a deep impression of the discoveries that led to the creation of the atomic bomb, the artist painted a whole series of paintings dedicated to the atom (for example, "The Splitting of the Atom", 1947).
But nostalgia for their homeland takes its toll and in 1948 they return to Spain. While in Port Lligat, Dali turns to religious-fiction themes in his creations.
On the eve of the Cold War, Dali develops the theory of "atomic art" published in the same year in the "Mystical Manifesto". Dali sets himself the goal of conveying to the viewer the idea of the constancy of spiritual being even after the disappearance of matter ( "Raphael's Exploding Head", 1951). The fragmented forms in this painting, as in others painted during this period, are rooted in Dalí's interest in nuclear physics. The head looks like one of Raphael's Madonnas - classically clear and calm images; at the same time, it includes the dome of the Roman Pantheon with a stream of light falling inward. Both images are clearly distinguishable, despite the explosion that breaks the entire structure into small fragments in the shape of a rhinoceros horn.
These studies have culminated in "Galatea of the Spheres", 1952, where Gala's head consists of rotating spheres.

The rhinoceros horn became a new symbol for Dali, most fully embodied by him in the painting "The Rhino-shaped Figure of Ilissus Phidias", 1954. The painting dates back to the time that Dali called as "an almost divine strict period of the rhinoceros horn", arguing that the bend of this horn is the only one in nature is an absolutely exact logarithmic spiral, and therefore the only perfect form.
In the same year, he also painted "Young Virgin Self-Sodomized by Her Own Chastity". The painting depicted a naked woman threatened by several rhinoceros horns.
Dali was fascinated by the new ideas of the theory of relativity. This prompted him to return to "The Persistence of Memory" 1931. Now in "The Disintegration of Memory Persistence" 1952-54, Dali depicted his soft clock below sea level, where brick-like stones stretch into perspective. Memory itself was decomposing, since time no longer existed in the meaning given to it by Dali.

His international fame continued to grow, based both on his flamboyance and his sense of social taste, and on his incredible prolific output in painting, graphic work and book illustration, as well as a designer in jewelry, clothing, stage costumes, shop interiors. He continued to surprise the public with his extravagant appearances. For example, in Rome, he appeared in the "Metaphysical Cube" (a simple white box covered with scientific badges). Most of the spectators who came to see Dali's performances were simply attracted by the eccentric celebrity.
In 1959, Dalí and Gala truly made their home in Port Lligat. By that time, no one could doubt the genius of the great artist. His paintings were bought for a lot of money by admirers and lovers of luxury. The huge canvases painted by Dali in the 60s were estimated at huge sums. Many millionaires considered it chic to have paintings by Salvador Dali in their collection.

In 1965, Dali met a student of an art college, part-time model, nineteen-year-old Amanda Lear, a future pop star. A couple of weeks after their meeting in Paris, when Amanda was returning home to London, Dali solemnly announced: "Now we will always be together." And over the next eight years, they really almost never parted. In addition, Gala herself blessed their union. Muse Dali calmly gave her husband into caring hands young girl, knowing full well that Dali will never leave her and to anyone. There was no intimate relationship in the traditional sense between him and Amanda. Dali could only look at her and enjoy. In Cadaques, Amanda spent several seasons in a row every summer. Dali, lounging in an armchair, enjoyed the beauty of his nymph. Dali was afraid of bodily contacts, considering them too rough and mundane, but visual eroticism brought him real pleasure. He could endlessly watch Amanda wash herself, so when they stayed in hotels, they often booked rooms with communicating baths.

The next day, Gala called Amanda and asked her to urgently come to her. When Amanda appeared at her place, she saw that an open Bible was lying in front of Gala and the icon of the Kazanskaya Mother of God exported from Russia. “Swear to me on the Bible,” 84-year-old Gala strictly ordered that when I am gone, you will marry Dali. I cannot die leaving him unattended. Amanda swore without hesitation. And a year later she married the Marquis Allen Philippe Malagnac. Dali refused to accept the newlyweds, and Gala no longer spoke to her until her death.

More important, however, was the preservation of the works, which became his main project. He put all his energy into it. The artist came up with the idea to build a museum for his works. He soon set about rebuilding the theater in Figueres, his homeland, badly damaged during the Spanish Civil War. A gigantic geodesic dome was erected over the stage. The auditorium was cleared and divided into sectors that could display his works of different genres, including Mae West's bedroom and large paintings such as "The Hallucinogenic Toreador". Dali himself painted the entrance foyer, depicting himself and Gala washing gold in Figueres, with their feet hanging from the ceiling. The Salon was called the Palace of the Winds, after the poem of the same name, which tells the legend of the east wind, whose love married and lives in the west, so whenever he approaches her, he is forced to turn, while his tears fall to the ground. This legend was very much liked by Dali, the great mystic, who devoted another part of his museum to erotica. As he often liked to point out, erotica differs from pornography in that the former brings everyone happiness, while the latter only brings bad luck.
Many other works and other trinkets were exhibited at the Dalí Theatre-Museum. The salon opened in September 1974 and looked less like a museum than a bazaar. There, among other things, were the results of Dali's experiments with holography, from which he hoped to create global three-dimensional images. (His holograms were first exhibited at the Knedler Gallery in New York in 1972. He stopped experimenting in 1975.) In addition, the Dali Theatre-Museum exhibits double spectroscopic paintings depicting a naked Gala against a painting by Claude Laurent and other works of art, created by Dali. More about the Theater-Museum.

In 1968-1970, the painting "The Hallucinogenic Toreador" was created - a masterpiece of metamorphism. The artist himself called this huge canvas "the whole Dali in one picture", since it is a whole anthology of his images. Upstairs, the soulful head of Gala dominates the entire stage, and in the lower right corner stands six-year-old Dali, dressed as a sailor (as he portrayed himself in The Phantom of Sexual Attraction in 1932). In addition to many images from earlier works, there is a series of Venus de Milo in the picture, gradually turning and simultaneously changing gender. The bullfighter himself is not easy to see - until we realize that the naked torso of Venus second from the right can be perceived as part of his face (the right chest corresponds to the nose, the shadow on the stomach - the mouth), and the green shadow on her drapery - like a tie. To the left, a sequined bullfighter's jacket glimmers, merging with the rocks, which reveal the head of a dying bull.

Dali's popularity grew. The demand for his work has become crazy. Book publishers, magazines, fashion houses and theater directors fought for it. He has already created illustrations for many masterpieces of world literature, such as the Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy, Milton's Paradise Lost, Freud's God and Monotheism, Ovid's Art of Love. He published books dedicated to himself and his art, in which he unrestrainedly praises his talent ("Diary of a Genius", "Dali According to Dali", "Dali's Golden Book", "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali"). He was always distinguished by a bizarre demeanor, constantly changing extravagant costumes and the style of his mustache.

The cult of Dali, the abundance of his works in different genres and styles led to the emergence of numerous fakes, which caused great problems in the global art market. Dalí himself was involved in a scandal in 1960 when he signed many blank sheets of paper intended to be used to create impressions from lithographic stones held by dealers in Paris. An allegation was made for the illegal use of these blank sheets. However, Dali remained imperturbable and in the 1970s continued to lead his hectic and active life, as always continuing to search for new plastic ways to explore his amazing world of art.

In the late 60s, the relationship between Dali and Gala began to fade. And at the request of Gala, Dali was forced to buy her his castle, where she spent a lot of time in the company of young people. The rest of their life together was smoldering firebrands that were once a bright fire of passion ... Galya was already about 70 years old, but the more she grew old, the more she wanted love. "El Salvador doesn't care, each of us has our own life", - she convinced her husband's friends, dragging them into bed. "I allow Gala to have as many lovers as she wants Dali said. - I even encourage her because it turns me on". Young lovers Gala mercilessly robbed her. She gave them paintings by Dali, bought houses, studios, cars. And Dali was saved from loneliness by his favorites, young beautiful women from whom he wanted nothing but their beauty. In public, he always pretended that they were lovers. But he knew that it was all just a game. The woman of his soul was only Gala.

All her life with Dali, Gala played the role of a gray cardinal, preferring to remain in the background. Some considered her the driving force of Dali, others - a witch weaving intrigues ... Gala managed her husband's constantly growing wealth with quick efficiency. It was she who closely followed private transactions for the purchase of his paintings. She was needed physically and morally, so when Gala died in June 1982, the artist suffered a heavy loss. Among the works created by Dali a few weeks before her death are "Three famous riddles Gala", 1982.

After her death, his health began to deteriorate rapidly. Doctors suspected Dalí had Parkinson's disease. This disease once became fatal for his father. Dali almost stopped appearing in society. Despite this, his popularity grew. Among the awards that rained down on Dali like a cornucopia was membership in the Academy of Fine Arts of France. Spain bestowed upon him the highest honor, awarding him the Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic, presented to him by King Juan Carlos. Dali was declared Marquis de Pubol in 1982. Despite all this, Dali was unhappy and felt bad. He threw himself into work. All his life he admired the Italian Renaissance artists, so he began to paint paintings inspired by the heads of Giuliano de' Medici, Moses and Adam (located in the Sistine Chapel) by Michelangelo and his "Descent from the Cross" in St. Peter's Church in Rome.

The last years of his life, the artist spent all alone in the castle of Gala in Pubol, where Dali moved after her death, and later in his room at the Dali Theater-Museum.
Dali finished his last work, Dovetail, in 1983. This is a simple calligraphic composition on a white sheet, inspired by the catastrophe theory.

Message about the death of the artist in the Soviet press:
"Salvador Dali, the world-famous Spanish artist, has died. He died today in a hospital in the Spanish city of Figueres at the age of 85 after a long illness. Dali was the largest representative of surrealism - the avant-garde trend in the artistic culture of the twentieth century, which was especially popular in the West in the 30s years. Salvador Dali was a member of the Spanish and French academies of arts. He is the author of many books, film scripts. Exhibitions of Dali's works were held in many countries of the world, including recently in the Soviet Union."

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