Salvador Dalí

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Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, marchese di Púbol

(Figueres, 11 May 1904 - Figueres, 23 January 1989), was a Spanish painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker, designer and screenwriter.

Dalí was a technically skillful and gifted painter, but he is also famous for the evocative and bizarre images of his surrealist works. His peculiar pictorial touch has been attributed to the influence that the masters of the Renaissance had on him. Dalí’s artistic talent found expression in various fields, including cinema, sculpture and photography, leading him to collaborate with artists from all sectors.

 

The young Dalí attends an art school. The first real public exhibition of his works was in 1919, at the Municipal Theater of Figueres.
In 1922 Dalí went to live in the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid and studied at the Academia de San Fernando (Fine Arts Academy). Dali already attracts interest in himself with his eccentric dandy ways. However, it is his paintings, in which he shows his approach to Cubism, that actually earned him the attention of his classmates.

 

Dalí also approaches the Dadaist movement, which will continue to influence his work throughout his life. At the Residencia he became close friends with, among others, Pepín Bello, Luis Buñuel and the poet Federico García Lorca.

 

He absorbs influences from many different artistic styles, ranging from classical painting to the most extreme avant-garde. He uses both classical and modern techniques, sometimes using them in separate works, sometimes using them all in the same painting.

 

Dalí grows a showy mustache, inspired by that of the great Spanish 17th century master Diego Velázquez. The mustache will end up becoming an unmistakable and characteristic feature of his appearance for the rest of his life.

In 1929 Dalí collaborated with the surrealist director Luis Buñuel on the short film Un chien andalou. In the same year Dalí realized important exhibitions becoming a professional painter and officially joined the group of Surrealists of the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse.

 

At the beginning of the Second World War he moved to the United States, to return in 1951 (with a much discussed choice) to live in Franco Spain.
In this part of his career Dalí not only expresses himself through painting, but also experiments with new artistic and media communication techniques.

 

The period of Dalí after the Second World War is characterized by his technical virtuosity and his interest in optical illusions, science and religion. His devotion to the Catholic religion increased and, at the same time, he was deeply impressed by what happened in Hiroshima and the birth of the “atomic age”. Consequently, Dalí defines this period as that of nuclear Mysticism.
During his career Dalí has produced more than 1,500 paintings, as well as illustrations for books, lithographs, stage sets and costumes, drawings, sculptures and various other works.

 

Source: Wikipedia