Salvador Dali - The Man and the Artist

Before visiting the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL. I had seen some

of Dali’s paintings and art and thought I was a fan. Shortly after visiting the museum, I

realized I had been wrong. How could I like something I did not fully understand? I

realized that, to admire this man’s art, first I should understand who he was, where he

came from, the relationships in his life, what influenced him, and the political events

taking place in his beloved Spain and around the world. I took a deep look into his life,

starting with his childhood and continuing through adulthood.

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto i Domenech, Marquis of Dali de Pubol, known

as Salvador Dali, was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain in the region of

Catalonia. This region is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the east and borders

France in the north. The Catalonian landscapes were present in his paintings

throughout his career, most notably the town of Cadaques.

Dali’s mother, Felipa Domenech Ferrés, supported his artistic inclinations. She

died of breast cancer when he was 16 years old. Her death was an emotional blow for

the artist who claimed: "It was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. I

worshipped her... I could not resign myself to the loss of a being on whom I counted to

make invisible the unavoidable blemishes of my soul”[1]

His father, Salvador Dali i Cusi, was a public notary; a middle-class lawyer who

had a strange relationship with his son, the artist. He was strict and wanted Dali to

follow his footsteps. After his wife’s death, Dali i Cusi would marry her sister four years
later. There is no clear evidence that this marriage was part of the falling out between

the father and son. What was clear is that the father disapproved of Dali’s relationship

with a married woman. Possibly the last straw in their troubled relationship was the

father’s concern with one of Dali’s paintings, "Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ”. In the

center, the words “sometimes I have pleasure in spiting on the portrait of my mother”

were written and this led him to forbid Dali to visit the family’s home.

We can see traces of this troubled relationship in paintings such as “The typical

Bureaucrat”, 1930. In this painting, he depicts the typical bureaucrat as empty-headed

with seashells filling an empty cranial cavity. This is not only an attack on bureaucrats in

general but a specific attack on his father.

The First Days of Spring, 1929, was created during a time of particular personal

hardship. His father was becoming more disappointed with his choice of profession and

behavior. In the distance you can see an image of a man and small boy holding hands.

This image would appear again in several of his paintings. It signifies a willingness to

mend his broken relationship with his father.

Dali’s siblings included his sister Ana Maria, who was the model of his early

paintings and with whom he had a good relationship. His older brother, also named

Salvador, died nine months before our subject’s birth. Dali thought he was the

reincarnation of his deceased brother.

Dali was considered a clever youth, who had a natural talent for drawing which

he expressed in doodles and cartoons to amuse his sister. His artistic talents were
encouraged by a family friend, Ramòn Pitchot , a local impressionist/pointillist artist.

The artist spent much of his youth at his family’s seaside home in Cadaques, which is a

regular theme in his paintings. Dali often mixed with Local fishermen and ordinary

working class people. Here he learned about their mythology and superstitions.

At the age of 17, he was already beginning to make a name for himself in the

small artistic community of Figuera, his hometown. He managed to persuade his father

to fund his art studies. In 1922, the young Salvador left for Madrid to study at the San

Fernando school of fine arts.

In 1923 Sigmund Freud’s “Psychopathology of Everyday Life” was published in

Spanish, followed one year later by another work, “The Interpretation of Dreams”.

Freud’s writings had a profound effect on Dali, especially “The Interpretation of

Dreams”. He read the book numerous times, absorbing a wealth of knowledge and

information from it. This is evident from his quote “It was one of the greatest discoveries

of my life. I was obsessed by the vice of self interpretation- not just of my dreams but of

everything that happened to me however accidental it might at first seem”. [2] This

influence is also prominent in the 1927 painting “Apparatus in Hand”.

A remarkable year of new beginnings

The year 1929 was one of changes for the artist and a turning point in his career

and personal life. Luis Bunuel, with whom Dali had studied a couple years before in the

Academia de San Fernando, invited him to collaborate on the film “Un Chien Andalou”.

The 16 minute film had its first public showing in 1929.

autumn exhibition in Paris. He had many visitors that summer, including the French poet

Paul Eluard, accompanied by his wife, Gala. Later Gala would become Dali’s mistress

and eventually his wife. It is my opinion that Gala became Dali’s biggest influence in

his life and art.

In the same year, with the support of Catalan painter Joan Miro, Dali joined the

Surrealist Group. Andre Breton, one of the group’s leaders, was suspicious of Dali’s

talents and was unable to see how he would benefit the objective of the Group.

However, it is worth mentioning that this is when one of his remarkable paintings was

created: “The First Days of Spring”, 1929. The influences of Freud’s writings in Dali’s

paintings become apparent here. He exposes the viewer to a collection of his fears and

obsessions, which would later dominate his paintings through symbols. For example,

Grasshoppers symbolized fear and he painted them to get rid of fear. Silhouettes are

psychological shadows, spirits or apparitions. They stood for good, supernatural beings,

inner dialogue and motivational power. In true Dali fashion, they also stood for evil,

inner conflict and inhibitions.

This painting also shows a basic free-flowing visual more than some of his

complex later works. You can see some of his first examples of the use of collage.

Showcasing his manipulation of photos in paintings, it includes a photo of Dali as a

young child. In the center of the painting, you can see a staircase, which represents

sexual intercourse in Freud’s works. Sexual themes would become ever-present in

Dali’s paintings and were a key point in Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams”.

receive his praise. Despite Freud’s skepticism in surrealist painters, whom he called

lunatics and absolute fools, he was pleased with Dali’s visit and considered him a

precise technical wizard, with eyes of a fanatic. In Freud’s eyes, Dali was the only

exception to the surrealist movement. Dali, however, had already grown apart from his

surrealist peers.

The Surrealist Group formally expelled Dali in 1938. There are many factors to

consider that explained Dali’s removal from the group. The members were unhappy

with Dali’s early intrigue with Adolf Hitler and his reluctance to support the Republic in

the Spanish Civil War. His love for money betrayed his passion as an artist, leading

Breton to coin the anagram “Avida Dollars” meaning Greedy Money, from Salvador

Dali’s name.

I feel that Breton in particular envied Dali’s talents and growing fame. I suspect

he knew beforehand of Dali’s talents and also of his ego, predicting that one day, Dali

would outshine the Group and movement. Perhaps this is why he was so reluctant to

accept Dali into the Group.

Dali and his wife Gala moved to the United States in 1940. World WarII had just

broken out. They lived here for 8 years. This was a very productive time for Dali. He

published his autobiography, “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali”, drafted film scenarios,

and even wrote a novel. His commercial interests also grew. He was involved in the

theater and ballet. To many critics and artists back in Europe, he was becoming more of

an entertainer than a serious artist. One notable incident that we really can’t ignore
during this period is when Dali was arrested in New York. He was commissioned to

design window displays for the Bonwit Teller Department store. It attracted so much

attention that it held up traffic on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk. The store management had

the display altered. This annoyed Dali so much that he upended a bathtub, causing it to

break the glass window. He then walked through the broken window and was arrested.

He received a suspended sentence. The publicity made his upcoming show at the New

York Art Gallery a sellout.

Dali designed the dream sequences in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 film “Spellbound”.

He also started to work on a project for Walt Disney, “Destino”, but never finished it.

Years later, Disney’s nephew found the unfinished work while working on “Fantasia”.

With the help of approximately 25 animators, they analyzed his storyboard and

completed the short animation. “Destino” premiered in 2003 and won many awards.

Dali still continued to make master paintings during his time in the United States

with Gala by his side acting as an inspiration and his manager. He was soon to be

known as the king of modern art throughout the United States and later the world. His

stay in the United States was a good move as he accumulated most of his wealth during

these years with the help of some wealthy patrons.

He returned to his beloved Catalonia in 1949 and spent his remaining years

there. Dali would experiment with many different forms of media. He was one of the

first artists to use holography in an artistic way. Many of his works include optical

illusions. His paintings would become complex and have many themes during his years

at home. In 1960, he undertook the biggest project of his life: the Dali Theater and
Museum, located in his hometown of Figueres. The artist finished it in 1974 but made

additions through the mid 1980’s. Dali was involved in so many artistic fields I was not

aware of. He influenced pop art, notably Andy Warhol, wrote a television commercial

for Lavin Chocolates and designed the label for Chupa Chups.

Dali’s life story and works still mystify and shock viewers today. He brought

controversy with him wherever he journeyed to. This great artist who intrigues us with

interpretations of the subconscious and dreams reflected in his paintings and art has left

a legacy in the world for us to delight in, admire, wonder and from which to draw our

own conclusions.

Was he driven to feed his ego, deal with his inner traumas, excite, disturb or

intrigue his audience and critics or maybe a combination of all? One thing is certain,

Salvador Dali’s accomplishments guaranteed his immortality which will always live on

through his art.

Works Cited

1. S w i n g l e h u r s t , E d m u n d . S a l v a d o r D a l i - E x p l o r i n g T h e I r r a t i o n a l .

New York: Newline Books, 1996. 128. Print

Haakon M Chevalier. 3rd ed. London: Vision, 1942. 423. Print.

3. F r e u d , S i g m u n d . T h e I n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f D r e a m s . 3 r d e d .

especially created. First published 1913. New York: Quality

Paperback Company, 1995. 510. Print.

4. "An Evening with Salvador Dali." A Dali Souvenir program.