Salvador was given a full name. Salvador Dali and his surreal paintings

Thousands of books and songs have been written about Salvador Dali, many films have been shot, but it is not necessary to watch, read and listen to all this - after all, there are his paintings. The ingenious Spaniard proved by his own example that a whole universe lives in every person and immortalized himself in canvases that will be in the center of attention of all mankind for more than one century. Dali has long been not just an artist, but something like a global cultural meme. How do you like the opportunity to feel like a reporter for a yellow newspaper and delve into the dirty linen of a genius?

1. Grandfather's suicide

In 1886, Gal Josep Salvador, Dali's paternal grandfather, took his own life. The grandfather of the great artist suffered from depression and persecution mania, and in order to annoy everyone who “follows” him, he decided to leave this mortal world.

Once he went out to the balcony of his apartment on the third floor and began to shout that he had been robbed and tried to kill him. The arriving police were able to convince the unfortunate man not to jump from the balcony, but as it turned out, only for a while - six days later, Gal nevertheless rushed from the balcony upside down and died suddenly.

The Dali family understandably tried to avoid publicity, so the suicide was hushed up. There was not a word about suicide in the death certificate, only a note that Gal died "from a traumatic brain injury", so the suicide was buried according to the Catholic rite. For a long time, relatives hid the truth about the death of their grandfather from Gal's grandchildren, but the artist eventually found out about this unpleasant story.

2. Addiction to masturbation

As a teenager, Salvador Dali loved, so to speak, to measure penises with classmates, and he called his "small, pathetic and soft." The early erotic experiences of the future genius did not end with these harmless pranks: somehow a pornographic novel fell into his hands and he was most struck by the episode where main character boasted that he "could make a woman squeak like a watermelon." The young man was so impressed with the power artistic image that, remembering this, he reproached himself for his inability to do the same with women.

In the autobiography secret life Salvador Dali" (in the original - "The Unspeakable Confessions of Salvador Dali") the artist admits: "For a long time it seemed to me that I was impotent." Probably, in order to overcome this oppressive feeling, Dali, like many boys of his age, was engaged in masturbation, to which he was so addicted that throughout the life of a genius, masturbation was his main, and sometimes even the only way of sexual satisfaction. At that time, it was believed that masturbation could lead a person to insanity, homosexuality and impotence, so the artist was constantly in fear, but could not help himself.

3. Dali associated sex with putrefaction.

One of the complexes of a genius arose through the fault of his father, who once (on purpose or not) left a book on the piano, which was full of colorful pictures male and female genitalia disfigured by gangrene and other diseases. Having studied the pictures that fascinated and at the same time terrified him, Dali Jr. lost interest in contacts with the opposite sex for a long time, and sex, as he later admitted, became associated with decay, decay and decay.

Of course, the artist's attitude to sex was noticeably reflected in his canvases: fears and motives for destruction and decay (most often depicted in the form of ants) are found in almost every work. For example, in The Great Masturbator, one of his most significant paintings, there is a downward looking human face, from which a woman "grows", most likely written off from the wife and muse of Dali Gala. A locust sits on the face (the genius experienced an inexplicable horror of this insect), on the abdomen of which ants crawl - a symbol of decomposition. The woman's mouth is pressed against the groin of the man standing next to him, which hints at oral sex, while cuts bleed on the man's legs, indicating the artist's fear of castration, which he experienced in childhood.

4. Love is evil

In his youth, one of Dali's closest friends was the famous Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. There were rumors that Lorca even tried to seduce the artist, but Dali himself denied this. Many contemporaries of the great Spaniards said that for Lorca the love union of the painter and Elena Dyakonova, later known as Gala Dali, was an unpleasant surprise - supposedly the poet was convinced that the genius of surrealism could only be happy with him. I must say, despite all the gossip, there is no exact information about the nature of the relationship between the two prominent men.

Many researchers of the artist's life agree that before meeting Gala, Dali remained a virgin, and although at that time Gala was married to another, had an extensive collection of lovers, in the end she was ten years older than him, the artist was fascinated by this woman. Art historian John Richardson wrote about her: “One of the most obnoxious wives that a modern successful artist could choose. It's enough to get to know her to start hating her." At one of the artist's first meetings with Gala, he asked what she wanted from him. This, no doubt, an outstanding woman replied: “I want you to kill me” - after such a Dali immediately fell in love with her, completely and irrevocably.

Dali's father could not stand his son's passion, mistakenly believing that she was using drugs and was forcing the artist to sell them. The genius insisted on continuing the relationship, as a result of which he was left without his father's inheritance and went to Paris to his beloved, but before that, in protest, he shaved his head baldly and "buried" his hair on the beach.

5 Voyeur Genius

There is an opinion that Salvador Dali received sexual satisfaction from watching others make love or masturbate. The ingenious Spaniard even spied on his own wife when she took a bath, confessed to the "exhilarating experience of a voyeur" and called one of his paintings "Voyeur".

Contemporaries whispered that the artist arranges orgies at his home every week, but if this is true, most likely he himself did not take part in them, being content with the role of a spectator. One way or another, Dali's antics shocked and annoyed even the depraved bohemia - art critic Brian Sewell, describing his acquaintance with the artist, said that Dali asked him to take off his pants and masturbate, lying in a fetal position under the statue of Jesus Christ in the painter's garden. According to Sewell, Dali made similar strange requests to many of his guests.

Singer Cher recalls that once she and her husband Sonny went to visit the artist, and he looked like he had just participated in an orgy. When Cher began to twirl the beautifully painted rubber rod in her hands, the genius solemnly informed her that it was a vibrator.

6. George Orwell: "He's sick and his paintings are disgusting"

In 1944 famous writer dedicated an essay to the artist entitled "The Privilege of Spiritual Shepherds: Notes on Salvador Dali", in which he expressed the opinion that the artist's talent makes people consider him impeccable and perfect.

Orwell wrote: "Come back tomorrow to Shakespeare land and find that his favorite pastime in his spare time is to rape little girls in railroad cars, we shouldn't tell him to keep it up just because he's capable of writing another one" King Lear." You need the ability to keep in mind both facts at the same time: the one that Dali is a good draftsman, and the one that he is a disgusting person.

The writer also notes the pronounced necrophilia and coprophagia (craving for excrement) present in Dali's canvases. One of the most famous works of this kind is considered the "Gloomy Game", written in 1929 - at the bottom of the masterpiece is a man stained with feces. Similar details are present in the later works of the painter.

In his essay, Orwell concludes that "people [like Dali] are undesirable, and the society in which they can flourish has some flaws." It can be said that the writer himself admitted his unjustified idealism: after all, the human world has never been and never will be perfect, and Dali's impeccable canvases are one of the clearest evidence of this.

7. Hidden Faces

Salvador Dali wrote his only novel in 1943, when he was in the United States with his wife. Among other things, in the literary work that came out from under the hand of the painter, there are descriptions of the antics of eccentric aristocrats in the Old World engulfed in fire and drenched in blood, while the artist himself called the novel "an epitaph to pre-war Europe."

If the artist's autobiography can be considered a fantasy disguised as truth, then "Hidden Faces" is more likely a truth pretending to be fiction. In the book, which was sensational at the time, there is such an episode - Adolf Hitler who won the war in his residence " Eagle Nest”is trying to brighten up his loneliness with priceless masterpieces of art from all over the world spread around, Wagner music plays, and the Fuhrer makes semi-delusional speeches about Jews and Jesus Christ.

Reviews for the novel were generally favorable, although The Times literary reviewer criticized the novel's whimsical style, excessive adjectives, and chaotic plot. At the same time, for example, a critic from The Spectator magazine wrote about Dali's literary experience: "It's a psychotic mess, but I liked it."

8. Beats, so ... a genius?

The year 1980 was a turning point for the elderly Dali - the artist was paralyzed and, unable to hold a brush in his hands, he stopped writing. For a genius, this was akin to torture - he had not been balanced before, but now he began to break down with or without reason, besides, he was very annoyed by the behavior of Gala, who spent the money earned from the sale of her brilliant husband’s paintings on young fans and lovers, gave them themselves masterpieces, and also often disappeared from home for several days.

The artist began to beat his wife, so much so that one day he broke two of her ribs. To calm her husband, Gala gave him Valium and other sedatives, and once Dali slipped a large dose of a stimulant, which caused irreparable damage to the psyche of a genius.

The painter's friends organized the so-called "Salvation Committee" and sent him to the clinic, but by that time the great artist was a pitiful sight - a thin, shaking old man, constantly in fear that Gala would leave him for the actor Jeffrey Fenholt, performer leading role in the Broadway production of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar.

9. Instead of skeletons in the closet - the corpse of his wife in the car

On June 10, 1982, Gala left the artist, but not for the sake of another man - the 87-year-old muse of a genius died in a hospital in Barcelona. According to her will, Dali was going to bury his beloved in his Pubol castle in Catalonia, but for this her body had to be taken out without legal red tape and without attracting too much attention from the press and the public.

The artist found a way out, creepy, but witty - he ordered Gala to be dressed, "put" the corpse in the back seat of her Cadillac, and a nurse supporting the body was located nearby. The deceased was taken to Pubol, embalmed and dressed in her favorite red Dior dress, and then buried in the crypt of the castle. The inconsolable husband spent several nights kneeling in front of the grave and exhausted with horror - their relationship with Gala was difficult, but the artist could not imagine how he would live without her. Dali lived in the castle almost until his death, sobbed for hours and told that he saw various animals - he began to hallucinate.

10. Infernal invalid

Two s later small year after the death of his wife, Dali again experienced a real nightmare - on August 30, the bed in which the 80-year-old artist slept in caught fire. The cause of the fire was a short circuit in the lock's electrical wiring, presumably caused by the old man's constant fiddling with the maid button attached to his pajamas.

When a nurse came running to the noise of the fire, she found the paralyzed genius lying at the door in a semi-conscious state and immediately rushed to give him artificial respiration from mouth to mouth, although he tried to fight back and called her "bitch" and "murderer". The genius survived, but suffered second-degree burns.

After the fire, Dali became completely unbearable, although he did not have an easy character before. A publicist from Vanity Fair noted that the artist turned into a "disabled person from hell": he deliberately stained bed linen, scratched the face of nurses and refused to eat and take medicine.

After recovering, Salvador Dali moved to the neighboring town of Figueres, his theater-museum, where he died on January 23, 1989. The Great Artist once said that he hopes to be resurrected, therefore he wants his body to be frozen after death, but instead, according to his will, he was embalmed and immured in the floor of one of the rooms of the theater-museum, where it is located to this day.

Salvador Domenech Felipe Jacinth Dali and Domenech, Marquis de Pubol (1904 - 1989) - Spanish painter, graphic artist, sculptor, director, writer. One of the most famous representatives of surrealism.

BIOGRAPHY OF SALVADOR DALI

Salvador Dali was born in the town of Figueres in Catalonia, the son of a lawyer. Creative skills manifested itself in early childhood. At the age of seventeen, he was admitted to the Madrid Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where fate happily brought him together with G. Lorca, L. Bunuel, R. Alberti. Studying at the academy, Dali enthusiastically and obsessively studies the works of old masters, the masterpieces of Velasquez, Zurbaran, El Greco, Goya. He is influenced by the cubist paintings of H. Gris, the metaphysical painting of the Italians, and is seriously interested in the legacy of I. Bosch.

Studying at the Madrid Academy from 1921 to 1925 was for the artist a time of stubborn comprehension professional culture, the beginning of a creative understanding of the traditions of the masters of past eras and the discoveries of their older contemporaries.

During his first trip to Paris in 1926, he met P. Picasso. Impressed by the meeting that changed the direction of the search for one's own artistic language, corresponding to his worldview, Dali creates his first surrealistic work “The Splendor of the Hand”. However, Paris inexorably attracts him, and in 1929 he makes a second trip to France. There he enters the circle of Parisian surrealists, gets the opportunity to see their solo exhibitions.

At the same time, together with Bunuel Dali, he makes two films that have already become classics - “Andalusian Dog” and “Golden Age”. His role in the creation of these works is not the main one, but he is always mentioned second, as a screenwriter and at the same time an actor.

In October 1929 he marries Gala. Russian by origin, aristocrat Elena Dmitrievna Dyakonova took important place in the life and work of the artist. The appearance of Gal gave his art a new meaning. In the book of the master “Dali according to Dali”, he gives the following periodization of his work: “Dali - Planetary, Dali - Molecular, Dali - Monarchic, Dali - Hallucinogenic, Dali - Future”! Of course, it is difficult to fit into such a narrow framework the work of this great improviser and mystifier. He himself admitted: “I don’t know when I start pretending or telling the truth.”

THE CREATIVITY OF SALVADOR DALI

Around 1923, Dali began his experiments with Cubism, often even locking himself in his room to paint. In 1925, Dali painted another painting in the style of Picasso: Venus and the Sailor. She was among the seventeen paintings exhibited at Dali's first solo exhibition. The second exhibition of Dali's work, held in Barcelona at the Delmo Gallery at the end of 1926, was met with even more enthusiasm than the first.

Venus and the Sailor The Great Masturbator Metamorphoses of Narcissus The Riddle of William Tell

In 1929, Dali painted The Great Masturbator, one of the most significant works of that period. It depicts a large, wax-like head with dark red cheeks and half-closed eyes with very long eyelashes. A huge nose rests on the ground, and instead of a mouth, a rotting grasshopper with ants crawling over it is drawn. Similar themes were characteristic of Dali's works of the 30s: he had an unusual weakness for the images of grasshoppers, ants, telephones, keys, crutches, bread, hair. Dali himself called his technique a manual photograph of concrete irrationality. It was based, as he said, on associations and interpretations of unrelated phenomena. Surprisingly, the artist himself noted that he did not understand all of his images. Although Dali's work was well received by critics who predicted a great future for him, the success did not bring immediate benefits. And Dali traveled the streets of Paris for days on end in a vain search for buyers for his original images. They, for example, were women's shoes with large steel springs, glasses with glasses the size of a fingernail, and even gypsum head roaring lion with fried chips.

In 1930, Dali's paintings began to bring him fame. 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 Soft the Clock and Persistence of Memory were created. Dali also creates numerous models from various objects.

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

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".

In 1973, the "Dalí Museum" opens in Figueres, incredible in its content. Until now, he is amazed by the audience with his surreal appearance.

The last work "Dovetail" was completed in 1983.

Salvador Dali often resorted to sleep with a key in his hand. Sitting on a chair, he fell asleep with a heavy key between his fingers. Gradually, the grip weakened, the key fell and hit a plate lying on the floor. The thoughts that arose during the nap could be new ideas or solutions to complex problems.

In 1961, Salvador Dali drew for Enrique Bernat, the founder of the Spanish lollipop company, the Chupa Chups logo, which, in a slightly modified form, is now recognizable in all corners of the planet.

In 2003, the Walt Disney Company released the animated film Destino, which Salvador Dal and Walt Disney began to draw back in 1945, the picture lay in the archive for 58 years.

A crater on Mercury is named after Salvador Dali.

The great artist, during his lifetime, bequeathed to bury him so that people could walk on the grave, so his body was immured in the wall in the Dali Museum in Figueres. Flash photography is not allowed in this room.

Arriving in New York in 1934, he carried a 2-meter-long loaf of bread in his hands as an accessory, and while visiting an exhibition of surrealist art in London, he dressed in a diving suit.

IN different time Dali declared himself either a monarchist, or an anarchist, or a communist, or an adherent of authoritarian power, or he refused to associate himself with any political movement. After World War II and returning to Catalonia, Salvador supported Franco's authoritarian regime and even painted a portrait of his granddaughter.

Dali sent a telegram to the Romanian leader Nicolas Ceausescu, written in the manner characteristic of the artist: in words he supported the communist, and caustic irony was read between the lines. Not noticing the catch, the telegram was published in the daily newspaper Scînteia.

The now famous singer Cher (Cher) and her husband Sonny Bono, while still young, attended the party of Salvador Dali, which he tripled at the New York Plaza Hotel. There, Cher accidentally sat on a strangely shaped sex toy placed on her chair by the host of the event.

In 2008, the film Echoes of the Past was filmed about El Salvador. The role of Dali was played by Robert Pattinson. For some time, Dali worked together with Alfred Hitchcock.

In his lifetime, Dali himself completed only one film, Impressions of Upper Mongolia (1975), in which he told the story of an expedition that went in search of huge hallucinogenic mushrooms. The video sequence of "Impressions of Upper Mongolia" is largely based on enlarged microscopic spots of uric acid on a brass strip. As you can guess, the "author" of these stains was the maestro. For several weeks he "painted" them on a piece of brass.

Together with Christian Dior in 1950, Dali created a "suit for 2045".

The canvas “The Persistence of Memory” (“Soft Clock”) Dali wrote under the impression of Einstein's theory of relativity. The idea in El Salvador's head took shape as he looked at a piece of Camabert cheese one hot August day.

For the first time, the image of an elephant appears on the canvas "A dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening." In addition to elephants, Dali often used images of other representatives of the animal kingdom in his paintings: ants (symbolizing death, decay and, at the same time, great sexual desire), he associated the snail with human head(see portraits of Sigmund Freud), locusts in his work are associated with waste and a sense of fear.

Eggs in Dali's paintings symbolize prenatal, intrauterine development, if you look deeper - we are talking about hope and love.

On December 7, 1959, the presentation of the ovocypede (ovocypede) took place in Paris: a device that was invented by Salvador Dali and brought to life by the engineer Laparra. Ovosiped - a transparent ball with a seat fixed inside for one person. This "transport" was one of the devices that Dali successfully used to shock the public with his appearance.

QUOTATIONS DALY

Art is a terrible disease, but it is still impossible to live without it.

With art I straighten myself and infect normal people.

The artist is not the one who is inspired, but the one who inspires.

Painting and Dali are not the same thing, as an artist I do not overestimate myself. It's just that others are so bad that I turned out better.

I saw - and sunk into the soul, and through the brush spilled onto the canvas. This is painting. And the same is love.

For the artist, every touch of the brush on the canvas is a whole life drama.

My painting is life and food, flesh and blood. Don't look for intelligence or feelings in it.

Through the centuries, Leonardo da Vinci and I extend our hands to each other.

I think that now we have the Middle Ages, but someday the Renaissance will come.

I am decadent. In art, I'm something like Camembert cheese: just a little overdose, and that's it. I - the last echo of antiquity - stand on the very edge.

Landscape is a state of mind.

Painting is a color photograph made by hand of all possible, ultra-refined, unusual, super-aesthetic samples of concrete irrationality.

My painting is life and food, flesh and blood. Don't look for intelligence or feelings in it.

A work of art does not arouse any feelings in me. Looking at a masterpiece, I am ecstatic about what I can learn. It doesn't even occur to me to spread in tenderness.

The artist thinks with a drawing.

It is good taste that is fruitless - for an artist there is nothing more harmful than good taste. Take the French - because of good taste, they are completely lazy.

Do not try to cover up your mediocrity with a deliberately careless painting - it will reveal itself in the very first stroke.

First, learn to draw and write like the old masters, and only then act on your own - and you will be respected.

Surrealism is not a party, not a label, but a unique state of mind, not bound by slogans or morality. Surrealism is the complete freedom of a human being and his right to dream. I'm not a surrealist, I'm a surrealist.

I - the highest embodiment of surrealism - follow the tradition of the Spanish mystics.

The difference between the surrealists and me is that the surrealist is me.

I'm not a surrealist, I'm a surrealist.

BIOGRAPHY AND FILMOGRAPHY OF SALVADOR DALI

Literature

"The Secret Life of Salvador Dali as Told by Himself" (1942)

"Diary of a Genius" (1952-1963)

Oui: The Paranoid-Critical Revolution (1927-33)

"The Tragic Myth of Angelus Millais"

Film work

"Andalusian dog"

"Golden age"

"Spellbound"

"Impressions of Upper Mongolia"

When writing this article, materials from such sites were used:kinofilms.tv , .

If you find inaccuracies, or wish to supplement this article, send us information to the email address admin@site, we, and our readers, will be very grateful to you.

Salvador Dali(full name Salvador Domenech Felipe Jacinte Dali and Domenech, Marquis de Dali de Pubol, cat. Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Púbol, Spanish Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí y de Púbol; May 11, 1904, Figueres - January 23, 1989, Figueres) - Spanish painter, graphic artist, sculptor, director, writer. One of the most famous representatives of surrealism.

Worked on films: "Andalusian Dog", "Golden Age" (directed by Luis Buñuel), "Bewitched" (directed by Alfred Hitchcock). Author of the books "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself" (1942), "The Diary of a Genius" (1952-1963), Oui: The Paranoid-Critical Revolution(1927-33) and the essay "The Tragic Myth of Angelus Millet".

Childhood

Salvador Dali was born in Spain on May 11, 1904 in the city of Figueres, province of Girona, in the family of a wealthy notary. He was a Catalan by nationality, perceived himself in this capacity and insisted on this peculiarity. He had a sister, Anna Maria Dali (Spanish. Anna Maria Dali, January 6, 1908 - May 16, 1989), and an older brother (October 12, 1901 - August 1, 1903), who died of meningitis. Later, at the age of 5, at his grave, his parents told Salvador that he was the reincarnation of his older brother.

As a child, Dali was a quick-witted, but arrogant and uncontrollable child. One day, he started a row in the marketplace for a candy, a crowd gathered around, and the police asked the owner of the shop to open it during a siesta and give the boy a sweet. He achieved his whims and simulation, always sought to stand out and attract attention.

Numerous complexes and phobias, for example, the fear of grasshoppers, prevented him from being included in the usual school life, make with children the usual ties of friendship and sympathy. But, like any person, experiencing sensory hunger, he sought emotional contact with children by any means, trying to get used to their team, if not in the role of a comrade, then in any other role, or rather the only one that he was capable of - in the role shocking and naughty child, strange, eccentric, always acting contrary to other people's opinions. When he lost at school games of chance, he acted like he had won and triumphed. Sometimes he got into fights for no reason.

Classmates treated the "strange" child rather intolerantly, used his fear of grasshoppers, slipped these insects into his collar, which drove Salvador to hysteria, which he later told in his book "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself."

Dali began studying fine art at the municipal art school. From 1914 to 1918 he was educated at the Academy of the Brothers of the Marist Order in Figueres. One of his childhood friends was the future football player of FC Barcelona, ​​Josep Samitier. In 1916, with the family of Ramon Picho, he went on vacation to the city of Cadaques, where he got acquainted with modern art.

Youth

In 1921, at the age of 47, Dali's mother died of breast cancer. For Dali, this was a tragedy. In the same year, he entered the San Fernando Academy. The drawing prepared by him for the exam seemed too small to the caretaker, about which he informed his father, and he, in turn, to his son. Young Salvador erased the entire drawing from the canvas and decided to draw a new one. But he had only 3 days left before the final assessment. However, the young man was in no hurry to work, which greatly worried his father, who was already behind long years suffered his quirks. In the end, young Dali said that the drawing was ready, but it was even smaller than the previous one, and this was a blow to his father. However, the teachers, due to their extremely high skill, made an exception and accepted the young eccentric into the academy.

In 1922, Dali moved to the "Residence" (Spanish. Residence de Estudiantes), a student hostel in Madrid for gifted young people, and begins his studies. At this time, Dali met Luis Bunuel, Federico Garcia Lorca, Pedro Garfias. He reads Freud's works with enthusiasm.

After getting acquainted with new trends in painting, Dali experiments with the methods of cubism and Dadaism. In 1926, he was expelled from the Academy for being arrogant and dismissive attitude to teachers. In the same year, he travels to Paris for the first time, where he meets Pablo Picasso. Trying to find his own style, in the late 1920s he created a number of works influenced by Picasso and Joan Miro. In 1929, together with Buñuel, he participated in the creation of the surrealistic film The Andalusian Dog.

Then he first meets his future wife Gala (Elena Dmitrievna Dyakonova), who was then the wife of the poet Paul Eluard. Having become close to El Salvador, Gala, however, continues to meet with her husband, starts passing relationships with other poets and artists, which at that time seemed acceptable in those bohemian circles where Dali, Eluard and Gala revolved. Realizing that he actually stole his friend's wife, Salvador paints his portrait as "compensation".

Youth

Dali's works are shown at exhibitions, he is gaining popularity. In 1929, he joined the Surrealist group organized by André Breton. At the same time, there is a break with the father. The hostility of the artist’s family towards Gala, the conflicts, scandals associated with this, as well as the inscription made by Dali on one of the canvases - “Sometimes I spit on the portrait of my mother with pleasure” - led to the fact that the father cursed his son and put him out of the house. The provocative, shocking and terrible actions of the artist were by no means always worth taking literally and seriously: he probably did not want to offend his mother and did not even know what it would lead to, perhaps he longed to experience a series of feelings and experiences that he stimulated in himself with such a blasphemous deed. But the father, grieved by the long-standing death of his wife, whom he loved and whose memory he carefully kept, could not stand the antics of his son, which became the last straw for him. In retaliation, the indignant Salvador Dali sent his father in an envelope his sperm with an angry letter: "This is all I owe you." Later, in the book “The Diary of a Genius,” the artist, already an elderly man, speaks well of his father, admits that he loved him very much and endured the suffering brought by his son.

In 1934, he unofficially marries Gala. In the same year, he visits the USA for the first time.

Break with the Surrealists

After Caudillo Franco came to power in 1936, Dali quarreled with the surrealists on the left, and he was expelled from the group. In response to Dali: "Surrealism is me." El Salvador was practically apolitical, and even his monarchist views were not taken seriously, as well as his constantly advertised sexual passion for Hitler.

In 1933, Dali paints the painting The Riddle of William Tell, where he depicts the Swiss folklore hero in the form of Lenin with a huge buttock. Dali rethought the Swiss myth according to Freud: Tell became a cruel father who wants to kill his child. The personal memories of Dali, who broke with his father, were layered. Lenin, on the other hand, was perceived by communist-minded surrealists as a spiritual, ideological father. The painting depicts dissatisfaction with an overbearing parent, a step towards the formation of a mature personality. But the surrealists took the drawing literally, as a caricature of Lenin, and some of them even tried to destroy the canvas.

The evolution of creativity. Departure from surrealism

In 1937, the artist visits Italy and remains in awe of the works of the Renaissance. In his own works the correctness of human proportions and other features of academicism begin to dominate. Despite the departure from surrealism, his paintings are still filled with surrealistic fantasies. Later, Dali attributed to himself the salvation of art from modernist degradation, with which he associated his own name, since " Salvador” means “Savior” in Spanish.

In 1939, Andre Breton, mocking Dali and the commercial component of his work, came up with an anagram nickname for him " Avida Dollars", which is not exact in Latin, but recognizably means "greedy for dollars." Breton's joke instantly gained immense popularity, but did not hurt Dalí's success, which far surpassed Breton's commercial success.

Life in the USA

With the outbreak of World War II, Dali, together with Gala, left for the United States, where they lived from 1940 to 1948. In 1942, he published a fictionalized autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dali. His literary experiments, as well as works of art, as a rule, turn out to be commercially successful. He collaborates with Walt Disney. He invites Dali to test his talent in cinema, but the surrealistic project proposed by Salvador Destino cartoon was deemed commercially unviable, and work on it was discontinued. Dali worked with director Alfred Hitchcock and created the scenery for the dream scene from the movie Spellbound. However, the scene was abbreviated in the film due to commercial considerations.

Mature and older years

Salvador Dali with his ocelot named Babou in 1965

After returning to Spain, Dali lived mainly in Catalonia. In 1958, he officially married Gala in the Spanish city of Girona. In 1965 he came to Paris and conquered it with his works, exhibitions and outrageous acts. He shoots short films, takes surreal photographs. In films, he mainly uses reverse viewing effects, but skillfully chosen subjects (flowing water, a ball bouncing on the stairs), interesting comments, a mysterious atmosphere created by the artist's acting, make the films unusual examples of art house. Dali starred in commercials, and even in such commercial activities, he does not miss the opportunity for self-expression. TV viewers will remember a chocolate commercial for a long time, in which the artist bites off a piece of a bar, after which his mustache twists with euphoric delight, and he exclaims that he has gone crazy from this chocolate.

Salvador Dali in 1972

His relationship with Gala is quite complicated. On the one hand, from the very beginning of their relationship, she promoted him, found buyers for his paintings, convinced him to write works that were more understandable to the mass audience at the turn of the 20s and 30s. When there was no order for paintings, Gala forced her husband to develop product brands, costumes. Her strong, resolute nature was very necessary for the weak-willed artist. Gala put things in order in his workshop, patiently folded canvases, paints, souvenirs, which Dali senselessly scattered, looking for the right thing. On the other hand, she constantly had relationships on the side, in later years the spouses often quarreled, Dali's love was rather a wild passion, and Gala's love was not without calculation, with which she "married a genius." In 1968, Dali bought Pubol Castle for Gala, in which she lived separately from her husband, and which he himself could visit only with the written permission of his wife. In 1981, Dalí developed Parkinson's disease. Gala dies in 1982.

Last years

After the death of his wife, Dali is experiencing a deep depression. His paintings themselves are simplified, and for a long time the motive of grief prevails in them, for example, variations on the theme "Pieta". Parkinson's disease prevents Dali from painting. His latest works (“Cockfights”) are simple squiggles in which the bodies of the characters are guessed.

It was difficult to take care of a sick and distraught old man, he threw at the nurses what was tucked under his arm, shouted, bit.

After the death of Gala, Salvador moved to Pubol, but in 1984 there was a fire in the castle. The paralyzed old man rang the bell unsuccessfully, trying to call for help. In the end, he overcame the weakness, fell off the bed and crawled to the exit, but passed out at the door. Dali received severe burns, but survived. Before this incident, Salvador may have planned to be buried next to Gala, and even prepared a place in the crypt in the castle. However, after the fire, he left the castle and moved to the theater-museum, where he remained until the end of his days.

In early January 1989, Dali was hospitalized with a diagnosis of heart failure. The only intelligible phrase that he uttered during the years of illness was "My friend Lorca."

Salvador Dali died on January 23, 1989, at the age of 85. The artist bequeathed to bury him so that people could walk on the grave, so Dali's body was walled up in the floor in one of the rooms of the Dali Theater Museum in the city of Figueres. He bequeathed all his works to Spain.

In 2007, the Spaniard Maria Pilar Abel Martinez announced that she was the illegitimate daughter of Salvador Dali. The woman claimed that many years ago, Dali visited his friend's house in the town of Cadaqués, where her mother worked as a servant. A love affair arose between Dali and her mother, as a result of which Pilar was born in 1956. Allegedly, the girl knew from childhood that she was Dali's daughter, but did not want to upset the feelings of her stepfather. At the request of Pilar, a DNA test was carried out, the sample for which was the hair and skin cells from Dali's death mask. The results of the examination indicated the absence of family ties between Dali and Maria Pilar Abel Martinez. However, Pilar demanded that Dali's body be exhumed for a re-examination.

In June 2017, a court in Madrid ordered the exhumation of the remains of Salvador Dali to take samples for genetic testing to establish the possible paternity of a resident of Girona. On July 20, the coffin with the remains of Salvador Dali was opened and the exhumation was carried out. The procedure for opening the coffin was observed by 300 people. If paternity was recognized, Dali's daughter would be able to obtain the rights to his last name and part of the inheritance. However, the DNA test unequivocally disproved the assumptions about the relationship of these people.

Creation

Theater

Cinema

In 1945, in collaboration with Walt Disney, he began work on an animated film. Destino. Production was then delayed due to financial problems; The Walt Disney Company released the film in 2003.

Design

Salvador Dali is the author of Chupa Chups packaging design. Enrique Bernat named his caramel "Chups" and at first it only came in seven flavors: strawberry, lemon, mint, orange, chocolate, coffee with cream, and strawberry with cream. The popularity of "Chups" grew, the amount of caramel produced increased, new flavors appeared. Caramel could no longer remain in its original modest wrapping, it was necessary to come up with something original so that everyone would recognize “Chups”. Enrique Bernat turned to Salvador Dali with a request to draw something memorable. The ingenious artist did not think long and in less than an hour sketched a picture for him, which depicted the Chupa Chups chamomile, which, in a slightly modified form, is now recognizable as the Chupa Chups logo in all corners of the planet. The difference of the new logo was its location: it is not on the side, but on top of the candy.

Female figure (Baku Museum of Modern Art)

Horse with rider stumbling

space elephant

In prison

Since 1965, in the main dining room of the prison complex on Rikers Island (USA), Dali's drawing hung in the most prominent place, which he wrote as an apology to the prisoners for not being able to attend their art lectures. In 1981, the drawing was hung in the hall "for preservation purposes", and in March 2003 it was replaced with a fake, and the original was stolen. Four employees were charged in this case, three of them pleaded guilty, the fourth was acquitted, but the original was not found.

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) - the great Spanish painter and sculptor, writer, graphic artist, director. One of the brightest and most talented representatives of the surrealist trend in painting.

Birth and family

In the northeastern part of Spain, not far from Barcelona, ​​there is a small town of Figueres. At the very beginning of the 20th century, on May 11, 1904, the future genius Salvador Dali was born in this place. His family at that time consisted only of parents - the father of Don Salvador Dali y Cusi and the mother of Dona Filipa Domenech. Later, El Salvador had a sister, Anna Maria.

Before that, there was already one son in the family, but he died of meningitis in 1903, a little before he was two years old. When the future artist was only 5 years old, while visiting the grave of his brother, his parents had the imprudence to say that Salvador was his reincarnation. From that moment on, Dali had an obsession that his parents did not love him at all, but their older deceased brother in the person of Salvador. Ideas of this kind will be characteristic of a genius all his life.

But the parents really loved both Salvador and him very much. younger sister. The family was of average income, dad was a wealthy public notary, mom was engaged in housekeeping and raising children. The father was an atheist, while the mother, on the contrary, was an unshakable Catholic, thanks to her insistence, the children regularly attended church.

Childhood and school years

The father and mother gave the children the most worthy education they were capable of, given their financial situation. In 1910, the boy was sent to the elementary school of the "Immaculate Conception" of the Christian Brothers.

Dali grew up as a very smart child, but for unknown reasons he himself claimed the opposite. He was unruly and arrogant. Once, while with his mother in the marketplace, Salvador threw a tantrum over a lollipop. The sweet shop was closed for the siesta, but the boy yelled so loudly that the policemen passing by begged the merchant owner to open the shop and sell the child the ill-fated candy. El Salvador achieved his goal by any means: he was capricious, feigned, attracted the attention of outsiders.

Because of this character at school, Dali did not succeed in making friends with the guys. In addition, all sorts of phobias and complexes prevented him from leading a normal school life. Even from school, he began to show some kind of split personality. He played with the boys gambling, but when he lost, he behaved like a winner. So he could not find common ground with classmates and make sympathy or friendship with at least one of them. A strange, eccentric child caused a corresponding reaction in the children. When the children found out that Dali was terribly afraid of grasshoppers, they began to catch these insects and throw them by the collar. He began to have wild tantrums, which amused the children. One only child, with whom El Salvador had at least some kind of human relationship, was the future Barcelona footballer Josep Samitier.

Painting training

He showed his talent for drawing early years, in school textbooks and notebooks in the margins, he often drew cartoons to make his little sister laugh. Family friend Ramon Pichot was an impressionist painter, he noticed the boy's abilities and helped him develop in this direction.

In the town of Cadaques by the sea, the Dali family had a small house. Here in 1916 the vacation of the future artist took place. He liked to communicate with the lower strata of society, he talked for a long time with local workers and fishermen, eagerly studied the superstitions and mythology of his people. Perhaps even then mystical themes were woven into his creative talent.

In parallel with receiving a regular education, the boy was enrolled in a municipal art school, where he studied fine arts. After graduating here, he entered the Academy of the Brothers of the Marist Order in Figueres, where the Spanish artist Nunez taught Dali the methods of the original engraving.

In 1921, a tragedy struck the family: my mother died of cancer.

Madrid

After the death of his mother, Dali decided to leave for Madrid. He persuaded his father to let him go and help him enter the Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1922, Salvador Dali prepared a drawing for the entrance exams, which turned out to be too small. The caretaker from the Academy told Dali's father about this, and he, already tired of his son's whims, in a good way asked him to redraw it. Three days remained, but Salvador was in no hurry to write, which drove his father to white heat. On the day of the exam, the young man told his father that he had made a drawing, only even smaller than the previous one, for the parent such a challenge was a strong blow. But the commission considered high skill in Dali's work and accepted him into the Academy.

He began his studies in Madrid and settled in a student hostel for gifted young people. Along with his studies, Dali was very fond of the works of Freud, flaunted in society, made new useful acquaintances.

Salvador wrote a lot at this time, introduced new trends into his paintings: cubism and Dadaism.

But in 1926, despite his talent, Salvador was expelled from the Academy for a disgusting arrogant and dismissive attitude towards teachers. In the same year he left for Paris.

creative path

In the French capital, Dali met Pablo Picasso. Under his influence, he created a number of paintings that took part in exhibitions and brought popularity to the artist.

Salvador painted in the style of surrealism. Myths and reality were intertwined in his paintings; a deep study of psychology according to Freud left a considerable imprint on his work.

In 1937, the artist visited Italy, he was delighted with the works of the Renaissance, after which the correct human proportions appeared in his own paintings, but still with surrealistic fantasies.

At the beginning of World War II, El Salvador left for the United States, where he lived until 1948. In America, he also discovered his writing talent, in 1942 his autobiography "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali" was published. Acquaintance with Walt Disney also brought Dali experience in cinema. Director Alfred Hitchcock was filming the film Spellbound, and Salvador wrote the scenery for it.

Returning to Spain, the artist worked hard and, as before, conquered the whole world with his works, exhibitions and outrageous antics.

In 1969, Dali became interested in sculpture, among his most famous works:

• "Gala in the window";
• "Seated Don Quixote";
• "Space Elephant";
• "Horse with rider stumbling."

Incredible love story

famous muse and the wife of Salvador Dali was Elena Dyakonova, known to the whole world under the name Gala.

They met in the summer of 1929, at that time Elena was married to the French poet Paul Eluard and at the same time had a lover, Mark Ernst. The woman was too loving, she simply adored sex, could not exist without it.

Gala was 10 years older than Dali. At the time of their acquaintance, he was a young novice artist who came from a provincial town, and Gala is experienced and wise, self-confident and sophisticated, moving from the highest circles of society. He was taken aback by her beauty.

It cannot be said that Gala had beauty in in the usual sense of this word, she, like a magnet, attracted men to her, they became as if bewitched and lost their heads from this woman.

Gala and Dali became close, but this did not prevent the woman from continuing her relationship with her husband, along the way, still making lovers, while this was considered normal in bohemian circles.

But in the end, she left her husband and in 1930 moved to Dali, she told him then: "My boy, we will never part". She not only satisfied his sexual fantasies, Gala became everything for El Salvador: patroness, business manager, organizer.

It was Gala who made the artist famous all over the world, she used all her connections, arranged exhibitions, wore his work to connoisseurs. And he worked with such zeal that one picture had not yet been completed, but another was already asking for canvas. Dali constantly painted his muse, which inspired him so much. Now his paintings were signed with the double name Gala - Salvador Dali.

Husband Paul Eluard last days wrote to her Love letters full of tenderness. And only after his death in 1952, Gala and Salvador got married.

When Dali began to lose interest in paintings, Gala threw him new idea creating designer furniture. The rich of the whole world were ready to give any money for sofas in the shape of women's lips, elephants on thin legs, or for a bizarre clock with a strange dial. Salvador Dali is also the author of the Chupa-Chups caramel packaging design.

Their relationship for ordinary world seemed strange, for the two of them it was normal. A woman changed lovers like gloves, Dali constantly had fun in the company of young girls, spending a lot of money on them. In 1965, El Salvador had a second muse - Amanda Lear, a 19-year-old model and singer.

But the only woman to whom he completely obeyed was Gala. If not for her, the world might never have known the great genius of Salvador Dali. First, she breathed self-confidence into the young insecure artist, then she fully revealed the full scale of his talent: she made Dali an idol of the planet, while constantly protecting and protecting him. And he bowed before her.

Their amazing relationship lasted 53 years. Gala died in 1982 at the age of 88. Her body was embalmed, put on a red dress and laid in a coffin with a glass lid. In their Pubole castle, during her lifetime, she arranged a crypt for the two of them, and the woman was buried there.

The last years of life and the death of a genius

Dali outlived his wife by 7 years. After the death of Gal, he had a terrible depression, while Parkinson's disease was rapidly developing. He spent last years in seclusion in Pubole Castle, where the woman of his life lay under a glass cover.

He painted a little, but the pictures were very simple, and a thin thread of grief passed through them everywhere.

Over time, he stopped writing, talking, and then moving. The old man went mad, it was almost impossible to take care of him, he bit the nurses, threw anything at them, shouted.

He died on January 23, 1989. Finally, he shocked the whole world with his testament - to bury himself not next to the woman he loves; he asked people to walk over his grave. In the town of Figueres there is a theater-museum of Dali, in one of the rooms under the floor his body is walled up ...

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, he 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 teachers' decision regarding one of the painting teachers, 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 not the slightest idea about what had happened, on a short time he even ends up in jail.
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.

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.

"... 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.

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

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", "squishy", "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 was now significantly different even from those abstract paintings which he wrote in the early twenties. main theme for many of his works it has now become a 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 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 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 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 Parisian gallery of Pierre Colet, the most famous picture Dali 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. Amazing Feature 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 I used various forms irrational associations, especially images that change depending on visual perception - so that, for example, a group of fighting soldiers can suddenly turn 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, 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 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. Deeply impressed by the discoveries that led to the creation atomic bomb, the artist wrote 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 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 "Rhinoceros 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 "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 work and book illustration, as well as as a designer in jewelry works, 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 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 erotica brought him real pleasure. He could watch Amanda washing endlessly, 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 do own career, their love-friendly union 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 Philip 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 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 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, Milton's Paradise Lost, Freud's God and Monotheism, Ovid's The Art of Love. He has published books dedicated to himself and his art, in which he unrestrainedly praises his talent ("The Diary of a Genius", "Dali by Dali" , "The Golden Book of Dali", "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 erratic and active life, as always continuing the search for new plastic ways to explore its wonderful world 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 a role 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 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 showered 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. Throughout 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 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 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, has died. 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 the 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.