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Salvador DALI
Eccentric, meticulous to an extreme, and a great connoisseur of Freudian theories, Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) left his mark on the history of Surrealism as much as on that of modern art. His technique, however, reveals a highly refined realism, reflecting his passion for the Italian and Spanish Old Masters (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Diego Velázquez, etc.).
The inventor of a method of spontaneous creation called "paranoiac-critical," the master readily defined himself as a genius. His surrealist period remains one of the most significant in a body of work spanning nearly 70 years!
Influenced by Impressionism from a young age, he left Figueres to receive an academic art education in Madrid, where he befriended Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel and explored various artistic movements to find his own style. On the advice of Joan Miró, he went to Paris after completing his studies and joined the Surrealist group, where he met his wife, Gala. He found his own style from 1929 onward, the year he became a full-fledged Surrealist and invented the paranoiac-critical method. Expelled from the group a few years later, he lived through the Spanish Civil War in exile in Europe before leaving wartime France for New York, where he resided for eight years and made his fortune. Upon his return to Catalonia in 1949, he embraced Catholicism, drew closer to Renaissance painting, and incorporated the scientific advancements of his time to develop his style. what he called "corpuscular mysticism." The themes he most frequently addressed were dreams, sexuality, food, his wife Gala, and religion. The Persistence of Memory is one of his most famous surrealist paintings, and Christ of Saint John of the Cross is one of his major religious works. A highly imaginative artist, he displayed a notable tendency toward narcissism and megalomania, which allowed him to capture public attention but irritated some in the art world, who saw this behavior as a form of publicity that sometimes overshadowed his work.
PAST EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION):
2024 : “Dali. The Christ of Portlligat”, Dalí Theater-Museum in Figueres
2023: “Púbol de Gala. Illusion and reality”, Château Gala Dalí
2022: "Transgression of Venus", Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres
2021: “Dalí: ‘Surrealism is me!’ A timeless landscape,” Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres
2020: “Gala/Dalí/Dior. On Art and Fashion”, Gala Dalí Castle
2019: “The mill. Landscape of Cadaqués”, Gala Dalí Castle
2018: “Salvador Dalí, Painter in the Making”, Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres
2016-2017: "Dreams, Night Walks and Moments of Life", Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres
2015: "Retrospective Bust of a Woman", Dalí Foundation in Barcelona
2014 : "Young Girl at the Window", Reina Sofía Museum of Madrid
