himself

Salvador Dalí is considered as the greatest artist of the surrealist art movement and one of the greatest masters of art of the 20th century.

During his lifetime the public got a picture of an excentric paranoid. His personality caused a lot of controversy. Throughout his life he cultivated eccentricity and exhibitionism (one of his most famous acts was appearing in a diving suit at the opening of the London Surrealist exhibition in 1936), claiming that it was the source of his creative energy.

"He described his pictures as "hand-painted dream photographs" and had certain favorite and recurring images, such as the human figure with half-open drawers protruding from it, burning giraffes, and watches bent and flowing as if made from melting wax (The Persistence of Memory, MOMA, New York; 1931)."

In 1937, Dalí visited Italy and adopted a more traditional style. This together with his political views (he was a supporter of General Franco) led Breton to expel him from the Surrealist ranks.

He moved to the USA in 1940 and remained there until 1955. During this time, he devoted himself largely to self-publicity. His paints were often on religious themes (The Crucifixion of St John of the Cross, Glasgow Art Gallery, 1951). Although, sexual subjects and pictures centring on his wife Gala were also continuing preoccupations. in 1955, he returned to Spain and in old age became a recluse.

Apart from painting, Dalí's output included sculpture, book illustration, jewellery design, and work for the theatre. In collaboration with the director Luis Buñuel he also made the first Surrealist films - Un chien andalou (1929) and (1930) - and he contributed a dream sequence to Alfred Hitchcock's L'Age d'orSpellbound (1945). He also wrote a novel, Hidden Faces (1944) and several volumes of flamboyant autobiography.

He is undoubtedly one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. Even though, many critics consider that he did little if anything of consequence after his classic Surrealist works of the 1930s. As a matter of fact, there are museums devoted to Dalí's work in Figueras, his home town in Spain, and in St. Petersburg in Florida.

For all this, and much more, I want to leave here my tribute to this magnificent person and artist of all time. Thank you very much, Salvador Dalí!