Salvador Dali: A Biography

Salvador Dali has greatly influenced art since his rise to fame in the early 1930s. His development of the “paranoia-critical method” was widely used by artists to develop inspiration for works. His influence in paintings and sculptures can clearly be seen in other artists’ works up until his death. Even after Dali’s death, his methods are still employed by artists in Surrealism. When examining the life of Salvador Dali, one can clearly see that he was one of the most renowned and influential artists who greatly impacted Surrealist art in the 1930s and 40s

had died before Dali’s birth (Hodge 6). His father, a lawyer and a notary, was an important man in Figueres, and his mother was a dedicated Christian. Dali was a loner for most of his youth, and displayed an interest in art early in his life (7). In 1908, Dali was sent to a nearby public school named Escuela Publica de Parvulos de Figueres, where he got his early education like all other children his age. He later was sent to the Colegio Hispano-Frances de Imaculada Concepcion until the age of twelve (Wood 7).

interpretations” (qtd. in Wood 11). Simply, the quote states that in order to find thoughts in dreams and the subconscious, one must experience the images and dreams while still being clear-minded enough to analyze them.

The purpose of Surrealism was the most original aspect of the movement. According to André Breton, Dali’s colleague and in Paris during the 1920’s and founder the Surrealist movement in literature, the goal of Surrealist works is, “the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality” (qtd. in Hodge 13). After working on many paintings separately, Dali and Luis Bunuel worked together to produce their first Surrealist film in 1929. Titled Un Chien Andalou, the film attracted the Paris art community, but had graphic and violent scenes and was not of interest to the general public. Despite the rising popularity of Surrealism, the group of artists that Dali had joined was in constant disagreement and Dali did not attach himself too closely to them. Although he was not a close member of the group, his first real Surrealist painting, titled The First Days of Spring was wonderfully accepted by his colleagues (Hodge 17).

adopted aspects of other literary and artistic movements, including Dadaism. Surrealism was much different from most previous styles because it rejected the idea of Classical art without meaning and used art and literature as a tool to determine what the world was really like (Hodge 13).

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