Salvador Dali

" In the following years, Dali produced three paintings: in 1929 he produced "The Lugubrious Game"; in 1931 he finished work on the painting he is most well known for, "The Persistence of Memory"; finally in 1932 he produced "Surrealist Objects, Gauges of Instantaneous Memory". Dali had created his trademark "soft watches" for which he is now famous. It was during this time when Dali met Gala Eluard, with whom he eloped in 1929. She became his model, his agent, his inspiration, and eventually, his reason for living. She would be the only woman in his life for the remainder of his years. .
             In the continuing years, Dali painted less, and opted to spend more time developing his method. He began to read the ideas of Freud, and found new inspiration. He sought to explore the unconscious mind, the dream world. He was fascinated with the state of semi-consciousness, the mental state between consciousness and unconsciousness. In this state, the mind is free from the restraints of logic or social regulations. It is simply the pure, unaltered form of the irrational human psyche. Instead of analyzing this state of mind for psychiatric reasons as Freud did, Dali simply wanted to explore it and find a way to portray it with his art. He referred to his attempts at painting the subconscious "hand-painted dream photographs." .
             Perhaps because he grew tired of it, or perhaps to keep his own sanity, Dali strayed away from Surrealism and returned to the Classical form of art in 1936. He experimented with several types of classical art, including Classical Spanish, Classical Italian, and pompier. Dali's departure from Surrealism was made more evident in the 1930's, when he took up a great interest in Hitler, and not Lenin, who was favored by the other surrealists. This created a strain with his surrealist friends, and in 1939 Dali decided to move to the United States. Interestingly enough, he borrowed money from Pablo Picasso, a well-known artist specializing in cubism and abstract art.