Mon, July 24, 2006 – 7:48 PM
Here you go, enjoy.
The Early Life of Salvador Dali
By Finnegan Pitchford 6/24/06

Salvador Dali died of meningitis as a child in early 1903. Nine months later, on May 11 1904, his parents had a new boy, which they also named Salvador. This Salvador later claimed in his book The Secret Life of Salvador Dali that his parents treated him as a reincarnation of his dead brother, and that having to live as both himself and his dead brother had a profound and permanent affect on his psyche and personality, and thus his paintings. Sadly that information and many other details in Dali’s entertaining autobiography are known to be false according to most professional biographers.

Salvador was raised with the luxuries of a large house, a nursemaid, and always enough food to eat, as his father was a well-paid notary. The Dalis lived in the Spanish town of Figueres, in the province of Catalonia, located near the French border.

Around 1910 Dali began visiting his Uncle Ramon Pitchot’s family in nearby Cadaques. The Pitchots were all talented artists and musicians; Ramon himself was a successful impressionist painter. During these visits Dali, who already enjoyed painting, gained many impressionist painting skills from Ramon.

Subsequently throughout his childhood and teen years Dali typically painted impressionistically, and often chose scenes and landscapes from around Cadeques and Figueres as subject matter. Pieces of these landscapes, beloved and familiar to Dali, show up in his paintings throughout his life.

Dali’s parents gave him an unused room in the house to use as a painting studio. The boy’s skill grew quickly, and by the time he was 14 his art was exhibited at the Figueres Municipal Theatre. His amazing talent got much praise from the local citizens and papers.

In 1921, with Pitchot’s persuasion, and the fact that it would be nearly impossible to keep Dali away from his passion, Dali’s father decided to pay for the boy to have an education at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Since being only a painter did not seem like a very lucrative profession, a compromise was made that after graduating from the academy, Dali would become an art teacher and paint in his spare time.

Soon before the young man was accepted into the academy, his mother died of cancer. His father married her sister shortly after, which the Dali somewhat resented.

Of the academy Dali said, “I was expecting to find limits, rigor, scholarship.” When he had questions, the instructors gave evasive answers such as “It’s temperament that counts – no rules, no constraints. Simplify.” Dali was disappointed to be offered, in his words, “liberty, laziness, and approximations.”

While staying at the academy, Dali learned about a new genre of art, Cubism, from an art magazine, and began painting mainly in that style instead of impressionism. He also did a few paintings in the style of Italian Futurism and Dadaism.

Salvador Dali was quite extroverted and intelligent, and so became the center of a circle of elite avant-garde young intellectuals at the academy. These included two of his best friends at the time, Luis Bunuel, who later became a multiple award winning film-maker, and Federico Garcia Lorca, who was to become one of Spain’s most famous and respected poets and playwrights.

In 1923 Dali was suspended from the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts for supposedly inciting a student rebellion against one of the teachers.

Soon after his suspension Dali was arrested for political subversion. He much enjoyed discussing extreme politics like anarchy, and Spain was having politically uneasy times. Luckily they let him out after 35 days because there was too little evidence to prove any real crime.

For the rest of his yearlong suspension Dali focused intently on improving his painting skills and studying philosophy. In his younger years Dali had first read about philosophy in his Uncle Pitchot’s library, and was interested in the subject ever since.

Dali returned to the academy in 1925. In this year he had his first one-man show at the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona. The public considered him a leading young Catalan artist.

A year later he was expelled from the academy for not taking the final exams. Dali had claimed to know more about the subject of the exams, Raphael, than his examiners, and so refused to take them.

After school was out Dali had a few more art exhibitions in Spain. Overseas, his painting Basket of Bread got him international exposure at the Carnegie International Exposition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Many important people of the art world saw his paintings, and were impressed. In 1928 Dali visited the center of the art world, Paris, along with his well-connected friend Joan Miro. Dali took Miro’s advice for making the right connections in Paris society, which was to wear a dinner jacket, not talk too much, and to keep fit. In Paris Dali met Tristan Tzara, the leader of the Dadaist movement; Andre Breton, leader of the surrealist movement; Pablo Picasso, who especially liked Dali’s painting Girl from the Back; Paul Eluard, a famous surrealist poet who was married to Dali’s future wife; and Goemans, who later became Dali’s art dealer.

Many important things happened for Dali in 1929. He fell madly in love with Gala, Paul Eluard’s wife. Eluard didn’t mind though — he had many different female partners already — and he gave her to Dali freely. Gala served as Dali’s muse, business manager, and lover for over 50 years. At first Dali’s father disapproved of their unmarried relationship, Dali’s profession, and other uncustomary things his son was doing. The two did not get along for a while. Stresses such as these were expressed in Dali’s first surreal painting; The Lugubrious Game, painted in the spring of 1929.

Surrealism was a movement of art and literature that emphasized the expression of the unconscious mind with fantastic imagery and the juxtaposition of incongruous subject matter. Most surrealists tried their best to not have too much conscious control over what they were painting or writing. Dali probably decided to begin painting in the style of Surrealism because many of his artist friends were doing the same, because he enjoyed it, and because Freud’s ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ fascinated him. Dali officially joined the Surrealist group in 1929.

Also in 1929 a short surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou, that Dali and Andrew Breton had been making together was realeased. It disgusted many audiences, since it featured images such as an eyeball being slit open, but the surrealists gave it critical acclaim, and the film has remained a classic to this day.

From 1930 to 1937 Dali painted his best known surrealist works, such as ‘Persistance of Memory’(melting watches), and became an international art star with great financial success. Dali realized all of this would not have been possible without the business management and inspiration of Gala, so he often included her name in his signature. Dali is right next to Picasso as one of the 20th centuries greatest artists. Salvador Dali was also one of the few artists with all three traits of being famous after his death, being famous during his lifetime, and being very eccentric.

Bibliography

Maddox, Conroy, and Benedikt Taschen. Salvador Dali 1904-1989. Germany: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd, 1990.
Salvador Dali Art Gallery. 2001. 24 Jun. 2006 .

Hey Finn, I’d like to see your paper on Dali – perhaps you’ll just post it as a comment here?

Tue, June 27, 2006 – 9:03 PM
mmmm
It could be a wood element thing too becuase wood element has to do with itchiness.
I’m sure at the end you will have learned something valuable from the experience of the workshop and the baloney leg.
Mmm, a lobe of rotting baloney sounds an aweful lot like Salvador Dali to me.
I just finished writing a short biography of Salvador Dali’s younger life, and I’ll send it to you if you want.