Cultural Studies Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali

An artist who people thought that he is a brother of Vincent William Van Gogh; Salvador Dali is one of the influenced artist in the history have combined both mad & genius thoughts in his artworks. The Renaissance, Surrealism & Dada affected his artworks throughout his life. The painting “ La Persistencia De La Memoria” is well known artwork of his that been done in 1931. He has influenced science & politics too. In my research paper, I will mention his childhood & early life, works, outline of his achievements & finally his mysterious death. Along with his huge role in changing art & its techniques.

In a town in Figueres- Catalonia near the Spanish – French borders, Spain in 1904; Salvador Domenec Felipe Jacinto Dali Domenech was born. His father was a middle class lawyer. Dali has an older brother who has also the name “Salvador” was born in October 12^th 1901, yet he passed away nine months earlier before Salvador born. He has a younger sister called Anna Maria by three years. Felipa Domenech Ferres, his mother was his main encouragement to go into drawing school & develop his drawing skills, and she was the one who discovered his talent. Besides being an imaginative artist, Salvador Dali was carrying madness inside of him; he was kicking his younger sister’s head & he was falling upon stares in front of everybody. He even went far beyond when he pushed one of his friends from a high distance & the touchier a cat till death was his doing too. He thinks that all of these actions affect him later on for his inspirations for his artworks. His favorite time in the holidays was when he plays football with his friends. When Dali was five years old, he was taken to his brother’s grave, and he was told by his parents that they see his dead brother soul inside him. His father made the very first exhibition for Salvador’s charcoal painting in their home. When Dali was sixteen year old, his dear mother passed away from breast cancer, her death was the ultimate shock for Dali. Shortly after her death, Dali’s father decided his next marriage from Salvador’s aunt; he didn’t disapprove because he love & respect his aunt.

 portraits of salvador's mother

 When Salvador was nineteen years old, he moved to Madrid to study art in “ De San ferando” a school of fine arts in which he met  Federico Garcia Lorca & be close friend with him. Dali draws attention to him by using “Cubism” style in his paintings, although he didn’t know much about Cubism back then only a short view. He showed the ability of combining several styles in one artwork, and he was influenced by the Dada style. Nevertheless, in 1926 he was expelled from the art school a while after his final exam submission. In that year, Salvador Dali went in his very first trip to Paris, in where he met Pablo Picasso who knew Salvador when Jaon Miro mentioned him in some reports. Influenced by both Pablo Picasso & Jaon Miro, Salvador presents paintings inspired by them. Dali also developed the ability of presenting artworks that has one style of art in it, or many. He went deep into the classic artist’s style such as: Bronzo, Vermeer & Raphael. Dali was considering Diego Velazquez as a “role model’’, he inspired Dali to grow a moustache that later on turned to be his trade mark throughout his life. He succeeds of adapting cutting edge styles of art including Dadaism, surrealism & “Avant Garde”, and presents imaginary artworks. He placed an exhibition in Barcelona that he created works that combines parts of the cities & depicted it in a modern way, more attention draws toward him after this event.  Later on in 1929, Salvador Dali met his new inspiration, he considered her as a muse too; Elena Ivanova Diakonova or Gala. However, she was older by nine years & she was married to a surrealism member Paul Eluared & he was a poet. Salvador held a professional exhibition in Paris that he presented surrealism aspects in, therefore he joined the Surrealism movement & presented deeper artworks about it. On the contrary, Salvador Dali’s father rejected completely the idea of his son’s relationship with Gala, along with the surrealist’s ideas since he sees them as a bad morals & influence. That led to a more tension relation with his father. When Salvador exhibited in Paris with his painting “The Sacred heart of Jesus the Christ” he mentioned that he was spiting on his mother’s portrait, just for fun. That made Dali’s father furious which led to cast him away from the family including his share in the inheritance. After that, Salvador & Gala moved to a cabin besides the sea near Lligat. Then Salvador bought the whole place & converts it to a villa. His famous work of all was depicted in 1931 “The Persistence Of Memory” that presents a pure surrealism beliefs by the combination of soft pocket watches & very wide landscape; his artworks make it easy for him to get a social group in New York. Along with other works of Salvador, Julian Levy an art dealer introduced in 1934 Dali’s art to New York. The same year that Salvador & Gala married after being together for five years. On the contrast in 1936, surrealism adapted politics in their activities, yet Dali didn’t like that claiming the surrealism can exit politics. That putted in a lot of disagreements with his colleagues, which led him to be expelled from the Surrealism movement.

Dali met Edward James in United Kingdom after Salvador presented a lecture in “London international Surrealists exhibition”. Meeting with Edward had changed Dali’s life greatly; Edward helped Dali intentionally for two years he bought a lot of Dali’s artworks in order to present them into the society. Both of them presented a Lobster telephone as a work of art. In the 1940 Gala & Dali traveled to the USA for eight years only. In that period, Salvador went deeper & deeper into writing & he didn’t stop, he produced a movie script called “Moontide” for Jean Tide. After that, in 1942 he published an autobiography called “The Secret Life Of Salvador Dali”. Dali entered Fashion world as well, in which he inspired Elessa Schiaparelli to create “ The Lobster Dress” prints, along with the “pink shoe hat”. He produced “Customs for year 2045” with cooperation with Christian Dior in the year 1950. He designed some of CoCo Chanel’s architecture as well.

There was a rumor of a fray that he claimed that he did a exorcism ritual on Salvador in Paris in 1947. The only back up evidence is that Salvador gave a sculptor to the fray Gabriele Maria Berardi as a gratitude symbol.

Dali moved back to Catalonia from 1949 & stayed in it till his death. Andre Breton held an exhibition in 1959 called “ Homage to Surrealism” as an anniversary of forty years; that exhibition contained Salvador Dali’s work, along with other artists appearance. Later on, Dali explored presenting art in a very unusual media & slowly drawn away from painting. Dali was the first who applied “Holography” technique in his artworks. Along with optical illusions & pop art that was inspired from a young artist style called “Andy Warhol”. Dali covered architecture, graphics & novels in this period.

In 1982, Salvador Dali’s wife Gala, passed away causing a shock to him likewise what happened when his mother passed away. After two years, Dali was in a room surrounding with flames, yet he didn’t die & stayed alive, some were saying that it was a suicide attempt.  In January 1989, Salvador Dali passed away in Catalonia, Spain leaving behinds him a legacy that lasts till this day.

Salvador and his wife

Throughout his life, Salvador Dali was a gifted artist who combined two different elements with each other or even more. Maybe because of his thoughts of being a recreation for his brother, which might led him to mad thoughts at times. Which it was reflected throughout some of Salvador’s work. In my point of view, an artist that didn’t fail expectations yet has a bazaar moments at times deserves respect from everyone. Because he created techniques that improved art expressions through them.



Biblography:

Neret , G.Deschabes , R.2007 salvador Dali . toshen Gmbh , Germany .

Romero , L.2003 . Salvsdor Dali the whole Dali in a face . Epiciones poliga : Germany .

Dali,S .1993 The secret life of Salvador Dali . Dover pubication : NY .