Art 1020

Surreal: Salvador Dali

By Marissa Skrivan

The first time I heard of Salvador Dali I was watching Pawn Stars with my dad. A girl was trying to sell a sculpture that was a fake Dali. In the show they said that Dali was one of the first artists to do surrealism and they said his art was weird.I chose Salvador Dali because I had seen some his work and I found it interesting. I wanted to learn more about him, his inspirations and meanings of his artwork. Before I started I thought I would find a man that had struggled in school and had used art as an escape. After researching I found that Dali was a complex man and actually used science for some of his symbolism as well as having a formal art education. Dali created the modern version of surrealism.

Salvador Dali was born in 1904 in the town of Figueres by the French border of Spain. His older brother, named Salvador, died and when his parents told Dali as a young child he was the reincarnation of his older brother, he believed them. He had bounced from school to school between 1908 and 1916 before he began secondary school at the Marist Brothers’ school and at Figueres grammar school while also taking classes at the Municipal Drawing School. In 1920 his father made Dali go to the Fine Arts school in Madrid so he could qualify as a teacher. In 1922 he attended Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Special Painting and Sculpture and Engraving School until he was expelled in 1923. He ended his schooling in 1925. His artwork was inspired by one of his teachers Juan Nunez along with different events throughout his life. In the beginning of his life, Dali was inspired by movements such as purism and futurism and was considered an impressionist. Dali had grown as an artist thanks to meeting his future wife, being in the film industry, and writing. In 1930 he found his own voice in the art world, a mix of vanguard and tradition, in surrealism. His first individual exhibition was in 1931 at Galerie Pierre Colle in Paris. He and his wife moved to America in 1940, because of the war, before moving back to Spain in 1949.

HIs art covered many different subjects in many different forms. Dali worked in theater, film, fashion, photography, literature, graphic arts, architecture, and as a sculptor as well as being a painter. He painted over 1,500 pieces in his life using oil paint as the main choice for his medium. Each piece had its own purpose. Instead of having one main goal Dali painted each piece as if they were made to say their purpose and to stand alone.

When Salvador Dali did his best work is debated. Some think that before 1930 he did his best work and then became greedy. Others feel that during the beginning of his career he was stumbling along until he found his footing. I agree with the latter. I prefer his surreal art and find that those pieces are more open to interpretation. Personally I favor art that can mean something to you when it means something completely different to someone else. Salvador Dali had a formal education and made surrealism what it is today. However, most importantly, he was not just a painter. Most people think of artists and see painters but there are many forms of art and Dali did many of them.