Born on
Dalí the eccentric character, was highly imaginative, and also had an affinity for partaking in unusual and grandiose behaviour, in order to draw attention to himself. This often annoyed those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork did. Dalí grew a flamboyant moustache, influenced by seventeenth-century Spanish master painter Diego Velázquez. The moustache became an iconic trademark of his appearance for the rest of his life.
In 1934, Dalí was introduced to
Late in his career, Dalí did not confine himself to painting, but experimented with many unusual or novel media and processes. He was a versatile artist, in fact some of his more popular works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also noted for his contributions to theatre, fashion, and photography, among other areas. Dali was among the first artists to employ holography in an artistic manner in his work. Several of his works incorporated optical illusions. In his later years, young artists such as Andy Warhol proclaimed Dalí an important influence on pop art. Dalí also had a keen interest in natural science and mathematics. This is manifested in several of his paintings, especially in the 1950s, in which he painted his subjects as composed of rhinoceros horns. According to Dalí, the rhinoceros horn signifies divine geometry because it grows in a logarithmic spiral. He also linked the rhinoceros to themes of chastity and to the Virgin Mary. Dalí also worked with other famous filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock. The most well-known of his film projects is probably the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, which heavily delves into themes of psychoanalysis. Hitchcock needed a dreamlike quality to his movie, which dealt with the idea that a repressed experience can directly trigger a neurosis, and he knew that Dalí's work would help create the atmosphere he wanted in his film.
In 1980, Dalí's health took a catastrophic turn. His near-senile wife, Gala, allegedly had been dosing him with a dangerous cocktail of unprescribed medicine that damaged his nervous system, thus causing an untimely end to his artistic capacity. At 76 years old, Dalí was a wreck, and his right hand trembled terribly, with Parkinson-like symptoms.
Gala died on
There have been allegations that Dalí was forced by his guardians to sign blank canvases that would later, even after his death, be used in forgeries and sold as originals. Although there hasn’t been any proof that this is true.
In November 1988, Dalí was taken to hospital with heart failure. On
My favourite Dali quote - ‘When I paint, the sea roars. The others splash about in the bath.”
Posted: Sunday 2 May 2010
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