Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí y Domenech, better known as Salvador Dali, was an iconic Spanish artist renowned for his eclectic personality and flamboyant lifestyle; he was an artistic genius who expressed his creativity through outlandish images. Though famous for his Surrealist paintings, Dali also dabbled in other aspects of art like sculptures and printmaking during his long career.
Dali was a gifted painter in the world of Surrealism, an art movement that explored the creative aspects of subconscious imagery. For his impeccable ability to translate dreams into art in his “hand-painted dream photographs,” as he called his paintings, Dali is regarded as the greatest Surrealist of the 20th century.
As a highly imaginative individual, Dali captured the eccentricities in his mind and transformed them into exquisite art that left viewers intrigued. Nonetheless, specific influences also inspired his art. This article will examine the influences behind Salvador Dali artwork.
Early Life of Artist Dali
Artist Dali was born on 11th May 1904, in the small town of Figueres, located just outside Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain, to Salvador Dalí Cusí and Felipa Domènech Ferrés. After they lost their first son, he was the couple’s second son, also named Salvador, to gastroenteritis. Images of his late brother would later feature in some of his works. Dali also had a sister named Anna Maria, three years younger.
Having shown interest in art from an early age, his parents, particularly his mother, encouraged him to take drawing lessons at age 10. During his late teens, he enrolled at the Madrid School of Fine Arts, where he sampled Impressionist and Pointillist styles of painting and Cubism and Futurism. His father was so proud of the young artist that he hosted a solo exhibition of his charcoal sketches in their family home.
In 1922, Dalí furthered his studies at Madrid’s Special Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving School of San Fernando. He developed a detailed and provocative persona he became better known for than his art. However, in 1926 he was expelled from the institution for insulting a professor just before graduation. The dismissal inspired his trip to Paris, which had a tremendous impact on his artistry.
Career Of Salvadore Dali
While in Paris, Salvador Dali artist was introduced to Pablo Picasso, an artist whom he greatly admired and revered. Picasso had also heard good things about artist Dali from fellow Catalan artist Joan Miro.
Over the years, Salvador Dali art style matured rapidly, and he produced several famous paintings that established him as the world’s best-known Surrealist. Paintings by Salvador Dali typically depict an unusual or illogical representation of commonplace objects in dreamlike scenes, which were often heightened by optical illusions. His creative process involved suppressing conscious control and allowing his unconscious mind and intuition to gain the upper hand.
Dali’s eclectic personality helped him pick up inspiration from several sources. First, he exploited his subconscious mind to produce symbolic imagery, becoming his unrivaled signature style.
Influences On Salvadore Dali
Catalonia
Dalí’s upbringing in Catalonia influenced him throughout his long career. Having become deeply drawn to its surrounding landscapes, Dali was greatly inspired to create several art pieces depicting the Catalan terrain. This added an extra layer of interpretation to several of his key paintings and their recurring themes.
He repeatedly featured Illustrations of the Ampurdán Plain in particular and numerous Roman Catholic references, which is the predominant branch of Christianity practiced in the area.
Additionally, influences of the Catalan love for food may be seen in some of Dali’s works. This is most evident in his tendency to portray inedible objects as food or having edible characteristics.
Sigmund Freud
Dali’s artistry began to mature into the signature style he is remembered for today when he discovered the writings on the erotic value of subconscious imagery by the Austrian neurologist and psychoanalysis founder, Sigmund Freud.
Dali attempted to recreate his dreams on canvas by studying Freud’s theories. In his paintings, he presented ultra-realistic renditions of his fears and fantasies as he imagined them, challenging the viewers’ perspectives on reality.
Throughout his career, Freudian theories remained central to Dalí’s attempts at creating a visual language capable of communicating his subconscious struggles and hallucinations. This can be observed in many of the iconic images Salvador Dalí is renowned for.
Luis Bunuel
Buñuel was a surrealist filmmaker whose works provoked intellectual responses, and in him, Dali found a fellow thinker. In 1927, after Dali was expelled from the academy in Madrid, he was approached by Buñuel with an idea for a short film titled Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog).
The 1929 Franco-Spanish film has no plot in the general use of the word and is primarily an irrational composition. Nevertheless, it earned Dali infamy as it was sexually and politically offensive.
Buñuel’s Surrealist methods ignited Dali’s curiosity and contributed to his later pursuit of the art style.
Gala
Real name Elena Dmitrievna Diakonova, Gala was the Russian wife of Surrealist painter Paul Eluard. Shortly after she met Dali in1929, the two began an affair that led to the dissolution of her first marriage. She embodied all of Dali’s fantasies and became his greatest passion and inspiration for art. The two were later married in 1934 despite her being 20 years his senior and his father’s disapproval.
Gala was his favorite muse, featuring in several of his works where he would typically portray her as the Madonna. She influenced many of his famous paintings, with some of them, like The Sacrament of The Last Supper, facing massive criticism for their controversial glorification of Gala.
Her tenacity and ambition were driving forces for Dali, and she is often credited for pushing his career to international recognition.
Conclusion
Salvador Dali enjoyed a long and successful career as an artist. Over the years as a practicing artist, he encountered several individuals who helped shape his craft and contributed immensely to his success as a notable surrealist.