Salvadore Dali Essay, Research Paper

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was born on May 11th, 1904, at 8:45 AM at 20 Montreal in Figures, Spain. His Mother loved birds. You may see some of them in his paintings. Nine months before Salvador was born, his brother, Salvador died. Salvador?s parents named him after his brother. This confused Salvador. He always thought he was his brother, Salvador. But he knew he was himself. Three years later his sister, Ana was born.

He always wanted to get attention. Once he kicked his sister on the head really hard with his shoes on, but she was all right. Once he even pushed a child off a bridge. He wet his bed until he was 8. Salvador would arrive in a car covered with cauliflower. He once said he got alien signals through his mustache.

Like most artists Salvador was interested in painting from the start. His first picture was of swan. He drew it on his table when he was seven. When he was nine years old he went to a school in Catalan called Fosos. He started painting when he was ten. In 1914 (also at the age of ten) he left Fosos and went to Madrist school in Marist in Figures. He use to keep borrowing nickels and then giving back dimes to the childern. He would then say ?ha ha you fell in to my trap again.? The childern were confused about this. So they stopped takeing the dimes. People don?t know if Salvador Dali was smart to do this, or if he was dumb to do this. His first painting was called The Sick Child. Salvador Dali was a very good painter when he was thirteen.

In 1921 Salvador Dali entered in the San Fernado Royal Academy of fine Arts Institute. Spain was in an uproar. People were demanding their rights. Then in 1923 he was expelled from the San Fernado Royal Academy of fine Arts Institute for one year. This was because the students were protesting the nomination of a particular professor. A pubilc demonstration was held in a lecture hall and Salvador Dali left before the official speech and before the riot. The authorities thought that he gave the signal for the uprising. A few days after he was expelled from the San Fernado Royal Academy of fine Arts Institute, the police came and arrested him. He spent one month in jail. When Salvador got out from prison his father gave him the best gift he ever received, a press for making engravings. Salvador Dali returned to the San Fernado Royal Academy of fine Arts Institute and was with all his friends.

In 1925 Dalmau, an owner of an art gallery, asked Salvador to show his work. He presented five paintings and seventeen drawings. In 1926 the King banished Salvador Dali from the School of Fine Arts in Madrid. He returned home with no regrets. At this time, Salvador Dali explored the cubist style. In 1926 when Salvador was 22, he went to Pairs and showed Pablo Piccaso his work. Also in 1926, he served in the military. He was very secretive about his military service. He only painted one painting during his time in the military. It is called, ?Senictas.? Then a very important event took place. He went to Pairs with his Sister and his aunt. They visited ? Versailles, the Grevin Museum, and Picasso.? While he was there he painted ? Blood is Sweeter Than Honey.? This was the first Surrealist painting of Salvador Dali. His works continued on. Luis Bunuel went to Cadaques to help Salvador Dali make his first movie, ?The Andalusia Dog.?

In 1928, Salvador Dali went to Pairs again. This time he went alone. He introduced himself to the Surrealist group of artists. While in Pairs he started painting what would become American collections. Three of these are ? Basket of Bread?, ? Young Girl Seated?, and ?Ana Maria?.

There were many things that happened in 1929. First, Salvador Dali met a poet. His name was Paul Eluard. When he came to a meeting he was most impressed by Paul Eluard?s wife. Salvador Dali was in love. Her name was Gala. Later she divorced her husband and married Salvador Dali. Second, Salvador Dali painted a picture with Gala in it called ? The Great Masturbator.? Later it was destroyed by the young followers of the King. And last, at the end of the summer Salvador Dali went to Pairs to finish the movie, The Andalusian Dog. It was an action packed film.

In 1931, in Spain, the republicans wanted power. Churches and convents were burned. Also in 1931, an important event happened. Salvador Dali wanted to play with time so he created floppy watches, ?The Persistence of Memory.? It is on display in The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. People say it is his best painting. I think it is the best painting.

Remember how I said that his mother liked birds. In 1934 Salvador Dali Painted a picture called ?Cardinal, Cardinal.?

In 1937 Spain was in the midst of a world war and the situation was getting worse. The Germans bombarded Almertia. Salvador Dali and Gala left Spain to go to Pairs.

In 1939 Salvador returned to New York. A man named Bonwit Teller asked Salvador Dali to do some window decorating. Salvador Dali agreed. Salvador Dali came up with the idea of showing day and night. Day would be a person getting into the bathtub and night would be a women laying on a bed. They changed the objects in the window without letting Salvador Dali know. Salvador Dali was furious. He took a bathtub filled with water and threw it out the window. He was forced to pay a fine.

Salvador Dali and Gala lived in Pebble Beach in California. Salvador Dali there painted ? With Fried Bacon.?

In 1942 a biography about him called, ?The Secret Life of Salvador Dali? was printed in the Dial Press, in New York. In 1944 a novel about Salvador Dali was printed. The novel was called ? Hidden Faces.? This was also by the Dial Press.

In 1953 Salvador Dali had an idea about a play. The name was Delire Erotique Mystique. The play was never produced. So Salvador Dali worked on a new movie. It was called The Prodigious History of the Lacemaker and the Rhinoceros.

In 1958 Salvador Dali officially was awarded the Gold Medal of the city of Pairs and the French Medal of Distinction. Salvador Dali continued his works in the arts. Salvador Dali died on January 23, 1989.

Bibliography

A Biographical Dictionary of Artists. United States: Facts On File, 1995

Dali. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1968

Carter, David. Salvador Dali. New York: Chelsea House Publisher, 1995

Venezia, Mike. Salvador Dali. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1993