The World Behind the Door (17 page)

      
Still, by 1940 he felt he had carried surrealism as far as he could, and was looking for new challenges. He found some of them in Hollywood after he and Gala fled to America to escape World War II, and while he labored at cinema, photography, writing and etching, Gala made sure the public was aware of his flamboyance, booking him into any venue that would have him, and encouraging the public display of the most bizarre aspects of his personality.

      
After returning to his beloved Port Lligat after the war, Dali also returned to the Catholic faith he had abandoned as a young man, and he and Gala were married (or re-married) in a religious ceremony in Spain in 1958.

      
Two Dali museums opened during his lifetime, one in Spain, one in Florida, and the prices paid for his painting soared to astronomical levels.

      
Gala died in 1982, and Dali's health began to fade immediately thereafter. He was badly burned in a fire in 1984, he had a pacemaker inserted in 1986, and he finally died of heart failure in a Spanish hospital on January 23, 1989.

      
His art practically defines surrealism. An absolute master of technique and perspective, Dali pulled images out of his mind, bizarre images than no one had seen before, but that nonetheless struck a responsive chord.

      
His most famous work was unquestionably The Persistence of Memory, and rare is the collection of Dali art book that does not also include The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, the two forming a 23-year Moebius trip through surrealism that brought him back to the imagination that brought him his greatest fame.

      
Dali put Gala in dozens of his paintings. Less often mentioned is the fact that he also put exceptionally strange and bizarre versions of himself in many paintings as well. His images of the Spanish Civil War (Soft Construction with Boiled Beans), of Jesus looking down from a cosmic cross at the Virgin Mary as represented by Gala (Crucifixion), of an elephant on enormous stilt-like legs (The Space Elephant) . . . well, nothing like these things had ever been seen. and like much of Dali's best work, once seen could never be forgotten.

      
His standing in the world of art? Well, Picasso will probably always be considered the greatest and most famous artist of the 20th Century, but a strong case could be made for Dali as the runner-up in both categories. And when you come to surrealism, his primacy is assured. There is Dali, and there is everyone else. It's really as simple as that.

 

 

Timeline

 

1904 -Salvador Dali is born in Figueres, Spain on May 11.
 

1918 -Dali has his first exhibition at age 14
 

1922 -Dali attends the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.
 

1925 -Dali has his first major exhibition in Barcelona.
 

1927 -Dali is called up for 9 months of military service
 

1929 -Dali meets Gala Eluard, and joins the surrealist movement.
 

1931 -The Persistence of Memory
 

1934 -Dali marries Gala in a civil ceremony on January 30.

      
1936 -Soft Construction With Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War
 

1940 -Dali and Gala flee Paris and settle in America for the next eight years, dividing their time between New York and California. Dali not only paints, but works with Alfred Hitchcock on Spellbound and with Walt Disney on a cartoon project.
 

1942 -Dali's autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, is published.
 

1944 -Dali, who is painting less and expanding into other fields, publishes his first novel, Rostras Oscuras
 

1948 -Dali and Gala return to Spain, though Dali continues to spend each winter in New York 1952-1954 -The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
 

1958 -Dali and Gala marry in a religious ceremony in Girona, Spain
 

1974 -The Teatre-Museu Dali, a museum devoted to Dali's work, opens in Figueres, Spain
 
1982 -The Dali Museum opens in St. Petersburg, Florida. Gala dies on June 10. King Juan Carlos of Spain makes Dali the Marquis of Pubol.
 

1989 -Dali dies of heart failure on January 23 in Figueres, and is buried at the Teatre-Museu Dali.

 

 

 

For More Information

 

      
Biography: THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY: A BIOGRAPHY OF SALVADOR DALI, by Meredith Etherington-Smith Da Capo Press, 1995
 

 

Autobiography: THE SECRET LIFE OF SALVADOR DALI, by Salvador Dali, Dover, 1993
 

 

Criticism: DALI AND POSTMODERNISM, by Mark J. Lafountain State University of New York, 1997
 

 

Art Books: DALI: THE PAINTINGS, by Gilles Neret & Robert Descharnes, Taschen, 2001 DALI, by Dawn Ades, Rizzoli, 2004
 

 

DALI: THE SALVADOR DALI MUSEUM COLLECTION, By Robert S. Lubar Bullfinch, 2000
 

 

Original art on display: The Teatre-Museu Dali, Figueres, Spain
 
1982 -The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida.

 

      
Web sites:
 

      
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_dali

      
http://www.virtualdali.com/
 

      
http://www.daliweb.tampa.fl.us/
 

      
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/dali_salvador.html

      
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/dali.html