00:30The name Dali has become a synonym for the fantastic and the absurd,
00:34an immortality that delighted quirky artist Salvador Dali.
00:39Throughout his colorful and productive life, Dali played on people's fascination
00:43with the weird and wacky, although he was sometimes criticized for
00:47putting commerce before art. Born in Spain in 1904, young Dali
00:52displayed a precocious artistic talent and was only 14 when he
00:56held his first exhibition. He enrolled at Madrid's Academy of Art
01:01but was frustrated by his teacher's emphasis on modern styles
01:05such as impressionism and cubism. Dali was more interested in learning
01:09classical painting. He became a key player in the surrealist
01:14movement, which was strongly influenced by the
01:16political turmoil of the 20s and 30s and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic
01:21theories. As expressed in art, surrealism placed
01:24everyday items in odd settings, illustrated the absurd with hyper
01:29realistic images and used symbols to construct double
01:32meanings. When Dali embraced the fascist
01:35dictatorship of Spain's General Franco, his fellow left-leaning surrealists
01:40accused him of betraying their ideals and expelled him from the movement.
01:44Nevertheless, the public continued to view Dali as the foremost surrealist
01:48artist.
01:51Gala, his wife, muse and manager, helped Dali court publicity
01:55and encouraged him to turn his hand to a range of artistic media.
01:59With Gala as his model, he produced a series of stunning dreamscapes,
02:03heavy with symbolism. Gala was also the model for Madonna of Port Liga,
02:08a post-war work that fused religious imagery with the disintegration of
02:12matter caused by radiation. Dali called the style nuclear mysticism.
02:18It was born from his renewed interest in Catholicism and fascination with the
02:22atomic world. The painting Crucifixion also combined
02:26these elements. This masterpiece was the first work
02:30painted in a classical style using a cubist formula. The artist also
02:34collaborated with Walt Disney on an animation
02:37and designed a key set for Hitchcock's psycho thriller Spellbound.
02:41He constantly courted public attention and audiences were fascinated by his
02:46oddness. Dali's Venus de Milo with drawers
02:49displayed his trademark playfulness and fascination with optical illusions.
02:54The drawers represented repressed female sexuality,
02:58a concept borrowed from Freud. He also used the motive
03:02in several paintings. Dali's self-promotion was resented by some of
03:06his fellow artists who disliked the way he peddled his art
03:09to the world at large. Surrealist leader André Breton was
03:13particularly critical. Dali was a great showman of course. He
03:17had very little problem moving between sort of fine arts and
03:21and commerce and of course André Breton dubbed him Avida Dollars and an
03:25anagram of his name to suggest his his eagerness to work in the
03:28commercial world. Magritte had a much more sort of
03:31ambivalent relationship actually. He worked as a commercial graphic
03:34designer which of course when you look at his work
03:37it is very informed by advertising and sort of you know the strong motif or
03:41sign that that came from his from his
03:44graphic design but he always was very sort of dismissive of that part of his
03:47work even though it was very important for
03:49supporting his artistic life.
03:53Like his paintings, Dali's sculptures are both visually stunning and supremely
03:57odd. They include the wooden satin Mae West
04:01Lip Sofa and a series of functional lobster
04:03telephones.
04:07Dali created more than 1500 paintings throughout his career
04:12as well as book illustrations, film and theatre set designs, furniture and
04:16sculptures. He died in 1989.
04:21Although the Surrealists cast him out of their movement, Dali had his own
04:24provocative opinion about his style. He once said, the only difference
04:30between me and the Surrealists is that I am a Surrealist.
04:36I am a Surrealist.
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