Salvador Dalí, Spanish surrealist painter, was born 118 years ago today.
A skilled draftsman, Dalí is best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931.
Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture and photography. He worked in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. He attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes” to a self-styled "Arab lineage," claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors.
Dalí was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior. His eccentric manner and attention-grabbing public actions sometimes drew more attention than his artwork. This led to the dismay of those who held his work in high esteem and irritated critics.
Dalí has been cited as major inspiration from many modern artists, such as Damien Hirst, Noel Fielding, Jeff Koons and most other modern surrealists. His manic expression and famous mustache have made him something of a cultural icon for the bizarre and surreal.
Dalí produced over 1,500 paintings in his career in addition to producing illustrations for books, lithographs, designs for theatre sets and costumes, a great number of drawings, dozens of sculptures and various other projects, including an animated short film for Disney. He also collaborated with director Jack Bond in 1965, creating a movie titled Dalí in New York.
Dalí said of himself: "the only difference between me and the surrealists is that I am a surrealist."
Dali died in 1989 at age 84.
In 1941, American photographer Philippe Halsman met the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí in New York City and they began to collaborate in the late 1940s.
The 1948 work Dali Atomicus explores the idea of suspension, depicting three cats flying, water thrown from a bucket, an easel, a footstool and Salvador Dalí all seemingly suspended in mid-air.
The title of the photograph is a reference to Dalí's work, Leda Atomica. It can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the two cats.
Halsman reported that it took 28 attempts to be satisfied with the result. This is the unretouched version of the photograph that was published in LIFE magazine.
In this version, the wires suspending the easel and the painting, the hand of the assistant holding the chair and the prop holding up the footstool can still be seen. The frame on the easel is still empty.
The copyright for this photo was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, but according to the U.S. Library of Congress was not renewed, putting it in the public domain in the United States and countries which adopted the rule of the shorter term.