SALVADOR DALÍ  -  BIOGRAPHY

 

 

1904

Born on 11 May in Figueres (Girona). Son of the notary public Salvador Dalí Cusí and his wife

Felipa Domènech Ferrés.

 

1908

The couple’s only daughter, Anna Maria, was born. His father enrolled Salvador at the State

Primary School, under the teacher Esteve Trayter.

 

1910

Two years later, and due to that first option having failed, his father decided to enrol Salvador

at the Hispano-French School of the Immaculate Conception in Figueres, where he learned

French, the language that was to become his cultural vehicle.

 

1916

Salvador spent periods on the outskirts of Figueres, at the Molí de la Torre estate owned by

the Pichot family, a family of intellectuals and artists; it was there, through the collection owned

by the painter Ramon Pichot, that he discovered Impressionism. After a mediocre primary

school period, in the autumn he began his secondary schooling at the Marist Brothers’ school

and at Figueres grammar school. He also attended the classes taught by Juan Núñez at the

Municipal Drawing School in Figueres. Over the course of this year and the following year

Salvador Dalí drew stories for his sister when she was ill.

 

1917

Salvador’s father organised an exhibition of his son’s charcoal drawings at their family home.

 

1918

He contributed a vignette to the popular Catalan magazine Patufet.

 

1919

Took part in a group exhibition at the Societat de Concerts rooms in Figueres’ Municipal Theatre

(which was years later to become the Dalí Theatre-Museum). With a group of grammar-school

friends he founded Studium magazine, in which he published his first articles: a series of art

chronicles in which, in academic and scholarly tones, he wrote about his admired artists Goya,

El Greco, Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Velázquez. Along with another group

of Figueres friends he also wrote in the humorous magazine El Sanyó Pancraci, painting an

imaginary portrait of the eponymous gentleman. He began a personal diary entitled Les meves

impressions i records íntims (My Personal Impressions and Private Memories), which he

continued through the following year.

 

1920

He began to write a novel, Tardes d’Estiu (Summer Evenings). If he were set on becoming a

painter, his father made it a condition that he go to Madrid to study at the Fine Arts School,

in order to qualify as a teacher. Dalí accepted to do so.

 

1921

His mother died in February. The following year, his father married Catalina Domènech Ferrés,

the deceased woman’s sister. In May he designed the posters for the Santa Creu Festival of

Figueres, and the following year for the festival schedule. He illustrated a special edition of

the L’Empordà Federal newspaper, devoted to Enric Morera and Pep Ventura.

 

1922

He took part in the Students Original Art Works Competition Exhibition of the Catalan Students’

Association, held at Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona, where his work Market was awarded the

University Vice-Chancellor’s prize. In Madrid, he attended the Special Painting, Sculpture and

Engraving School (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando) and lived at the Residencia

de Estudiantes, where he befriended a group of young people who were also to become with

time leading intellectual and artistic personalities: Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, Pedro

Garfias, Eugenio Montes and Pepín Bello, among others. He began to write a notebook which

he entitled Ninots. Ensatjos sobre pintura. Catalec dels cuadrus em notes (Puppets. Essays on

Painting. Catalogue of Paintings Wiv’ Notes), containing valuable information about Dalí’s

progress as an artist. It was probably in this period that he received his first information about

Cubist painting through the futuristic catalogue Pittura Scultura Futuriste (Dinamismo Plastico)

that Pepito Pichot had brought him from Paris, as well as through foreign journals such as

Esprit nouveau and Valori Plastici, passed on to him by his uncle Anselm Domènech, who

owned a major bookshop in Barcelona and whom Dalí has asked to take him out a subscription.

 

1923

In the L’Empordà Federal newspaper he published his poem entitled “The Fair”. He was

expelled from the Academia de San Fernando, accused of having led a student protest against

the painter Daniel Vázquez Díaz not having been granted the chair of Painting at the Painting

School. He returned to Figueres, where he took up his classes again with Juan Núñez, who

instructed him in the technique of etching.

 

1924

Drawings of his were published in the Alfar and España magazines. In autumn he returned

to the Academia de San Fernando from which he had been expelled, being now obliged to

repeat an academic year. He illustrated Les bruixes de Llers (The Witches of Llers) by his friend

Carles Fages de Climent.

 

1925

He took part in the First Exhibition of the Iberian Artists Society in Madrid, while at Galeries

Dalmau in Barcelona he presented his first individual exhibition. Some of the works presented

at these exhibitions lay halfway between the Cubist tendencies of the times and the works of

the Italian metaphysicists, which he had seen in Valori Plastici. This was his period of rejecting

the vanguard and questing for a pictorial tradition, essentially an Italian one. Dalí came into

contact with a form of painting, and particularly that of Giorgio Morandi, that was to prove

very useful to him in the paring-down process he had undertaken. Over this academic year,

1925-1926, he did not return to the Academia de San Fernando. Federico García Lorca spent

the holidays with Dalí in Cadaqués.

 

1926

He participated in several exhibitions: Modern Catalan Art held in Madrid, the First Autumn

Salon held at the Sala Parés in Barcelona, and Exhibition of Catalan Pictorial Modernism as

Against a Selection of Works by Foreign Avant-garde Artists at Galeries Dalmau, also in Barcelona.

In the company of his aunt and his sister, he made his first trip to Paris, where he met Picasso

and visited the Louvre Museum. He was expelled for good from the Escuela de Bellas Artes

de Madrid for declaring the Tribunal that was to examine him incompetent. He returned once

more to Figueres and devoted himself intensely to painting. He illustrated L’oncle Vicents (Uncle

Vicents) by J. Puig Pujades and made two illustrations for Conte de Nadal (Christmas Story)

by J. V. Foix, published in the Sitges-based magazine L’Amic de les Arts.

 

1927

He held his second individual exhibition at Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona and took part in the

Second Autumn Salon at the city’s Sala Parés gallery. The works presented reveal the first clear

influences of surrealism, as well as anticipating many features of Dalí’s future aesthetic principles:

severed hands and heads, amputated torsos, veins and arteries, fish, chopped-up figures, rotting

donkeys, animals in a state of decomposition, and so forth, i.e. his first steps within a new

aesthetic form that sought out new formal principles and was not so much based on the classical

and the clearly defined. He did his military service at Sant Ferran castle in Figueres. Mariana

Pineda, by García Lorca, had its first performance at Barcelona’s Teatre Goya, with decor and

costumes created by Dalí. With publication of the article “San Sebastián”, devoted to Lorca,

there began Dalí’s regular and extensive collaboration with the vanguardist journal L’Amic de

les Arts, in a relationship that was to continue until 1929.

 

1928

He took part in the group exhibition Vanguard Art Manifestation, at Galeries Dalmau. La

Gaceta Literaria published his poem “To Lídia of Cadaqués” and his article “Reality and Hyperreality”.

He created the logo for Gallo, the superrealist-inspired Granada-based magazine, as

well as all the illustrations for the first issue. Along with Lluís Montanyà and Sebastià Gasch

he published the Yellow Manifesto (Catalan Anti-Artistic Manifesto) that amounted to a fierce

attack on conventional art. He took part in the Third Autumn Salon at Sala Parés and in the

Twenty-seventh International Exhibition of Paintings in Pittsburgh, United States.

 

1929

He took part in the Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by Spaniards Resident in Paris, held

at the Botanical Gardens in Madrid. The last issue of L’Amic de les Arts was published, its

conception and most of the articles being the work of Salvador Dalí, who made therein his

profession of faith in surrealism. He travelled again to Paris and, through Joan Miró, came into

contact with the group of surrealists headed by André Breton. It was during this stay in the

French capital that Barcelona’s La Publicitat newspaper published under the title “Documentary

– Paris – 1929” seven articles setting out Dalí’s impressions of all that was going on there. The

film Un chien andalou was shown at Paris’ Studio des Ursulines, being the fruit of his

collaboration with Luis Buñuel. He spent the summer in Cadaqués, where he received a visit

from the gallery-owner Camille Goemans and a friend of his, as well as René Magritte and his

wife, Luis Buñuel, Paul Eluard and Gala, and the couple’s daughter Cécile. From that time on,

Gala was never to leave his side. He took part in the group exhibition Abstrakte und surrealistische

Malerei und Plastik at the Kunsthaus in Zurich. His first individual exhibition was held at Galerie

Goemans in Paris. This was a year of family break-up.

 

1930

He gave a talk under the title “The Moral Stance of Surrealism” at the Ateneu Barcelonès in

Barcelona, later published as an article in the Vilafranca del Penedès Hèlix magazine. He took

part in an exhibition of collages organised at Galerie Goemans in Paris.

He illustrated Artine by René Char and made the frontispiece for the Second Superrealist

Manifesto by André Breton. L’âge d’or (The Age of Gold), the second film he made in

collaboration with Buñuel, had its first performance at Studio 28 in Paris. Éditions Surréalistes

published his book La femme visible (The Visible Woman), a compilation of articles that had

previously appeared in various magazines, such as “The Putrified Donkey”, in which he laid

the foundations for his paranoiac-critical method. The Paris-based magazine Le Surréalisme au

Service de la Révolution published “Spanish and Catalan Intellectuals, Exhibitions, Arrest of an

Exhibitionist in the Metro” by Salvador Dalí.

 

By the beginning of the ‘thirties Dalí had found his own style, his private language and the

form of expression that was to remain with him thereafter and, while changing and evolving,

would be the one we are all familiar with and that so well defines him — a mixture of vanguard

and tradition. Behind him lay his first Impressionist canvases and his works influenced, among

other movements, by Cubism, purism and futurism. Dalí had become fully integrated into

surrealism, and there began his consecration as a painter.

 

1931

Staged his first individual exhibition at Galerie Pierre Colle in Paris, where he exhibited his

work The Persistence of Memory. He also took part in the first surrealist exhibition in the United

States, held at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. His book L’amour et la mémoire (Love

and Memory) and his articles “Surrealist Objects”, “Communication: Paranoiac Face” and

“Reveries” appeared in the magazine Le Surréalisme au Service de la Revolution.

1932

He took part in the exhibition Surrealism: Paintings, Drawings and Photographs, organised

by the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. His second individual exhibition was held at Galerie

Pierre Colle in Paris. His book Babaouo, in which he outlined his conception of cinema, was

published by Éditions des Cahiers Libres. The journal This Quarter published an issue devoted

to surrealism, which in addition to other Dalí poems that had appeared in previous publications

contained various articles of his such as “Binding Cradled - Cradled Bound” and “The Object

as Revealed in Surrealist Experiment”. He made the frontispiece for Le revolver à cheveux

blancs by André Breton. At the end of this year, Dalí announced to the Viscount of Noailles

the creation of the Zodiaque Group, a group of friends who joined together to help Salvador

Dalí financially by commissioning him to create works that they then purchased on a regular

basis.

 

1933

He illustrated the André Breton poem that was published in the book Violette Nozières. The

book El ritme de la revolució (The Rhythm of Revolution) by Jaume Miravitlles was published,

illustrated with earlier drawings by Dalí. The first issue of the Paris-based magazine Minotaure

published the prologue to the book that remained unpublished until 1963 Interprétation

paranoïaque-critique de l'image obsédante "L'Angélus" de Millet (Paranoiac-critical Interpretation

of the Obsessive Image The Angelus by Millet). He took part in a collective surrealist exhibition

at Galerie Pierre Colle, where he also presented his third individual exhibition. First individual

exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. Articles of his were published in various

specialised journals: “Psycho-Atmospheric-Anamorphic Objects”, “Notes and Communiqués:

The False Meteorites at the Natural History Museum are ‘also’ Paranoiac Phenomena”, “The

Surrealist Actuality of Conical Anamorphs” and “Raymond Roussel. New Impressions of Africa”

in issues 5 and 6 of Le Surréalisme au Service de la Révolution and “On the Terrifying and

Edible Beauty of Modern’Style Architecture” and “The Phenomenon of Ecstasy” in issue 3-4

of the journal Minotaure.

 

1934

Enters into civil matrimony with Gala (née Elena Ivanovna Diakonova), with Yves Tanguy and

André Gaston as witnesses. He exhibited at the Exposition du Cinquantenaire in the Salon des

Indépendants of the Grand Palais in Paris, without taking account of the opinion of the rest

of the surrealists, who had decided not to participate in it, which nearly led to Dalí being

expelled from the group led by Breton. He made the frontispiece for Onan by Georges Hugnet,

and illustrated De derrière les fagots by Benjamin Peret. Documents 34 published “Latest Fashions

in Intellectual Excitation for the 1934 Summer Season” and in Minotaure “The New Colours

of Spectral Sex-Appeal” and “Aerodynamic Appearances of ‘Beings-Objects’”. The Quatre

Chemins bookshop in Paris exhibited the 42 etchings and 30 drawings he made to illustrate

Les Chants de Maldoror by Isidore Ducasse, Count of Lautréamont. He staged his first individual

exhibition at the Zwemmer Gallery in London. Along with Gala he boarded vessel Champlain

to make his first journey to the United States. He published a pamphlet entitled New York

salutes me to mark the occasion. Two individual Dalí exhibitions were held, one at the Julien

Levy Gallery and another at the Avery Memorial of the Wadsworth Atheneum, in Hartford

(Connecticut).

 

1935

He made a series of drawings and wrote articles for American Weekly, in which he described

various concepts of modern, urban American life. The couple returned to Europe on board

the Normandie. Salvador Dalí went to Figueres in March, where a family reconciliation took

place. Along with Hans Arp, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Valentine Hugo,

Óscar Domínguez, Man Ray, Marcel Jean and Yves Tanguy, he illustrated the programme for

Cycle systématique de conférences sur les plus récentes positions du surréalisme. He took part

in the surrealism exhibition at the Salle d'Exposition de la Commune de La Louvière (Belgium)

and in the 1935 International Exhibition of Paintings at the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh. His

article “Non-Euclidian Psychology of a Photograph” was published in the magazine Minotaure.

He illustrated Nuits partagées by Paul Eluard, and his article “Picasso Slippers”, in which he

applied his paranoiac-critical method to literature, appeared in Cahiers d'art. Éditions Surréalistes

published his book La conquête de l'irrationnel (The Conquest of the Irrational).

 

1936

In May he took part in the Exposition Surréaliste d’Objets at the Galerie Charles Ratton in Paris,

where he exhibited The Aphrodisiac Jacket and Monument to Kant. In June he took part in

the International Surrealist Exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries in London. He

designed the cover for issue 8 of Minotaure magazine, in which he also illustrated Edward

James’ poem “Trois sécheresses”, while his article “The Spectral Surrealism of the Eternal Pre-

Raphaelite Feminine” was also published. In the following edition he published “First

Morphological Law on Hair in Soft Structures”. Cahiers d’Art published his “Honour to the

Object!“. Salvador Dalí exhibition at Alex Reid & Lefevre Gallery in London. On December

14th, Time devoted its cover to him, with photography by Man Ray. He took part in the

exhibition Fantastic Art Dada Surrealism at the MOMA in New York. His third individual

exhibition was held at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. He illustrated Notes sur le poésie,

by André Breton and Paul Eluard.

 

1937

In February he met the Marx Brothers in Hollywood. Along with Harpo, he began work on

the script for a film entitled Giraffes on Horseback Salad (but called in its latest version The

Surrealist Woman), which was never actually produced. Dalí and Gala returned to Europe. In

Paris the Galerie Renou et Colle presented his portrait of Harpo Marx and the designs they

had created together for the movie. Éditions Surréalistes published his poem “The Metamorphosis

of Narcissus”, which the gallery-owner Julien Levy also published at the same time in English.

 

1938

January 17th saw the inauguration at Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris of the Exposition Internationale

du Surréalisme, organised by André Breton and Paul Eluard, with Salvador Dalí’s Rainy Taxi

exhibited at the entrance to the gallery. He took part in the exhibition Old and new "Trompe

l'oeil" at the Julien Levy Gallery. In the spring, he exhibited at the Exposition Internationale

du Surréalisme held at the Galerie Robert in Amsterdam. In London, Dalí visited Sigmund Freud

in the company of Stefan Zweig and Edward James.

 

1939

The Bonwit-Teller department stores in New York commissioned Salvador Dalí to produce the

decor for two of their window displays. On the presentation day, the management changed

certain features without telling Dalí. When Dalí saw that some of his creations had been altered

a minor altercation ensued, and the artist was even held under arrest for a few hours. Also in

the month of March he presented his individual exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery. He wrote

an article entitled “Dalí, Dalí!” for the exhibition. In May he signed a contract to take part in

the World’s Fair of New York. He designed the Dream of Venus pavilion, which was presented

in the Fair’s amusement zone. He published Declaration of the Independence of the Imagination

and the Rights of Man to His Own Madness, in protest against the World’s Fair committee

decision to prohibit him from exhibiting on the façade a reproduction of the Botticelli Venus

with the head of a fish. The Metropolitan Opera House of New York staged the first performance

of the ballet Bacchanale, with libretto, costumes and sets by Salvador Dalí and choreography

by Léonide Massine. Breton’s article “Latest Tendencies in Surrealist Painting” brought about

Dalí’s expulsion from the surrealist group. In September the couple returned once more to

Europe.

 

1940

The magazine L'Usage de la Parole published his article “Bright Ideas. ‘We Don’t Feed on that

Light’”. When the German troops entered Bordeaux, the Dalí couple left Arcachon, where they

had been living for a while, and went to live in the United States, where they were to remain

until 1948. Upon their arrival, they set up home at Caresse Crosby’s house in Hampton Manor

 

1941

Dalí’s interest in jewellery design began, this being an enthusiasm that was to last throughout

his entire artistic career, initially in collaboration with the Duke of Verdura, and later with two

established New York jewellers, Alemany and Ertman. He began his professional relationship

with the photographer Philippe Halsman, which was to continue right up to the latter’s death

in 1979. He exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. The exhibition catalogue included

Salvador Dalí’s article “The Last Scandal of Salvador Dalí”. Vogue magazine published “Dalí’s

Dream of Jewels”. On October 8th the Ballets Russes de Montecarlo gave their first performance

at the Metropolitan Opera House of Labyrinth, with libretto, decors and costumes by Dalí,

choreography by Léonide Massine and music by Schubert. New York’s MOMA gallery inaugurated

on November 18th an anthological exhibition devoted to Dalí and Miró.

 

1942

New York’s Dial Press published The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí. Along with previously

unpublished drawings, there appeared in Esquire magazine his article “Total Camouflage for

Total War”.

 

1943

In April, the Reynolds Morse couple purchased their first Dalí painting, Spider by Night... Hope

from George Keller of the Bignou Gallery in New York. This was to be the start of a major

collection of works by the painter. He put on an exhibition of portraits at the Knoedler Gallery

in New York, whose catalogue included the text “Dali to the Reader”. In the springtime in New

York he decorated Helena Rubinstein’s apartment. In May he designed a new ballet, El Café

de Chinitas, based on a true story adapted by Federico García Lorca, which was performed

in Detroit and at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.

 

1944

In Life magazine he published an article entitled “Nightmare Journey” and created a cover for

Vogue. He took part in the exhibition First Exhibition in America of Art of this Century at New

York’s Art of this Century Gallery. The exhibition Religious Art Today was inaugurated at the

Dayton Art Museum, in Dayton. On October 30th at the International Theatre in New York,

Ballet International presented Sentimental Colloquy, with sets designed by Dalí. Dial Press

published Dalí’s first novel, Hidden Faces. He also made a series of adverts for Bryans Hosiery

stockings, in a collaboration that was to run until 1947. December 15th saw the New York

debut by Ballet International of Mad Tristan, the first paranoiac ballet about the eternal legend

of love in death. Dalí’s plot was based on the musical themes of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolda.

 

1945

For Doubleday & Doran of New York he illustrated two books by Maurice Sandoz, The Maze

and Fantastic Memoires. He went to Hollywood to work with Alfred Hitchcock on the film

Spellbound, whose dreamlike sequences were created by Dalí. The Bignou Gallery inaugurated

the exhibition Recent Paintings by Salvador Dalí. This served as the occasion for Dalí to present

the first volume of Dali News, which he published himself and which dealt solely with the artist

and his oeuvre. He illustrated Gerald Kersh’s article “Wars for Sale”, published in Town &

Country.

 

1946

He took part in the exhibitions Four Spaniards: Dali, Gris, Miro, Picasso at the Institute of

Modern Art in Boston, A Selection of Contemporary Paintings at the Bignou Gallery and 2nd

Summer Exhibition of Contemporary Art held at the University of Iowa. In Harper’s Bazaar

he published “Painting after the Tempest” and designed covers for EtCetera magazine and the

Christmas issue of Vogue. At the Knoedler Gallery and under the title Dalí Introduces New

Perfume, three Desert Trilogy paintings were exhibited, created to launch a perfume called

Desert Flower. He also made the illustrations for various works: The Autobiography of Benvenuto

Cellini and Macbeth by Shakespeare, published by Doubleday; The First Part of the Life and

Achievements of the Renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, published

by Random House of New York. Walt Disney hired Dalí to help produce the film Destino.

 

1947

Second Dalí exhibition at the Bignou Gallery, in which he presented the second and last issue

of Dali News. He wrote two articles for the catalogue: “Dali Dali Dali” and “Appendix. History

of Art, Short but Clear”. The magazine Script commissioned a series of illustrations to convey

his conception of various American cities and his impressions of the atomic era. Doubleday

published the Essays of Michel de Montaigne, selected and illustrated by the painter.

 

1948

He published 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship and illustrated Billy Rose’s book Wine Women

& Words. The Dalí couple returned to Spain. November saw the first performance at Rome’s

Eliseo Theatre of Rosalind or As You Like It, by Shakespeare, directed by Luchino Visconti and

with sets and costumes by Dalí.

 

1949

He announced that he had written a script for a “paranoiac film”, entitled La carretilla de carne

(The Meat Trolley), which was never made in the end. Salomé by Strauss was inaugurated,

with set and costumes by Dalí, libretto by Oscar Wilde and directed by Peter Brook, at Covent

Garden in London, and Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla at Madrid’s Teatro María Guerrero,

which was also performed subsequently. He published in Tribune the article “Mr. Dali's Motor

Car”. In December, Anna Maria Dalí published the book Salvador Dalí visto por su hermana

(Salvador Dalí as Seen by his Sister). The end of the 1940s heralded the onset of his mystical

and nuclear period — the corpus of which he set out in his Mystical Manifesto. This was a

period characterised by his dealing with religious themes and subjects related with the scientific

progress of the times, with a special interest in progress relating to nuclear fusion and fission.

The creations of this period reveal how the launch of the atom bomb and its aftermath influenced

his creation.

 

1950

He wrote the pamphlet Memorandum as a reaction to publication of the book by his sister.

He wrote the articles: “To Spain Guided by Dali”, which he himself illustrated, and “The

Decadence of Modern Art” for the Herald American. He took part in an exhibition held at New

09

York’s Delius Gallery under the title Exhibition of 20 Paintings Old and New from Duccio to

Dali and the Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Paintings held at the Carnegie Institute in

Pittsburgh. He gave a talk on “Why I was Sacrilegious, why I am Mystical” at Barcelona’s

Ateneu Barcelonès. Towards the end of the year he exhibited at the Carstairs Gallery in New

York, writing the catalogue text “The Port-Lligat Madonna”. His father died in September.

 

1951

He took part in the I Exposición Bienal Hispanoamericana de Arte created by the Instituto

de Cultura Hispánica. He presented in Paris his Mystical Manifesto, as well as works based

on it. Carlos de Beistegui organised a disguise dance at the Palazzo Labia in Venice. The Dalís

appeared dressed up in costumes designed by the artist and made by the firm Christian Dior.

He gave a talk called “Picasso and I” at Madrid’s Teatro María Guerrero. He exhibited in

London at the Lefevre Gallery.

 

1952

He wrote various articles for French publications: “Authenticity and Lies”, “Aristocracy and

Crutches” and "Reconstruction of the Glorious Body in the Sky”. The University of Texas

published "The Myth of William Tell. The Whole Truth about my Expulsion from the Surrealist

Group". For the catalogue of his exhibition that year at the Carstairs Gallery, he wrote the

article ”Long Live Modern Art on the Basis of Painting according to Raphael”.

1953

The Connaissance des Arts magazine published “Salvador Dalí Explains his own Painting".

He took part in the exhibition Fiesta Exhibition 1953: Picasso, Gris, Miro, Dalí at the Santa

Barbara Museum of Art in Santa Barbara.

 

1954

At the Palazzo Pallavicini in Rome he exhibited his drawings to illustrate Dante’s The Divine

Comedy. On the occasion of this exhibition Dalí suddenly emerged from a “metaphysical

bucket”, symbolising his rebirth. He inaugurated a new exhibition at the Carstairs Gallery, in

the prologue of which he spoke about the Rome exhibition. He produced illustrations for

various books: La verdadera historia de Lidia de Cadaqués (The True Story of Lídia of Cadaqués)

by Eugeni d’Ors and Balada del sabater d’Ordis (Balad of the Cobbler of Ordis) by Carles

Fages de Climent, for which Dalí also wrote the epilogue. He created the frontispiece of

R.S.V.P. Elsa Maxwell's Own Story. His collaborative work with Philippe Halsman Dali’s Mustache

was published.

 

1955

He made the Portrait of Laurence Olivier in the Role of Richard III, to promote the film Richard

III, based on the work by Shakespeare and directed by Alexander Korda. In a rhinoceros

compound at Vincennes Zoo he created a paranoiac-critical interpretation of Vermeer’s work

The Lacemaker and worked on a film based on the theme. In December he gave a talk entitled

“The Phenomenological Aspects of the Paranoiac-Critical Method” at the Sorbonne University

 

1956

He published his treaty on Les cocus du vieil art moderne (The Cuckolded of the Old Modern

Art). He also gave a talk in homage to Gaudí at the Güell Park in Barcelona, where he created

a work right there before those present. During the Ninth Belgian Summer Festival he exhibited

at the Knokke-le-Zoute Casino.

 

1957

Histoire d’un grand livre - Don Quichotte (History of a Great Book – Don Quixote), edited by

Joseph Foret, was published with fifteen lithographs by Dalí. For the magazine Nugget he

started a series of articles about predictions concerning the future. Some of them had already

appeared over previous years in other North American publications. He exhibited again at the

Carstairs Gallery.

 

1958

Over the course of this year, he received various commissions, designing a Christmas greetings

card for Hoechst Ibérica. His collaboration with this company was to last for nineteen years.

For the Wallace laboratories he designed an exhibition to promote the Miltown tranquilliser

pill. For the Paris Trade Fair Centre he ordered a twelve-metre loaf of bread that he used to

illustrate the talk he gave at the Théâtre de l’Étoile. On August 8th Dalí and Gala were married

at the Els Àngels shrine in Sant Martí Vell, near Girona. On the occasion of his exhibition at

the Carstairs Gallery he published his Anti-matter manifesto.

 

1959

Together with Albert Skira, he planned production of the magazine Rhinocéros. He made the

illustrations for Le tricorne by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. Over the course of the year he

published: “The King and the Queen Traversed by Swift Nudes” for Art News; “Louis Aragon

Dubreton” for La Nation Française and “Comments on the Jewels”, an article included in the

book Dali. A Study of his Art-in-Jewels: The Collection of the Owen Cheatham Foundation. At

the end of the year, Dalí presented a new means of transport, the ovociped.

 

1960

He filmed the documentary Chaos and Creation. The edition of The Divine Comedy under the

charge of Joseph Foret was issued. The illustrations were exhibited at Paris’ Musée Galliera.

Dalí wrote in the catalogue “The Outstanding Events in the Life of Salvador Dalí that have

marked our Epoch” and “The Divine Cheese”. He also published the following articles: “Cartier-

Bresson: Moralities” in Art News; “Advice and Mysteries of Salvador Dalí” in Rinnovamento;

“Picasso by Dali” in TV Times; “The Influence of Saints’ Days on Painting” in Canigó. For the

catalogue of Oh figure. Informal Homage to Velázquez he wrote the article “Velázquez the

pictorial genius...”. Dalí’s participation in the exhibition Surrealist Intrusion in the Enchanter’s

Domain, held at the D’Arcy Galleries in New York, met with a hostile reception by the surrealist

group, which wrote a manifesto entitled We Don’t EAR it that Way. At the end of the year he

exhibited again at the Carstairs Gallery.

 

1961

The period of gestation of the Dalí Theatre-Museum began this year. In August, his native city

paid homage to him. The La Fenice theatre in Venice gave the first performance of La dama

spagnola e il cavaliere romano (The Spanish Lady and the Roman Gentleman), with music by

Scarlatti and five stage sets by Dalí, and the ballet Gala with choreography by Maurice Béjart

and sets and costume by Dalí. Arts News published “The Secret Number of Velasquez revealed”.

Joseph Foret’s book L’Apocalypse came out, with illustrations by Dalí and others and cover also

by Dalí. At the École Polytechnique in Paris he gave a talk called “Gala Deoxyribonucleic Acid”.

Pierre Cardinal made a programme about Dalí for French television under the title Gros plan,

although the actual broadcast was finally suspended.

 

1962

He exhibited at Barcelona’s Saló del Tinell, writing an article for the catalogue, “Fortuny, Dalí

and his Tétouan battles”. He donated his The Christ of the Vallès for an exhibition-sale of works

ceded by artists for the victims of that year’s floods in the Vallès region near Barcelona. He

sent three works for the Exhibition of Catalan Painting from Pre-History down to Our Days

at the Casón del Buen Retiro in Madrid. In Art News he published "The Price is Right” and

“Tàpies, Tàpies, classic, classic!”, in Noticiero Universal, “Picasso, Rusiñol and Dalí”, while for

Hablemos Magazine he wrote “Was Rembrandt blind? Yes, replies Salvador Dalí”.

 

1963

Four Dalí etchings illustrated Robert D. Valette’s book Deux fatrasies. He published his book

Le mythe tragique de “L’Angélus” de Millet (The Tragic Legend of The Angelus by Millet), the

manuscript of which remained lost for twenty-two years. Other writings from this year appeared

in American publications: “Why they Attack the Mona Lisa” in Art News and “A Manifesto” and

“Dali’s Notes on the Battle of Tétouan” for Show . At the Knoedler Gallery he exhibited, among

other works, his GALACIDALACIDESOXIRIBUNUCLEICACID (Homage to Crick and Watson),

and at Galerie Falvart a series of etchings devoted to mythology.

 

1964

He was awarded the Gran Cruz de Isabel la Católica, the highest Spanish distinction. A great

retrospective exhibition was inaugurated in Tokyo, organised by Mainichi Newspapers, and

then went on to travel to various Japanese cities. The book L’Apocalypse was shown at the

Paris pavilion of the World’s Fair in New York. Along with other works by Dalí, the Spanish

pavilion exhibited for the first time The Apotheosis of the Dollar. Éditions de La Table Ronde

published Journal d’un génie (Diary of a Genius). He illustrated the work by Horace Walpole

The Castle of Otranto.

 

1965

The Knoedler Gallery organised Exhibition of Dali’s Best Paintings To-Date. The Gallery of

Modern Art in New York inaugurated the anthological exhibition Salvador Dali 1910-1965,

in whose catalogue Dalí wrote “Resume of History and of the History of Painting”. For Le Nouvel

Observateur he wrote the article “Rubbish is Always Close to Heaven”.

 

 

 

 

1966

Albin Michel of Paris published Dalí’s book Lettre ouverte à Salvador Dalí (Open Letter to

Salvador Dalí), with thirty-three illustrations by the artist himself. Entretiens avec Salvador Dalí

also appeared, being a book of interviews conducted by Alain Bosquet, and the Pater Noster

illustrated by the painter. He designed an envelope to commemorate the twentieth anniversary

of the UNO. In collaboration with Dalí, Jean-Christophe Averty made the documentary Autoportrait

mou de Salvador Dalí (Soft Self-Portrait of Salvador Dalí). He took part in the exhibition

Surrealism a State of Mind organised by the University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

1967

Various books illustrated by Dalí were published: Poèmes by Mao Tse-Tung, The Life of Casanova

and Poèmes secrets by Guillaume Apollinaire. In the salons of the Hôtel Meurice in Paris he

organised the exhibition Hommage à Meissonier, in which he presented the work Tuna Fishing.

For the catalogue he wrote an article entitled “Manifesto in Homage to Meissonier”. Also, in

Arts Magazine, he published “How an Elvis Presley Becomes a Roy Lichtenstein” and “The

Incendiary Firemen” in Art News Annual.

 

1968

He took part in the exhibition Dada-Surrealism and their Heritage held at the Museum of

Modern Art in New York. He illustrated Les amours de Cassandre by Ronsard with ten etchings.

On the occasion of France’s May ’68 events he published Ma révolution culturelle (My Cultural

Revolution), which was distributed among the students at the Sorbonne. As an outcome of his

conversations with Louis Pauwels there appeared the book Les passions selon Dalí (The Passions

according to Dalí). The year also saw the publication of Dalí de Draeger, in which the painter

collaborated and wrote the prologue.

 

1969

Dalí purchased Púbol Castle and decorated it for Gala. Various books illustrated by Dalí were

published: Les métamorphoses érotiques; Goethe’s Faust and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll. Carlton Lake’s book In Quest of Dalí was published. For Art News he wrote

“De Kooning’s 300,000,000th Birthday”, the prologue to the book La visió artística i religiosa

de Gaudí and one of the articles included in his book Les métamorphoses érotiques, under the

title of “Against Pornography and Obscenity and in favour of the God Eros and Eroticism”.

Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s the painter’s interest in science and holography

increased, for they offered him new perspectives in his constant quest for mastery of threedimensional

images. Dalí studied and used the potential of the new discoveries, particularly

those related with the third dimension. He took an interest in all procedures aimed at offering

the viewer an impression of plasticity and space; with the third dimension he aspired to gain

access to the fourth, namely, immortality.

 

1970

He held a press conference at the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris, in which he announced

the creation of the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres. The Museum Boijmans van Beuningen

in Rotterdam organised a major retrospective exhibition of his work, which in the following

year could be seen at the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden (Germany). For the catalogue

he wrote the article “The Recent Earthquake in Peru…”. He also exhibited at the Knoedler

Gallery in New York, the Galerie André-François Petit in Paris and the Musée de l’Athénée in

Geneva (Switzerland). In Arts Magazine he published “The Cylindrical Monarchy of Guimard”.

 

1971

Cleveland (Ohio) inaugurated its Dalí Museum to house the A. Reynolds Morse collection. Dalí

created a chess set, dedicated to Marcel Duchamp, for the American Chess Foundation. He

designed the first issue of Scarab magazine. Under the title Oui, an anthology of articles dating

from various periods was published. Also issued was the Procès en diffamation plaidé devant

la Conférence du Stage, with a frontispiece by Dalí. He designed the Christmas issue of the

French edition of Vogue devoted to Gala, which included the article “Dalí’s Point of View”.

 

1972

He illustrated Boccaccio’s Decameron. In Art News he published the article “Holos! Holos!

Velázquez! Gabor!”, and in Yearbox (California), “The Glorious Testicles of our Emperor Trojan”.

The Knoedler Galleries presented the first world exhibition of holograms that Dalí had created

in collaboration with Dennis Gabor.

 

1973

He illustrated The Twelve Tribes of Israel and André Malraux’s work Roi, je t’attends à Babylone.

A year before its inauguration, the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres presented the exhibition

Dalí. His Art in Jewels. This year also saw the publication of his books Comment on devient

Dalí (How One Becomes Dalí), with prologue and notes by André Parinaud, and Les dîners

de Gala (Gala’s Dinners), published by Draeger. He also wrote the prologue for the catalogue

Grands maîtres hyperréalistes américains (Hyperrealist American Grand Masters); and for Paris

Match, “Picasso and Horsehairs” and “Dalí’s Six Days”; for the La Vanguardia, “Painting and

Photography. Hyperrealism and Monarchy”; for Linda Chase’s book Les Hypérrealistes Américaines

(The American Hyperrealists), he wrote the article “Acute Sybaritic Realism”; and “Inmortality

of Genetic Imperialsim” forming part of his book Dix recettes d’immortalité (Ten Recipes for

Immortality). At the Museo del Prado he gave a talk entitled “Velázquez and I”. At the Elysée

Gallery in Paris, Alex Maguy presented seven paintings by Dalí, while the Louisiana Museum

at Humlebeak organised a Dalí retrospective that was later exhibited also at the Moderna Museet

of Stockholm.

 

1974

He illustrated Les amours jaunes by Tristan Corbière and Hemingway’s work The Old Man and

the Sea. He wrote the prologue for and illustrated Sigmund Freud’s book, Moses and Monotheism.

The books Pujols per Dalí and, in collaboration with Henry-François Rey, Dali dans son

labyrinthe (Dalí in his Labyrinth), were published. He wrote the prologue to the book La mort

difficile (Difficult Death) by René Crevel, and the presentation texts for the catalogues of the

exhibitions of Antoni Pitxot and Horia Damian. The Vallès County Initiatives and Tourism Centre

(Barcelona Province) organised a Dalí Happening in Granollers, produced by the German

television channel that worked on the Dalí film Impressions de la Haute Mongolie (Impressions

of Upper Mongolia). The Dalí Theatre-Museum was inaugurated on September 28th.

 

1975

He illustrated the books The Quest for the Holy Grail and Life is a Dream by Calderón de la

Barca. The Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres and the Salvador Dalí Museum in Cleveland (Ohio)

published jointly Dalí’s opuscule Eroticism in Clothing. There was a presentation of Dalí’s film

Impressions de la Haute Mongolie (Impressions of Upper Mongolia), directed by José Montes

Baquer, at the International Fantastic Film Festival held in Avoriaz, France.

 

1976

He published two issues of Setmanari Artístic Mar Empordanesa, the Dalí Theatre-Museum’s

news bulletin, in which he spoke of his work and the Figueres gallery. Le Sauvage magazine

published an interview with Dalí that included his article “Any news, Velázquez?”

 

1977

The Draeger publishing house issued Les Vins de Gala (Gala’s Wines). He exhibited at Galerie

André-François Petit in Paris, while the Castres museum presented Hommage à Goya, with

eighty-one etchings produced by Dalí from Goya’s own etchings.

 

1978

He presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York his first hyperstereoscopic

painting, Dalí Lifting the Skin of the Mediterranean to Show Gala the Birth of Venus. The Dalí

Theatre-Museum was the scenario for the presentation of a new edition of the book Babaouo.

 

 

 

1979

An extended republication of the anthology Oui was published, containing previously unpublished

Dalí articles from earlier years. He was appointed associate overseas member of the Academia

des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France. He published in Destino the article “Final Conclusions

of my book entitled God’s Dimensions and Colours”. A major Dalí retrospective was inaugurated

at the Georges-Pompidou Centre in Paris, as well as the ’”environnement” he had specially

designed for the centre. By then well into the 1980s he was to paint his last works, basically

taking their inspiration from Michelangelo and Raphael, whom he had always admired.

 

1980

From 14 May to 29 June, London’s Tate Gallery presented a retrospective of Salvador Dalí, with

a total of two hundred and fifty-one works on show. Obres de museu (Museum Works), made

in collaboration with Josep Pla, was published.

 

1982

The Salvador Dalí Museum, owned by the Reynolds Morse couple, was inaugurated in St.

Petersburg (Florida). On 10 June Gala died in Portlligat. Spain’s King Juan Carlos I appointed

him Marquis of Púbol. Salvador Dalí went to live at Púbol Castle.

 

1983

A major anthological exhibition, 400 works by Salvador Dalí from 1914 to 1983, was held in

Madrid, Barcelona and Figueres. His last pictorial works date from this period.

 

1984

Following a fire at Púbol Castle, he moved for good to Torre Galatea, Figueres, where he was

to remain until his death.

 

1985

Être Dieu: opéra-poème, audiovisuel et cathare en six parties (Being God: a Cathar Audiovisual

Opera-Poem in Six Parts) was published, based on a libretto by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

with music by Igor Wakhevich.

 

1987

El Paseante magazine published his tragedy Màrtir.

 

1989

Dalí died at Torre Galatea on 23 January 1989. A major retrospective exhibition Salvador Dalí,

1904-1989 was held at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, and was shown later at the Kunsthaus in

Zurich.

 

Selected Museums

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

The Art Institute of Chicago, IL

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Tate Gallery, London, England

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France

Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid, Spain

Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, PA

Salvador Dalí Museum, Figueras, Spain

Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL