Back to Dalí between the world wars
20th Century European Art
20th Century Overview
this floor
lifts

 Salvador Dalí
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí

born: Figueras, Spain; 2 May 1904
died: Barcelona, Spain; 23 January 1989

The atomic bomb took the world and Dalí by surprise. He felt saw it a new approach to marketing his art if not a change in the art itself. He remained in the United States for a couple of years after the war to work out his new approach to his art -- besides Europe had been devastated by the war, this made sustenance and rebuilding a a high priority item, and modern art ranked as a much lower priority in the continental mind.

1950s

The 1950 saw Dalí exploiting the idea of the nuclear, which he seems to not really understand well. But he transforms the idea into his own "Nuclear Mysticism" which seems to have something to do with arrays of balls. This period also sees Dalí using Christian iconography. Some of Dalí's most loved images come from the fifties.

In 1954 the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC held a major Dalí showing.

In 1958-59 Dalí did a series of Don Quixote prints. These were mass produced and widely sold. It was Avida Dollars at his most Avida. However the results were some of his most successful work; he was working so fast that he didn't have time to be self-conscious, consequently the pictures become pure Dalí: not Dalí trying to shock; not Dalí trying not to be Picasso; not intellectual clever Dalí, although they are clever; they are just honest direct Dalí from the heart and mind.

Perhaps to be a bit too cynical, this picture should probably be named "The Discovery of the Bounty of America by Avida Dollars". Note that Columbus set sail for the New World from Catalonia and so did Avida Dollars.

1960s

With his religious paintings Dalí begins to paint a large format. Following the appetite of the times and the practice of the abstract expressionists who dominated American art of the Sixty's he increased the size of his pictures yet again.

In the sixties Dalí also played with stereoscopic pictures, so that if from the right distance the viewer restricted his vision so that the right hand version only entered the right eye and the left hand version only entered the left eye you would see a three dimensional view.

1970s

The American Salvador Dalí Museum opened in Cleveland, OH. based on paintings from the Reynolds Morse Collection. In 1982 it moves to St Petersburg, Florida. It houses the largest collection of Dalí outside of Spain.

The Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris held a major retrospective Dalí show; after the show closed in Paris it traveled to the Tate Gallery in London.

1980s

Gala, Dalí's wife, died on 10 June 1982. In July 1982, Dalí was made Marques de Pubol by King Carlos.

Dalí's last years are a bit sad. Like Picasso, Dalí concentrated on doing variations on earlier paintings, often the same ones that Picasso had reworked. He had always had an eye looking sideways at what other people were doing, somehow he never seemed satisfied with his own vision. It seems as if Dalí were constantly thinking: If Picasso can repaint classic pictures then so can I, and I can do them even better than he does.

Despite the fact he could see his life was over he remained as acquisitive as ever, and spent the money as fast as he got it. He very much understood he could not take it with him. Gala's death had depressed him deeply, and in 1984 he almost killed himself by ringing for his attendant so insistently that the switch overheated causing a fire which set his bedding afire and severely burned him. That's the official story, it could well have been an attempted murder, he was not a comfortable man to be with, nor was he generous. This would be a great topic for a history Ph.D.

In 1989 Dalí died of heart failure. In his will, he left everything to the Spanish state; this primarily consisted of his properties and many unsold works of art. Dalí is buried in his museum in Figueres, there are three Dalí museums in this area of Spain.

A Geographic Note

If you have been left wondering where all these little towns in Dalí's life were located. Dalí is from Catalonia, which is located along the Mediterranian Sea on the border between France and Spain. It is just Northeast of Barcelona on the Costa Brava. Perpignan is in France, and Figueras (now spelled Figueres) is in Spain. These maps should make locations pretty clear, they can both be enlarged by clicking on them.

Back to European Art after World War II
20th Century European Art
20th Century Overview