Salvador Dali Icon. Biog. Gallery Books Latest Items In/Updates Dali Store Art Store Best Dali Book Early Years Search
A living God or a mere prophet? You decide.
March 2nd, 2013: Added scans of all 30 cards from the 2004 Dali Prestel Postcard Book. Mainly because as well as the well-known works, there are repros of some really rare Dali lithographs including 'The Ugly Young Duckling', 'Bullfight No.1', 'Don Quixote and Sancho Panza', 'Knightly Combat' and 'Springtime'. Sizes, medium, where the pieces are housed are also included. View all the cards here. Just finished an extensive 'Early Years' section (1904 - 1926) which can be found here. Added a Salvador Dali Facebook Page here
Salvador Dali (Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech) is considered as the greatest artist of the
surrealist art movement and one of the greatest masters of art
of the twentieth century. During his lifetime the public got a
picture of an eccentric paranoid.
His personality caused a lot of controversy.
After his death in
1989 his name remained in the headlines. But this time
it was not funny at all. The art market was shaken by reports
of great numbers of fraudulent Dali prints.
What's all behind it?...more.
Prodigy Child Without An Exam | Dali & Gala | In The U.S.A. | Classic Period After World War II | Death In His Own Museum
Salvador Dali was born as the son of a prestigious notary in the
small town of Figuera in Northern Spain. His talent
as an artist showed at an early age and Salvador Felipe
Jacinto Dali received his first
drawing lessons when he was ten years old. His art teachers
were a then well known
Spanish impressionist painter, Ramon Pichot and later
an art professor at the Municipal Drawing School. In 1923
his father bought his son his first printing press.
Dali began to study art at the Royal Academy of Art in
Madrid. He was expelled twice and never took
the final examinations.
His opinion was that he was more
qualified than those who should have examined him.
In 1928 Dali went to Paris where he met the
Spanish painters
Pablo Picasso and
Joan Miro. He established
himself as the principal figure of a group
of surrealist artists grouped around Andre Breton, who was
something like the theoretical "schoolmaster" of
surrealism.
Years later Breton turned away from Dali accusing him of
support of fascism, excessive self-presentation and
financial greediness.
By 1929 Dali had found his personal style that should
make him famous - the world of the unconscious that
is recalled during our dreams. The surrealist theory is
based on the theories of the psychologist Dr. Sigmund
Freud.
Recurring images of burning giraffes and melting
watches became the artist's surrealist trademarks. His great
craftsmanship allowed him to execute his paintings in a
nearly photorealistic style. No wonder that the artist
was a great
admirer of the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael.
Meeting Gala was the most important event in the artist's life
and decisive for his future career.
She was a Russian immigrant and ten years older than Dali.
When he met her, she was married to the famous French poet, Paul Eluard.
Gala decided
to stay with Dali. She became his companion, his
muse, his sexual partner, his model in numerous
art works and his business manager. For
him she was everything. Most of all Gala was a stabilizing
factor in his life. And she managed his success in the
1930s with exhibitions in Europe and the United States.
Gala was legally divorced from her husband in 1932.
In 1934 Dali and Gala were married in a civil ceremony in
Paris and in 1958 in church after Gala's former husband
had died in 1952.
However from around 1965 on, the couple was seen less frequently
together. But Gala continued to manage Dali's business
affairs.
"Every morning when I wake up I experience exquisite joy - the joy of being Salvador Dali".
In 1933 Salvador Dali had his first one-man show in
New York. One year later he visited the U.S. for the
first time supported by a loan of US$500 from Pablo Picasso.
To evade World War II, Dali chose the U.S.A.
as his permanent residence in 1940. He had a series of
spectacular exhibitions, among
others a great retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York.
Besides creating a number of great paintings,
Dali caused the attention of the media by playing the
role of a surrealist clown. He made a lot of money and
was contemptuously nicknamed Avida Dollars (greedy
for dollars) by Andre Breton.
Dali became the darling of the American High
Society. Celebrities like Jack Warner or Helena
Rubinstein gave him commissions for portraits.
His art works became a popular trademark and
besides painting he pursued other activities - jewelry
and clothing designs for
Coco Chanel or film making with Alfred Hitchcock.
"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since".
In 1948 Dali and Gala returned to Europe, spending most
of their time either in their residence in Lligat/Spain or
in Paris/France or in New York.
Dali developed a lively interest in
science, religion and history. He integrated things
into his art that he had
picked up from popular science
magazines. Another source of inspiration
were the great classical masters of painting like Raphael,
Velasquez or the French painter Ingres.
The artist commented his shift in style with the words: "To be
a surrealist forever is like spending your life painting
nothing but eyes and noses."
In 1958 the artist began his series of large sized
history paintings. He painted one monumental painting
every year during the summer months in Lligat. The most
famous one, The Discovery of America by Christopher
Columbus, can be seen at the Dali Museum in
St.Petersburg in Florida. It is breath-taking.
The artist's late art works combine more than ever his perfect and meticulous
painting technique with his fantastic and limitless
imaginations.
"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad".
Salvador Dali is the only known artist who had two
museums
dedicated exclusively to his works in his lifetime.
This art museum was founded in 1971 by the Dali collector A. Reynolds
Morse and his wife Eleanor. The collection was first
exhibited in a building adjacent to their
home in Cleveland/Ohio. In 1982, the museum was moved to
St. Petersburg in Florida. It hosts 95 oil paintings
including six of Dali's eighteen large-sized historical
paintings.
The Museum was the former Municipal Theater of Figueres.
In 1918, when
Salvador Dali was only fourteen years old, it had shown his first
public exhibition.
From 1970 the artist dedicated his energy to
transforming the former Municipal Theater into
a museum and art gallery.
In 1974 the Theatro Museo Dali was officially opened.
In 1980 Dali was forced to retire due to palsy, a
motor disorder, that caused a permanent trembling and
weakness of his hands. He was not able to hold a brush any
more. The fact that he could not follow his vocation and
passion of painting and the news of Gala's death in 1982
left him with deep depressions.
After Gala's death he moved to Pubol, a castle, he had
bought and decorated for Gala. In 1984, when he was
lying in bed,
a fire broke out and he suffered
sever burns. Two years later, a pacemaker had to
be implanted.
Towards the end of his life, Dali lived in the tower of his
own museum where he died on January 23, 1989 from heart
failure.
In 1949 his sister Ana Maria published a book about
her brother,
Dali As Seen By His Sister describing
his youth as very normal and happy.
The great surrealist master was furious and
outraged and created a painting that
can only be called a vulgar revenge against his sister.
In an interview with a news magazine in July 2000,
Robert Descharnes, his long-time secretary, described
the artist as a rather normal person.
"It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning".
"Every morning when I wake up", said the painter of Soft Watches (later retitled The Persistance of Memory), "I experience exquisite joy - the joy of being Salvador Dali ..."
The native Catalonian was obsessed with both money and fame; painting and speaking were his main occupations, his favourite subject how to discover one's genius.
Not exactly loved by the Surrealists, who criticized him for extravagance and his adiction to money (it was Andre Breton who came up with the anagram "Avida Dollars"), Dali's "paranoiac-critical" method nonetheless provided them with a first-rate instrument to liberate intelligence and imagination from the bonds of memory or dreams.
Had he been born during the Renaissance, his genius would have met with greater acceptance than was the case in our era, which saw him as a constant source of provocation; he, for his part, described it as "degenerate".
Dali commented:
"The only difference between me and a madman is the fact that I am not mad"
Remarking pithily that:
"The difference between the Surrealists and myself is that I am a Surrealist."
Dali decodes the fantasies and symbols of his Surrealist visions, penetrating the depths of the irrational and subconscious, elevating hard and soft to the level of aesthetic principles. He and Gala, his wife and muse, are a mythical couple, she his "existential double", his "perpetuation in immortal memory".
At the age of three, Dali wanted to become a good cook, aged five Napoleon. Thereafter, he continually aspired to something higher - to be the divine Dali forever ...
Source:
Salvador Dali (postcards) (PostcardBooks)
"Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them".
>>Jeden Morgen beim Erwachen<<, schrieb der Maler der Weichen Uhren, >>mache ich die erfeuliche Feststellung: Ich bin Salvador Dali ...<<
Der geburtige Katalane war versessen auf Geld und Ruhm: Malen und Reden waren seine Hauptbeschaftigung. Dalis Lieblingsthema: Wie entdeckt man sein Genie?
Von den Surrealisten, die ihm seine Ubertreibungen und seine Habgier vorwarfenm nicht gerade geliebt (von Andre Breton stammt das Anagramm >>Avida Dollars<<), lieferte ihnen Dali dennoch mit seiner Methode der >>kritischen Paranoia<< ein erstklassiges Instrument, aus Erinnerungen oder Traumen Intelligenz und Phantsie sie zu entfesseln.
Ware er zur Zeit der Renaiisance geboten, hatte sein Genie eine grobere Akzeptanz gefunden als in unserem Zeitalter, das ihn als standige Provokation sah und das er seinerseits als >>degeneriert<< bezeichnete.
Dali druckte es so aus:
>>Der einzige Unterschied zwischen einem Verruckten und mir ist der, dab ich nicht verruckt bin.<<
Und auch folgender Ausspruch ist zutreffend:
Der einzige Unterschied zwischen den Surrealisten und mir ist der, dab ich Surrealist bin.<<
Denn Dali entschlusselt die Phantasiegebilde und Symbole seiner surrealistischen Visionen und dringt in die Tiefen des Irrationalen und Unterbewubten vor, wo Wich und Hart zu asthetischen Prinzipien erhoben werden. Er und Gala, seine Frau und Muse, sind ein mystisches Paar. Sie ist das >>Double seiner Existenz<<, sein >>Fortbestehen in der insterblichen Erinnerung<<.
Im Alter von drei Jahren wollte Dali Koch werden; mit funf Jahren Napoleon. Seitdem strebte er stets nach Hoherem: fur immer der gottliche Dali sein ...
Source:
Salvador Dali (postcards) (PostcardBooks)
Top of page
"Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision".
<< Chaque matin au reveil, a ecrit le peintre des Montres molles, j'experimente un plasir supreme: celui d'etre Salvador Dali ... >>
Catalan assoiffe d'or et de gloire, Dali a beaucoup peint et beaucoup parle. Son sujet favori: comment on devient un genie.
Mal aime des surrealistes qui lui reprochaient ses outrances et son amour de l'argent (c'est Andre Breton qui a cree l'anagramme d'<< Avida Dollars >>), Dali leur a pourtant apporte, avec sa methode << paranoiaque critique >>, un instrument de tout premier ordre: a partir d'un souvenir ou d'un reve, dechainer son intelligence et ses fantasmes.
Serait-il ne au temps de la Renaissance que son genie aurait ete plus admissible. Mais a notre epoque, qu'il qualifiait de << cretinisante >>, il etait une provocation permanente.
Il l'a dit:
<< L'unique difference entre un fou et moi, c'est que moi je ne suis pas fou. >>
Il a dit aussi, ce qui est tout aussi vrai:
<< La difference entre les surrealistes et moi, c'est que moi je suis surrealiste. >>
Dali decrypte, en effet, les fantasmes et les symboles de ses vision surreelles. Il plonge dans les profondeurs de l'irrationnel et du subconscient, ou le mou et le dur sont eriges en principles esthetiques.
Il forme avec Gala, son espouse et son egerie, un couple mythique. Elle est son << double essential >>, sa << persistance de l'immortalite de la memoire >>.
A trois ans, Dali voulait etre << cuisiniere >>. A cinq ans, Napoleon. Depuis, son ambition n'a cesse de grandir: etre pour toujours le divin Dali ...
Dali prints were created in different techniques: mostly
etchings, but also engravings, woodcuts, lithographs and
mixed-media.
His graphic works were published either as individual sheets
or as complete series or as portfolios or as illustrations
in limited-edition books.
Information about Dali prints and other works have
been collected
for over forty years by Alfred Field, director of
Dali Archives Ltd, New York, with the approval of the
artist. In 1994, Alfred Field published The Official
Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali.
The catalog raisonne lists 1700 genuine and
authentic graphic works. Albert Field groups
them into original and cooperative prints. He defines
original prints as those created by Salvador himself
and cooperative prints as those supervised and
approved by Dali.
Until 1980 Dali prints sold
extremely well. When the source
of new prints dried up due to the artist's involuntary
retirement, the
fakes showed up on the market. In 1992
Lee Catterall
published his book The Great Dali Fraud & Other Deceptions.
Consequently several art publishers and dealers and
a former secretary of the artist were arrested and convicted.
Bogus Dali prints were produced in different variations:
For some editions, the publishers were allowed by contract
with Dali to produce an extended edition. These extended
editions were clearly differentiated from the first limited
edition by a signature in the plate (sometimes in reverse
and within the image). According to A. Field, Dali never
signed unlimited editions.
The great master had caused some of the confusion himself by signing
blank sheets on some occasions in order not to delay a
publication due to his frequent
shuttling between New York, Paris and Spain. Reports that
Dali had signed between 40,000 and 350,000 blank
sheets are rejected by A.Field as false rumors -
spread intentionally by fraudulent publishers to cover
up the fake signatures.
Fortunately the two paper mills that manufactured nearly all
of the papers used for Dali prints, changed their
watermark signs in 1980 by adding an infinity symbol.
Thus most fakes can be identified
quite easily. Prints that bear the Rives or Arches
watermark with the infinity sign and have Dali's signatures,
are fakes. Dali did not sign any prints after 1980.
Fake Dali prints continue to circulate in the art market.
Many are now offered on the Internet. In August 2004, a major centenary of his birth exhibition was held in Helsinki, Finland and many of the prints were up for sale. Buyers couldn't get enough of the prints until it turned out that nearly everything in that exhibition was a fake.
Collecting Dali Prints
Simply trusting established art galleries or auction
houses is nice, but it is an insufficient protection.
Incompetent or/and fraudulent art dealers can
be found in crummy basement shops as well as in posh
galleries and auction rooms.
Art professionals
use
reference books, called catalog raisonne, to identify
the authenticity of an art work. For Dali prints
two such reference books are available:
Before you buy a Dali print, ask the seller for a copy
from at least one of these two reference catalogs.
As a serious art
collector you should consider buying one for yourself (for more details on the Ralf Michler book click on the book cover).
The Dali prints market has taken great damage from the
countless press reports about fraud and forgeries.
Prices are on a level that make original prints affordable -
even for prices below US$1,000.
Equipped with the necessary information,
some caution and common sense you can avoid
becoming a victim of fraud.
After having made sure that it is authentic,
ask yourself one question:
"Do I like this print and is it worth the
price?" Take one day to think about it, and then make your
decision.
[] added salvador dali winged swan ballet sculpture, only 1 in stock - more scans than anywhere in the universe!
[] march 2nd, 2013: added scans of all 30 cards from the 2004 dali prestel postcard book. mainly because as well as the well-known works, there are repros of some really rare dali lithographs including the ugly young duckling, bullfight no.1, don quixote and
sancho panza, knightly combat and springtime. view all the cards here.
[] march 2nd, 2013: just finished an extensive 'early years' section (1904 - 1926) which can be found here.
[] added salvador dali essential dali book, only 1 in stock - more scans than anywhere in the universe!
[] added salvador dali official artist's case with paint & pencils, only 1 in stock!
[] added salvador dali dali's world, best dali book ever ... see and view why
[] added mega rare salvador dali - dali in new york dvd review
[]
added the fantastic dali sculptures from the parastone mouseion collection to dali shop
[] added attributed to Dali profession ltd edn prints to shop. each on sell for $ 19.99 incl postage
[] added
dali cards to shop, many with details of the painting and how it came about. notecards £1.99 each; postcards £0.99p each
[] added salvador dali shop to site. all items from the site shipped from the uk.
[]
added to gallery
[] luis buñuel biog. added + the most comprehensive web review of his work
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, by Albert Field, 1996, published by the Salvador Dali Archives Ltd., ISBN 0-9653611-0-1
