“The two greatest strokes of luck that can happen to a painter are (1), to be Spanish, (2) to be called Salvador Dali. “Even today, Salvador Dali is considered one of the most influential and successful surrealist artist in history, yet not much is known about his childhood; and what we do know is incredibly vague. His childhood is what influenced many of the famous symbols and styles found in his paintings and made them what they are. Salvador Dalais surrealist artwork is amazingly vivid and filled with symbols from both his childhood and adulthood.
From the symbolic melting clocks to the lesser known fried eggs. Even from a young age, Salvador was a very eccentric and somewhat disturbed child. “When I was three I wanted to be a cook. At the age of six I wanted to be Napoleon. Since then my ambition has increased all the time, (surrealists. Co. UK/ Dali:pH). Dali surely had many eccentric ambitions. From a cook too Napoleon, this now legendary painter has much history that is clearly shown in his art. Dalais childhood was full of perverse and sadistic elements that were to become a major art of his symbolist paintings,” (surrealists. Co. UK/Dali:pH). As a young boy, Dali began to show signs of aggression, because of this he was sent away to live with a family friend who happened to be an artist.
There he developed the want to become an artist and explored other passions, such as pain. He was masochistic and would throw himself down the stairs because the pain influenced him. He had said, “The pain was insignificant, the pleasure was immense. More often than not, his desire to be different came out as violence. In one incident, pushing his friend Off 15-foot bridge to watch him fall. Salvador eccentricities didn’t fade with age, if anything they intensified. “Almost everything he tried, he did well. He was a writer, a movie maker… ” (biography/people/ Salvador-Dali-40389? Page=1). Dali himself said that he would not be forgotten, he made sure of this by spreading his name to all sections of the artistic community.
He designed ‘dream sequences’ for Alfred Hitchcock to use in his 1945 movie Spellbound, (biography/people/Salvador-Dali-40389? Page=1). He also collaborated with Walt Disney to create the short animated film, Destine. “Bizarre and outlandish, Dali often took part in performance pieces that were despised by critics,”(biography/people/ Salvador-Dali-40389? Page=1). Because he was never broody or quiet critics never took him seriously. To them an artist was secretive and every piece was to be a show case of the artist’s deep sorrow and talent.
Salvador really Just wanted his artwork to be seen by the masses, so much so that he created paintings specifically for companies o sell their products. Dalais matter of revealing the gap between reality and illusion influenced all manner of modern artists. Beyond developing his own symbolic language, Dali elaborated a way to represent the inner mind,” (transitory. Org/artist-Dali- Salvador. HTML) He used vivid imagery to show what he thought and felt. He knew how to create hypnotic art that memorized and inspired like no other artists could. On his death bed scientists asked if the melting clocks represented Einstein theory of lethality, he said ‘No its based on my perception of Camembert cheese melting in the sun. ‘ Dalais symbolism seems very profound and thoughtful and at some level it is. Ants and flesh represent an encounter with a wounded bat. Food like the fried eggs comes from Dalais childhood urge to be a cook. Instruments of mutilation are a tribute to Dalais sad-masochistic behavior and thoughts. His art has always Just been the thoughts and memories of an eccentric life and mind. Nothing more and definitely nothing less.
