Report on Salvador Dali

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, named Ramon Pichot.

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 .

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. Images of burning giraffes and melting watches became the artist's surrealist trademarks. His great talents allowed him to execute his paintings in a nearly photorealistic style.

Dali then met Gala, his future wife 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. She was still married when she met Dali.

Gala soon decided to stay with Dali. She became his companion, his muse, 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.

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.

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 escapeWorld War II, Dali chose the U.S.A. as his permanent residence in 1940. He had a series of amazing exhibitions, among others a great retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Dali then 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