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The man. The master. The marvel. Salvador Dalí is one of the most celebrated artists of all time. His fiercely technical yet highly unusual paintings, sculptures and visionary explorations in film and life-size interactive art ushered in a new generation of imaginative expression. From his personal life to his professional endeavors, he always took great risks and proved how rich the world can be when you dare to embrace pure, boundless creativity.
With a career that spanned more than six decades, Salvador Dalí is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures in modern art. Upon his death in 1989, he’d created an astonishing legacy that not only includes his most famous Surrealist paintings, but sculpture, film, photography, and much more.
1. HE BELIEVED HE WAS A REINCARNATION OF HIS DEAD BROTHER.
Dalí wasn’t the only Salvador in his family. Not only was his father named Salvador, but so was his older brother. Dalí’s brother died just nine months before the artist was born. When the famed artist was 5 years old, his parents took him to his brother’s grave and told him that he was his brother’s reincarnation. It was a concept that Dalí himself believed, calling his deceased sibling “a first version of myself but conceived too much in the absolute.” His older brother would become prominent in Dalí’s later work, like the 1963 Portrait of My Dead Brother.
2. HE WAS EXPELLED FROM ART SCHOOL (TWICE).
Proving that he was a rebel from the start, Dalí was expelled from art school—not once, but twice. Young Dalí’s artistic talent was fostered from a young age, particularly by his mother, who passed away when he was just 16 years old. While studying at the Fine Arts Academy in Madrid, he was known for his eccentric behavior and dress, which was that of a 19th-century British dandy. Unfortunately, Dalí never graduated. His first expulsion came in 1923, for his role in a student protest. After returning to the school, he faced a second expulsion just before his final exams in 1926.
3. He Made an Animated Film with Walt Disney
It was included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2003. Destino is unique in that its production originally began in 1945, 58 years before its eventual completion.
The project was a collaboration between American animator Walt Disney and Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, and features music written by Mexican songwriter Armando Dominguez and performed by Dora Luz.
