Salvador Dali, the art within.

Essay by enaHigh School, 10th grade June 2004

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Salvador Dali

Background of the artist:

Salvador Dali born in Spain on the 11th of May 1904 was a natural born artist. It was his mother that first encouraged Dali to explore his interest for creativity in art.

Dali spent his boyhood in Figueres at his families waterside home where this parent set him up his first studio, and let him explore his talent that was to progress to a dramatic talent. He then attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts with his extraordinary talent being recognized 1925 in his first "one man" show in Barcelona which lead him to be internationally recognized. Dali hit high in the art world when he produced his first "one man" show in Paris, which was a great honor.

Dali soon became a leader of the surrealist movement. His painting, "The Persistence of memory" with the soft or melting watches is still one of the best-known surrealist works.

As the war approached Dali clashed with the surrealists and for that reason was "expelled" from the surrealists group during a "trial" in 1934.

Dali was very much a self taught artist who received very little training, his lessons were life experienced and very much embraced.

Dali was creative in his own right but his inspirations were very much based on two forces the shaped his philosophy and his art.

The first being Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious, introduced to Dali in Freud's book "The Interpretation of Dreams". The second was his association with the French surrealists, a group of artists and writers led by the French poet Andre Breton.

Italian Renaissance maters, the mannerists, the Italian metaphysical painters Carlo Carra and Giorgio de Chirico, also influenced him.

Dali was constantly moving with the art world changes so therefore was as constantly influenced by...