Jekyll Island Beach 2012

Jekyll Island Beach 2012

Friday, May 13, 2011

Dali's Birthday


The Rogue Speaks:

Am I the only one whose post disappeared into the blogasphere? It is such a shame that it had to happen for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday! Now I have to try and recreate it! I hope I can remember what I wrote!!!

Salvadore Dali's 107th birthday was on May 11, the day I published my post. He was born in Figueres, Spain in 1904. His career as an artist was practically a given, since he showed great promise at a very young age.

Dali studied in Madrid at the Royal Academy of Art. He was twice kicked out, and when graduation rolled around, he never took his final exam because he thought he knew a lot more, and was more talented than any of his professors.

After he "graduated," Dali went to Paris where he met two of his fellow countrymen, artists Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro. He more or less named himself the leader of a group of surrealists that had been headed by Andrew Breton. No one in the group really complained about Dali's self-appointed role, but years later, Breton wrote Dali off as being too full of himself, and financially greedy.

By 1929, Dali had developed a style that would make him famous. The surrealists had a theory based on the works of Freud regarding the dream world of the unconscious mind. They painted their dreams! Dali, because he was a superb craftsman, was able to paint his dreams with near photographic accuracy. His most recognized work, The Persistence of Memory, is a good example of his technique.



Dali is the only known artist who had two museums dedicated to his work while he was still alive. The first, The Dali Museum, in St. Petersburg, Florida, was founded in 1971. The Dali Museum-Theater in Figueres, Spain is the second. It was at this museum that Dali had shown his first works when he was only 14 years old. It was opened in 1974 as the Theatro Museo Dali.

Dali's first one-man show was in New York in 1933. In 1934, Pablo Picasso gave Dali $500 as a grant to come to America. In 1940 Dali chose to make America his permanent residence in order to evade World War II. He had many spectacular exhibitions, including one at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He quickly became the darling of high society, and was greatly sought after for portrait commissions from famous people such as Jack Warner. Dali also dabbled in jewelry and clothing design, and even worked with Alfred Hitchcock on film-making.
Dali's love of the bizarre was evident! Below is a photograph of his famous Lobster Telephone. I don't think I would want to put that receiver to my ear!



Yes, of course Dali had a love interest. And yes, she was a married woman. She was Gala Eluard, a Russian immigrant, ten years his senior. Gala stayed with Dali as his "friend with benefits," his model, his muse, and his business manager. She was also a strong stabilizer in his life, and helped to make his art a success in Europe and the United States. Gala divorced her husband in 1932, and in 1934, she and Dali were married.



Dali developed palsy which caused his hands to tremble uncontrollably, and made them very weak. He was forced to retire in 1980, and this, combined with the death of Gala in 1982, caused Dali to fall into a deep depression.

After Gala died, Dali moved to a castle called Pubol, which he had bought and decorated just for Gala. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the castle, and left Dali badly burned.

Dali moved to the tower of his museum in Figueres, and lived there until his death from heart failure in 1989.

Whew! I hope I haven't left anything out from my original post. I had some nice comments which have now disappeared. Maybe those nice bloggers will come back and let me know if I covered everything this time. Oh, and if anyone knows how I can avoid losing any more posts, please tell me! I am off now to finish reading all the other offerings.

24 comments:

Unknown said...

Love his work!! Thanks for sharing all the info, your blogs are so informative:-)

Vicki/Jake said...

Hmmm...friend with benefits. Maybe that's what I need to go looking for! You'll understand when you read what I'm up to this year:)

Dali always fascinated me....

RNSANE said...

What a wonderfu post for the letter "D" - I've visited Spain a number of times and have seen a number of Dali's works - though I'm more a fan of the Impressionists.

jfb57 said...

Thank you for reminding me of this genuis! I love his work even though it can be a bit disturbing but then, that was the point!

Pondside said...

We spent a holiday near Figueres many years ago - actually, we liked it so much we went back twice more. The high point, for me, was always a trip to the museum and then a visit to the fishing boats in the village nearby to pick out something fresh for dinner - the best of food for the soul and the body.

Cher Duncombe said...

Interesting information on one of the premier artists. Thank you, Judie, for keeping us fed with these lovely insights.

Gattina said...

He was a crazy and a not very sympathic guy. Once he was famous he said that he could even sell a pencil stroke he made on a toilet paper ! You couldn't call him "Modesty" !

THE SNEE said...

You timed this post perfectly Judie! My oldest daughter goes to school in St. Petersburg, and I'm heading down there next week where I plan on visiting the Dali Museum!

Great trivia on Dali's love life. I always enjoy his work. It's never boring.

Hope you are feeling better.

Cindy Adkins said...

Hi Judie,
Oh--Dali is the perfect "D" word--bravo!

Thank you so much about your comment on my seahorse tag...It's actually called "A Walk on the Beach" and has a great deal of detail--kind of hard to see via
the internet.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/68126349/a-walk-on-the-beach-decorator-tag.

It's in my etsy store (which is also on the left sidebar of my blog.) But, I posted the direct link to it above.
I hope you're having a wonderful day!
XO
Cindy

Jo said...

I don't know how you can avoid losing posts ... i think it must have been a blogger glitch ... it seems to have happened to a lot of people ... you wrote an interesting post ... quite interesting, and i am glad blogger is finally letting me post a comment so i can tell you just how much i enjoyed your post!

Ames said...

My post is back up Judie. I lost all of my comments though.

You know Dali's museum is just across the state from us and we haven't been to it yet! We planned on taking in the Ringling Museum, Thomas Edison's and Henry Ford's winter estates along with Dali's museum. Just haven't got to it yet. Thanks for sharing with us about Dali!~Ames

cj Schlottman said...

Judie,

This post seems pretty complete to me. I'm so glad you thought to celebrate Dali's birthday! It is a good read, but that's no surprise.

I write every one of my posts on my word processing program and save them in files before I post them. Then I back up the files. It won't keep you from losing comments, but it will protect you from losing content. I hate it when I lose the language I first wanted to use.

Thanks for reading "Untitled."

Namaste..........cj

JJ said...

We all got hit with the blog virus, but it seems to have run its course.

As for Dali, he is one of my absolute favorites. I have many of his illustrations, several of his prints, and visit the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg at least twice each year.

21 Wits said...

Ah we're back! Not so sure what really happened with Blogger but gee it took them forever to get it back together.....as for your post, marvelous, and the photos simply over the top, I love the one with the lovely lady and his smirky grin...great info on one great man!

Jenny said...

Hi Miss Judie! Wow. If this is recreated you are even more amazing than I already knew you to be.

There's something dark in Dali that has always made me feel uncomfortable. His wife was beautiful...his mustache...not so much!

I'm sorry about blogger giving you fits! It's been an irritating few days trying to decipher exactly how far reaching the mess is.

Thanks for linking. You are always a delightful source of information and inspiration!

A+

Pearl Maple said...

Great post about a fascinating character

~✽Mumsy✽~ said...

An excellent post with great information as always, Judie. I agree with you about the lobster phone, wouldn't want to put that by my ear.

Personalized Sketches and Sentiments said...

Wow! I agree with Jenny! You are amazing to have re-create this post. (I can barely remember what I had written on a comment, if I realize that I had forgotten to hit the publish button and so then have to go back and re-comment!)

Blessings & Aloha!
I am so glad that Blogger is back up! Please stop by if you get a chance...

Personalized Sketches and Sentiments said...

Ugh! just read my comment and let me say...I really do know how to speak and write! haha

I meant to have typed "...to have re-created..."
Have a wonderful weekend!
Blessings & Aloha!

Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage said...

I'm sorry you had to recreate your post. I lost mine, as well. But I kept checking in with Blogger, as things were being updated, and just waited for the post to return - as they said it would. Indeed, it returned - sans ALL my comments prior to the crash. :(

Your post on Dali is very interesting. I like learning new things.

By the way, I just joined you as a follower.

Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage
http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Thankfully my post came back, but all the comments were. Dali's works has always amazed me.

Cheryl D. said...

Everyone's posts disappeared if they were written past a certain time. My post published an hour and a half earlier, so it didn't disappear. But all the comments did! Wah!

Interesting post on Dali!

Unknown said...

Dali has always been an interesting artist to learn about in art history class. I found his works a little scary actually. I have to admit, though, I really want to see what goes on in that brain of his to have created such surreal images! And his photographic works are also very interesting to see. They have a much lighter and whimsical feel to them than his surrealistic paintings :)

Richard Cottrell said...

Thanks for coming by my Blog for a visit. I sure do appreciate it! Thanks for sharing your blog as well. HOW FUN! Richard at My Old Historic House.