
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí y Domenech, otherwise known simply as Salvador Dalí, was born on May 11, 1904, in the town of Figueras, Spain. He died at the ripe old age of 84 on January 23, 1989, in his hometown, close to the French border with Catalonia.
Salvador Dalí is most famous for his contribution to the world of art, particularly to the surrealist movement. Dalí was not just famous for his artwork though. He had a particular tendency to play the fool, with his antics and bizarre lifestyle sometimes stealing the spotlight from his artistic works.
Here are eight bizarre facts about the artist:
1. Salvador Dalí’s Parents Believed He Was His Older Brother Reincarnated
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Portrait of My Dead Brother by Salvador Dalí, 1963 |
Dalí was born just nine months after his older brother died of gastroenteritis at just twenty-two months old. When the artist was five, his parents took him to the grave of his older brother and told him that they believed he was his brother’s reincarnation. They had even given him his brother’s name—Salvador.
Dalí was haunted by the idea of his dead brother throughout his life, mythologizing him in his writings and art. Dalí said of him, “[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections. He was probably a first version of myself but conceived too much in the absolute.” Images of his brother would reappear in his later works, including Portrait of My Dead Brother (1963).
2. Dalí Was Expelled From the Same Art School Twice
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Portrait of a very young Salvador Dalí. |
Though Salvador Dalí proved to be an exceptionally gifted artist, he wasn’t always a gifted student. He was expelled from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1923 for participating in a student protest when painter Daniel Vázquez Díaz was passed over for a professorship. When he returned later to the same school, he was expelled again in 1926 because he said the professors who were slated to give him his final oral examinations were incompetent.
He even wrote later in his autobiography, “I am infinitely more intelligent than these three professors, and I therefore refuse to be examined by them. I know this subject much too well.”
3. To Avoid Paying Restaurant Bills, Dalí Would Draw on the Backs of Cheques
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Salvador Dalí would often avoid paying for drinks and meals in bars or restaurants by drawing on the cheques, making them priceless works of art and therefore un-cashable. |
Dalí wasn’t quite the dine and dasher, but he did cheat his way out of a few hefty restaurant bills. After hosting extravagant dinners for himself and a few friends, he would write out a cheque then scribble a drawing on its back. As nobody wanted to pass up the chance to own a Dalí original, more often than not restaurants wouldn’t cash in the cheques.
4. Dali’s Unusual Marriage
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A 26-year old Dalí photographed with Gala, his Russian-born wife, in 1930. |
In August 1929, Dali met the love of his life: Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, better known as Gala. Unfortunately, Gala was already married to the French surrealist poet Paul Eluard. Dali wasn’t discouraged: “She was destined to be my Gradiva, the one who moves forward, my victory, my wife.” Since Gala and Eluard had what we might now term an “open marriage” – they had previously spent three years in a menage a trois with the artist Max Ernst – there was little to impede her relationship with Dali. After divorcing Eluard (although they apparently continued a sexual relationship), Gala married Dali in 1934. They would remain together until her death in 1982.
While it wasn’t exactly a traditional marriage – both continued to see other people – the relationship was apparently a happy one. Gala became Dali’s muse and business manager, her financial shrewdness supporting his extravagant lifestyle. The partnership was so important that Dali would frequently sign art with both of their names. In 1968, Dali bought Gala a castle in Spain, which she accepted on the condition that he could only visit her there after obtaining her permission in writing. That might sound unusual – but wouldn’t anyone need some time off if they were married to Salvador Dali?
5. He Took Commercial Commissions
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Chupa Chups logo, designed by Salvador Dalí. |
Though many artists look down on commercial work, Dalí was not one of them. Throughout his long career, the artist created magazine covers for Vogue and Town and Country, the logo for Chupa Chups lollipops, and ads for major brands, such as De Beers, S.C. Johnson & Company, Gap, and Datsun. He even worked as a spokesperson for companies like Alka-Seltzer and Lanvin, a French chocolate company.
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