Born Figueras, Spain 1904. One of the most spectacular and widely known artists of the 20th century, Dali was expelled from the Madrid Art School in 1926 for extravagant behaviour, and by the late 1920s he had become a member of the Surrealist movement. He cultivated his eccentricity and exhibitionism, saying that his megalomania fuelled his creativity. In a painting like ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissus’, he transforms the Surrealist theory of automatic painting into his own internationally known style. His hallucinogenic images such as ‘Apparition of a Face and Fruit Dish’ create a dream space and are often referred to as Magic Realism. The flowing, melting objects of ‘Persistence of Memory’ appear to be located in the more worldly, yet bleak, Catalan landscape. Dali lived his life as a Surrealist and in 1936 he opened the London Surrealist exhibition dressed in a diving suit. Died Figueras, Spain 1989.
