Today is Salvador Dali's birthday
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech was born on May 11, 1904 in the town of Figueres, in the Emporda region, close to the French border in Catalonia, Spain.
Dali attended drawing school.
In 1916, he discovered modern painting on a summer vacation trip to Cadaques.
In 1922, Dali moved into the Residencia de Estudiantes [Student's Residence] in Madrid, and studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
He held his fist solo exhibition in Barcelona in November 1925.
He was expelled from the Academy in 1926, shortly before his final exams, when he was accused of starting an "unrest."
That same year, he met Pablo Picasso, whom the young Dali revered.
As he developed his own style over the next few years, Dali made a number of works heavily influenced by Picasso.
In August, 1929, Dali met his lifelong and primary muse, inspiration, and future wife, Gala, a Russian immigrant ten years his senior, who at that time was married to surrealistic poet
Paul Eluard.
In the same year, Dali had important professional exhibitions and officially joined the Surrealist group in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris.
His work had already been heavily influenced by Surrealism for two years.
In 1930, Dali and Gala rented a small fisherman's cabin at Port Lligat.
He bought the place, and over the years enlarged it by buying the neighboring fishermen cabins, gradually building his much beloved villa by the sea.
Dali was introduced to the United States by art dealer Julien Levy in 1934.
While the majority of the Surrealist artists had become increasingly associated with leftist politics, Dali maintained an ambiguous position on the proper relationship between art and politics.
He insisted that Surrealism could exist in an apolitical context and refused to explicitly denounce fascism.
In 1936, Dali, aged 32, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
In 1938, Dali met Sigmund Freud, and started to sketch Freud's portrait, while the 82-year-old celebrity confided to others that "this boy looks like a fanatic."
Dali was delighted upon hearing later about this comment from his hero.
In 1940, as World War ll tore through Europe, Dali and Gala retreated to the United States, where they lived for eight years, splitting their time between New York and Monterey, California.
In 1948, Dali and Gala moved back to their house in Port Lligat, on the coast near Cadaques.
For the next three decades, he would spend much of his time there painting, taking time off and spending winters with his wife in Paris and New York.
Gala died on June 10, 1982, at the age of 87.
After Gala's death, Dali lost much of his will to live.
On the morning of January 23, 1989, while his favorite record of Tristan and Isoide was playing, Dali died of heart failure at the age of 84.
He is buried in the crypt below the stage of his Theater and Museum in Figueres.
The location is across the street from the church of Sant Pere, where he had his baptism, first communion, and funeral, and is only three blocks from the house where he was born.
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That would be cool!
