Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí I Domènech was born on the morning of May 11th, 1904 in the small agricultural town of Figueres, Spain. He was named after his elder brother Salvador, who died shortly before Dalí was born. Dalí spent his childhood in Figueres and at the family’s summer home in the coastal fishing village of Cadaques where his parents built his first studio. From an early age, Dalí was encouraged to practice his art and would eventually go on to study at an academy in Madrid. In the 1920s, he went to Paris and began interacting with artists such as Picasso, Magritte and Miró, which led to Dalí’s first Surrealist phase. He is perhaps best known for his 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory, showing melting clocks in a landscape setting. As an adult, he made his home with his wife Gala in nearby Port Lligat. Many of his paintings reflect his love of this area of Spain. Dalí died in Figueres in 1989.

A few Important Dates:

1922 –  Dalí exhibits at the Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona. In Paris André Breton, together with Picasso, Max Ernst and Man Ray, forms the first Surrealist group.

1932 –  The Persistence of Memory arouses enormous curiosity among New York gallery-goers in a group exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York.

1936: Surrealism is an official art form

1938 –  Participates in Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie des Beaux Arts in Paris.  He is introduced to Sigmund Freud in London.  He collaborates with Coco Chanel on several ballet designs for the the Ballets de Monte Carlo.

1960-  The Surrealists write the article “We don’t hear it that way”, an article against Dalí’s participation in an international exhibition of Surrealism in New York. Dalí begins work on The World of Salvador Dalí with Mr. Robert Descharnes.

1989 – Dalí death: Salvador Dalí dies at the age of 85 on January 23rd.