Salvador Dali gained fame for his flamboyant and provocative persona, making his paintings interesting. As a 3-year-old Salvador Dali was an artistic inspiration. Although he was perceived as smart, he was also a spoilt and an arrogant child Creating sensation was his cup of tea. Dali’s first artistic work was exhibited at the age of 14. The exhibition of his charcoal drawings was organized by the father. His greatest blow is when the mother died while he was 16 years. His idols were Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro who heavily influenced his artistic styles. He was an art student at both Barcelona and Madrid.

Dali the contentious artist

Dali was not without antics. While his mustache pointed upwards like a clock’s hands the hair was heavily pomaded. The controversial artist went on to study at the Royal Academy of Fine art in Madrid. He was dismissed from the academy for insulting his professors who he claimed were not incompetent to examine him. Ironically, his works and life are at the center of modern art. He left his hometown Figueres to France. Later he considered learning art from French art magazines. Dali was fascinated with capturing paints using Sigmund Freud’s surrealist ideas. A Catalonian surrealist Joan Miro was drumming up support for Salvador’s artwork.

At the age of 32, Dali was on the cover of Time Magazine Dali. His Surrealist paints shocking images were on a single canvas. Dali is a self-publicist who in most cases used sexual symbols significant to himself. In addition to collaborating with most pop art artists and social elites, Salvador Dali created stories for several for newspapers.

Salvador’s innovative masterpieces

Salvador Dali had solo exhibitions in both Paris and NewYork. One of Dali’s famous pop art is The Great Marstubator, oddly enough, it was an inspiration for the attraction towards Gala – Paul Eluard’s wife. In the 1930s Dali and wife Gala made the USA their home. With a surrealist touch, Dali painted the Raphaelite head in 1951  and entitled it Nuclear Mysticism.  He adopted bright colors in his masterful paintings.

As Dali matured, his innovative and dreamy contributions became some of the world’s renowned masterpieces. In his imaginative mind, he could visualize images he planned to put in his final artwork. He created ambiguous images such as the melting clock motifs that could be interpreted in diverse ways. The clock theme was in several paintings throughout his art career. The reinterpretation of his famous pop art Persistence of Memory is reflected in The Disintegration of Persistence of Memory where he curiously introduces a fish and missile-like horns in the classic canvas. His wild imaginations could be seen in his surrealistic works such as My Wife (dedicated to Gala) and Fast Moving.

Dali’s surreal sculptures

Besides Dali’s paintings, in his career as an artist, he designed numerous sculpted artworks.  Today, artists are getting inspiration from Dali’s iconic images to transform their images to 3-D.

Before the world shifted focus to other forms of art like performances and installations, pop art artists continued to influence viewers. After the death of his Russian wife in 1982, Dali despaired. However, his signature work astonishes 2 decades after his demise.