Dali - Basic Art Series, Book

Dalí, the most eccentric surrealist of them all.

Painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker and a true showman, Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was one of the greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics of the 20th century. One of the first artists to apply the insights of Freudian psychoanalysis to art, he is celebrated in particular for his surrealist practice, with designs such as the soft clocks and the lobster telephone, now hallmarks of the surrealist enterprise and modernism in general. Dalí often described his paintings as hand-painted dream photographs. Their tension and interest lay in the precise representation of bizarre elements and incongruous arrangements. As Dalí himself explained, he painted with the most imperialist fury of precision, but only to systematise confusion and thus help to completely discredit the world of reality.

Revolutionising the role of the artist, the moustache-twirling Dalí also had the intuition to display a controversial persona in the public arena and, through printmaking, fashion, advertising, writing and cinema, create works that could be consumed and not just contemplated on a gallery wall. This book explores both Dalí's painting and personality, presenting his technical skill as well as his provocative compositions and challenging themes of death, decadence and eroticism.