Line #46 Creator/SalvadorDali


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/salvador_dali_40389_2_402_2.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"It is not necessary for the public to know [[PoesLaw whether I am joking or whether I am serious,]] just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.”]]
3
4	->''"The sole difference between myself and a madman is the fact that I am not mad!"''
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6	[[OverlyLongName Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marqués de Dalí de Pubol]] (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989), better known as Salvador Dalí or "the guy with crazy mustaches who painted melting clocks and elephants with giant thin legs", was a UsefulNotes/{{Spa\|in}}nish artist who worked in many fields but is most renowned for his {{surrealis\|m}}t paintings.
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8	Dalí was born in Figueres, [[UsefulNotes/TheShiningAutonomousCommunitiesOfEspana Catalonia]]. His father, Salvador Dalí y Cusi, was a middle-class lawyer and notary. Dalí's father had a strict disciplinary approach to raising children — a style of child-rearing which contrasted sharply with that of his mother, Felipa Domenech Ferres. She often indulged young Dalí in his art and early eccentricities.
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10	It has been said that young Dalí was a precocious and intelligent child, prone to fits of anger against his parents and schoolmates. Consequently, Dalí was subjected to furious acts of cruelty by more dominant students or his father. The elder Dalí wouldn't tolerate his son's outbursts or eccentricities and punished him severely. Their relationship deteriorated when Dalí was still young, exacerbated by competition between he and his father for Felipa's affection.
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12	Dalí had an older brother, born nine months before him, also named Salvador, who died of gastroenteritis. Later in his life, Dalí often related the story that when he was 5 years old, his parents took him to the grave of his older brother and told him he was his brother's reincarnation. In the metaphysical prose he frequently used, Dalí recalled, "[we] resembled each other like two drops of water, but we had different reflections." He "was probably a first version of myself, but conceived too much in the absolute."
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14	Dalí, along with his younger sister Ana Maria and his parents, often spent time at their summer home in the coastal village of Cadaques. At an early age, Dalí was producing highly sophisticated drawings, and both of his parents strongly supported his artistic talent. It was here that his parents built him an art studio before he entered art school.
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16	He is seen as one of the most important artists of the 20th century and is easily one of the most influential figures in the genre of surrealism, which involves painting dreamlike images which are left to the viewer to interpret as they wish.
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18	[[HeAlsoDid He also dabbled]] in screenwriting, co-writing surrealist experimental films ''Film/UnChienAndalou'' and ''Film/LAgeDOr'' with writer/director Creator/LuisBunuel. He also proposed ''ComicBook/GiraffesOnHorsebackSalad'', a movie starring Creator/TheMarxBrothers, but it was never filmed.
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20	He didn't just paint surrealism, though. [[CrazyIsCool He]] ''[[CrazyIsCool lived]]'' [[CrazyIsCool it]]. He became almost as well known for his bizarre behavior as his {{paintings}}, and may be largely responsible for the belief that artistic genius comes with insanity (see the page quote for his thoughts on the matter).
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22
23	!! Dalí's artworks:
24	[[index]]
25	* ''Art/ThePersistenceOfMemory''
26	[[/index]]
27
28	!! "The Persistence of Tropes":
29
30	[[folder:A to L]]
31	* ArtImitatesArt: His "[[https://lakeimagesweb.artic.edu/iiif/2/54b1e714-0806-9420-dcaa-cf3d14342bd6/full/!800,800/0/default.jpg Venus de Milo with Drawers]]" is a replica of the Art/VenusDeMilo with certain segments cutoff to resemble drawers with fluffy balls as handlers.
32	* BerserkButton: Dalí was a notorious perfectionist, such that he once smashed apart one of his art projects displayed in a window ''just because some tiny adjustments had been made to it''.
33	* BookDumb: Subverted. Dalí would rather daydream than pay attention, to the point where he could neither read nor write after his first year. After his father Salvador Dalí i Cusí started encouraging his son's love of art, Salvador began getting better grades.
34	* CelebrityEndorsement: He made an ad for the French chocolate brand Lanvin in 1968 ([[https://youtu.be/lmpcn_2WcB8 see for yourself]]). In the ad, which starts with the first notes of the ''Scherzo'' from Music/LudwigVanBeethoven's ''[[StandardSnippet/OdeToJoy Ninth Symphony]]'', he takes a bite in the chocolate, which [[OrgasmicallyDelicious makes his legendary mustaches rise upwards instantly]]. He thens says "Je suis FOU du chocolat Lanvin!" ("I am CRAZY about Lanvin chocolate!").
35	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Many people thought he was insane. He cultivated this image to the press, though.
36	* CrucialCross: ''Corpus Hypercubus'' portrays Jesus exploding off a four-dimensional cubic cross. The painting portrays Jesus suffering as those in Hiroshima did by Dali's nuclear mystic imagery while showing the victory of Christ's divinity by showing Christ's body without any wounds or blood to mar from his AngelicBeauty.
37	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Sometimes he gave his paintings ridiculously specific titles, like "Face of Creator/MaeWest Which May Be Used as an Apartment" or "Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Creator/{{Voltaire}}".
38	* EyeScream: A famous example in the film ''Film/UnChienAndalou,'' in which he collaborated with similarly surrealist director [[Creator/LuisBunuel Luis Buñuel]]. The effect of a woman's eye being sliced with a razor blade was achieved by filming a close-up of a dead calf, using both bleach and bright lighting to make the fur look like human skin.
39	* GRatedDrug:
40	** One of Dalí's claims was that he ate a large quantity of Camembert cheese to give himself vivid dreams to serve as inspiration for his paintings. It's unknown whether or not he actually did so, and it's also unknown whether or not this would work, wouldn't work, or would work due to the PlaceboEffect.
41	** His famous "Art/ThePersistenceOfMemory" was inspired by deliberately sleep-depriving himself, and letting disorientation do the rest.
42	* IAmTheNoun: His legendary "I ''am'' drugs" line.
43	* IfItsYouItsOkay: Subverted, with his friendship with Creator/FedericoGarciaLorca. According to Dalí's account, Lorca was madly in love with him. Dalí claimed they even tried to have sex one time but had to stop because "it hurt too much."
44	* MadArtist: Does this ''really'' need any explanation?
45	** ''Film/UnChienAndalou'' was deliberately designed to offend and anger the audience into attacking him - to the point that he carried rocks in his pockets to defend himself after the premiere - and he was deeply disappointed when that was not the case.
46	* MindScrew: As if the inherent weirdness of his paintings wasn't enough, many of them also employ perspective tricks and optical illusions, so you get different images depending on how far you are from them and what angle you view them at. He gave himself sleeping problems to "help" his creative process. He usually slept in an armchair holding a spoon over a metal plate; that way, as soon as he had slept enough to relax his muscles, he would wake himself up. He claimed that this prevented him from dreaming while asleep, which forced his mind to dream while he was awake...
47	[[/folder]]
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49	[[folder:M to W]]
50	* TheMuse: His wife, Gala was a frequent model for his paintings.
51	* NightmareFace: [[https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/artwork/catalogue-raisonne-paintings/obra/590/the-seven-lively-arts-the-art-of-the-opera Several]] of his paintings feature [[https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/artwork/catalogue-raisonne-paintings/obra/593/the-seven-lively-arts-art-of-the-theatre ghastly]] and big [[https://arthive.com/salvadordali/works/315929~Sketch_for_Destino nightmarish]] faces.
52	* QuirkyWork: In-universe. He famously declared, "I don't do drugs. I ''am'' drugs."
53	* RealMenLoveJesus: Dali had a complicated relationship with religion (his mother was a Catholic but his father was an atheist), but in 1950, after an apparent mystical experience, he announced that he had become a Catholic. Many of his later paintings explore Christian themes and imagery with a mystical bent, notably "Madonna of Port Lligat," "The Sacrament of the Last Supper", and "Christ of St. John of the Cross."
54	* TheRival: Creator/PabloPicasso, certainly in terms of fame.
55	* RuleAbidingRebel: Despite being the ''quintessential'' surrealist in terms of his paintings, Dali was politically conservative, flirted with the far-right, and claimed to be Catholic, eventually settling on a focus of Catholic mysticism. This naturally irritated his fellow surrealists like Creator/LuisBunuel and Andre Breton who regarded him as a sell-out. Breton later noted that Salvador Dali was "[[SignificantAnagram Avida Dollars]]" ("Greedy for Money"). In his youth he however was a Communist, anti-monarchist and anti-clerical.
56	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: He and his wife fled from Spain to France in 1936 when the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar started, then fled from Paris to the United States when UsefulNotes/WorldWarII started. Creator/GeorgeOrwell, who had fought in both wars, essentially called him a DirtyCoward for this.
57	* ShapedLikeItself: The page quote.
58	* {{Sequel}}: His famous "Persistence of Memory" picture had a follow-up after [=WW2=], ''The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory'', which shows everything shattering into pixel-like fragments, which was meant to represent the impact of the theory of relativity and the atom bomb upon perception, splitting apart the flowing picture of time, space, and matter into discrete, quantified units.
59	* SurrealHorror: A ''lot'' of his works fall into this territory.
60	* TarotMotifs: He provided illustrations for a 72 card Tarot deck. Naturally "The Magician" was a self-portrait.
61	* ThirdPersonPerson: At times.
62	* {{Troll}}: Dali constantly evoked this throughout his life, speaking out on some topics with one viewpoint but then changing his stance or outright contradicting it. One moment he’d be supporting a controversial idea or person, next he’d be creating art that went against said persons beliefs or character. Needles to say consistency and Dali never went hand in hand.
63	** His intention for ''Film/UnChienAndalou'' (see MadArtist).
64	* TheTysonZone: What we ''do'' have verified about the man's life (both inside and outside the context of his artwork) was so outrageous and unmatched that it's not hard to fabricate a believable anecdote about him doing some other outrageous and unmatched thing or two.
65	* WorldOfChaos: Most of his paintings are set there, and helped inspire many later uses of the trope.
66	* WrongGenreSavvy: Simon Braund's 2013 book ''Literature/TheGreatestMoviesYoullNeverSee'' explains why his intended collaboration with the Creator/MarxBrothers, ''ComicBook/GiraffesOnHorsebackSalad'', wouldn't have worked. Dalí didn't understand that what made the Brothers' act work was that their craziness was set against a backdrop of utter normalcy, but that they would disappear in an environment where everyone was crazy.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	!!Media portrayals:
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71	[[AC:Film:]]
72	* ''Buñuel and the Table of King Solomon'' (2001). Surreal adventure film in which Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca and Dalí (played by Ernesto Alterio) become {{Adventurer Archaeologist}}s on a quest to find the Table of King Solomon, which is said to grant supernatural powers and knowledge.
73	* ''The Death of Salvador Dali'' (2005), short film. Portrayed by Salvador Benavides, with Creator/DitaVonTeese as his wife Gala.
74	* ''Little Ashes'' (2008). Historical drama in which Luis Buñuel watches helplessly as the friendship between Dalí and poet Creator/FedericoGarciaLorca develops into a love affair. Dalí is portrayed by Creator/RobertPattinson.
75	* ''Film/{{Hugo}}'' (2011), portrayed by Ben Addis.
76	* ''Film/MidnightInParis'' (2012), portrayed by Creator/AdrienBrody.
77	* ''Dalíland'' (2022). Portrayed by Creator/EzraMiller (young) and Creator/BenKingsley (old).
78	* ''Film/WeirdTheAlYankovicStory'' (2022). Appears during Creator/DrDemento's pool party, portrayed by Creator/EmoPhilips.
79	* ''Film/{{Daaaaaali}}'' (2024), [[InvokedTrope surrealist]] [[SurrealHumor comedy]] film by Creator/QuentinDupieux. A French journalist wants to interview Dalí to make a documentary. The surrealist part comes from the fact that the man is portrayed by a staggering ''six'' actors -- Édouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Gilles Lellouche, Creator/PioMarmai, Boris Gillot and Didier Flamand.
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81	[[AC:Literature:]]
82	* Appears in ''Literature/DraculaChaChaCha''.
83	* He also appears in ''Literature/TheAmazingAdventuresOfKavalierAndClay''.
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85	[[AC:Theatre:]]
86	* ''Hysteria'' (1993), a play fictionalising a real-life 1938 meeting between Dalí and UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud a year before the latter's death.
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Context Creator / SalvadorDali