1. Salvador Dali
"...just because I don't know the meaning of my art, does not mean it has no meaning..."  S.D.

2. NOMBRE: Salvador Dalí
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí nació el 11 de mayo de 1904 en Figueras, un pueblo pequeño de España.
Es conocido como pintor, escultor, y escritor.
Dali hizo muchos cuadros, estatuas, pinturas, y obras de literatura.
Salvador Dali was probably the greatest Surrealist artist, using bizarre dream imagery to create unforgettable and unmistakable landscapes of his inner world
Spoiled and precocious, Dalí attended mostly private schools and spent his
summers at the family’s second home on the coast in Cadaques where he became friends
with the artistic and musical Pichot family. Although Salvador Junior was an only child until his sister, Anna Maria, was born, he
was not the couple’s first child. Three years before Dalí’s birth, the couple had a son
whom they named Salvador and who died before his second birthday. According to
Dalí—who can’t always be trusted in these matters—his parents tried to compensate for
their loss by having another “replacement” child whom they also named Salvador. While
largely unsubstantiated, Dalí claimed that his parents compared him to his dead brother
and even indicated that they believed the second Salvador to be a reincarnated version of
the first. Whether or not this is the case, Dalí was haunted by the specter of his older
brother throughout his life. (Dalí was nearly 60 years old when he painted Portrait of My
Dead Brother.)

3. Surrealism
Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely, that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in "an absolute reality, a surreality.
Influenced by the theories of the pioneer of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, the images found in surrealist works are as confusing and startling as those of dreams.

4. Surrealist Movement
In November of 1929, he joined the Surrealist movement, a group of writers, artists, and filmmakers who were responding to the horrors of World War I by trying to find new ways of thinking and seeing the world.
Pintó sus imágenes,
según sus propias
palabras, inmerso en
un delirio erótico.
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.
Rinoceronte de Dalí

5. Gala Dalí
His wife’s death in 1982 devastated Dalí. Already unable to paint for extended periods of time, he spent his last six years in seclusion and died January 23, While the last two decades of his life saw popular and major exhibitions around the world, Dalí would have to wait to be accepted as a serious artist in art critic and art history circles.

6. His Legacy
Dalí se murió el 23 de enero A decade after his death, however, two major museums (the museum Dalí founded in Spain, and the museum in St. Petersburg) are dedicated to his work and draw millions of visitors each year—so many visitors, in fact, that smaller museums have sprung up hoping to capitalize on Dalí’s growing appeal. Salvador Dali is the only known artist who had two museums dedicated exclusively to his works at lifetime.

7. The Persistence of Memory
The Persistence of Memory- Surrealism
This is one of the most famous Dali paintings in existence, and one which is very representative of the artist's unique style.  The landscape, ants, and molten objects are just a few of the recurring elements which comprise most of his work.
The well-known surrealistic piece introduced the image of the soft melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's theory of 'softness' and 'hardness', which was central to his thinking at the time.
Each object in The Persistence of Memory is painted with exactitude and is very recognizable. But this scene would not be found in real life. Such a combination of objects comes from the dream world. Everything looks real in the painting. Yet we know that it cannot be real. This deliberate confusion of real and imagined is central to the premise of Surrealism. In earlier periods of western art it is possible to find isolated examples of this kind of imagery. But Surrealism is the first time these ideas are cogently expressed as an attempt to represent the unconscious mind.
As in a dream, these strange combinations of elements have the power to evoke feelings and psychological states not normally available to us in everyday experience. Consider the experience of this painting. The viewer must pass through the more sinister foreground and middle ground to reach the serene background of this painting. In the background, the cliffs in the water are very beautiful, but they show no form of life. There is no movement on these cliffs. The water is also absolutely still. There are no waves in the water, and the image of the cliffs is clearly reflected on the water's surface. It's serene and peaceful in the background, and there is no evidence of human presence.
The foreground and middle ground, however, do show evidence of humans. The large rectangular box-like form. The flat board at the edge of the water. And the clocks of course. But why is the tree dead? Why are there no plants or grasses growing in this barren place? Why has measured time, signaled by the watches, stopped and melted? Why do the ants seem to be feeding on one of the watches? Why are insects the only active creatures in this landscape? And what is the animal-like or humanoid form in the center of the painting? Why are the watches so large in comparison to the dead tree and the animal-like, humanoid form? There are no answers to these questions. The world of this painting is ruled by an irrational order. It is disquieting and haunting. We return to the painting again and again to try to figure out the puzzle. But, as in a dream, no solution is offered.

8. Meditative Rose- Salvador Dali
Dali uses a common image in some of his earlier paintings to be the dominant, almost overpowering object in this one. To Dali, the rose symbolized as dealing with female sex, sexual organs and menstruation. Also, red is used as a color of passion and can also be association with death. I do believe though, that this within this particular painting, Dali had the idea of using it to symbolize the couples love below. All roses are a symbol of love and the color of red just intensifies that meaning. The contrast of the red against the blue sky really signifies the intense passion of the couples relationship. And I would guess that the realistic drop of water on the petal symbolizes the reality of the the intesity of the relationship. Possibly this painting was to show Dali's love for Gala.

9. Works Cited
Etherington-Smith, M. (1995). The Persistence of Memory. New York: Ramdom House.
Museum, S. D. (2005). Dali Museum. Retrieved February 15, 2009, from