132- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
A third Spanish Surrealist, Óscar Domínguez, enjoyed
moderate success in the first half of the 20thcentury.
A bit of an artists’ artist – Picasso and Dalí both liked
him – Domínguez, like his peers, painted subconscious
dream images in which figures melt into strange shapes
and, likewise, everyday objects take on figurative forms:
Le Chasseur(1933) is typical. His technique swung
between the realism of Dalí and the naïve style of Miró.
Domínguez ended his life on NewYear’s Eve 1957 in
Paris with a slash of the wrists.When Dalí met Hitchcock
Dalí worked with Alfred
Hitchcock on the film
Spellbound(1945),
designing a dream
sequence in which
Gregory Peck ponders a
room of floating eyeballs
before being chased by
a giant pair of wings.
For Dalí the collaboration
had the desired effect –
his fame in America
rocketed.Surreal playground
squabbles
Dalí’s insistence on
his own primacy in the
Surrealist school,
coupled with his support
for Franco in the Spanish
Civil War, saw him
expelled from the largely
left wing movement in- André Breton, the
French Surrealist author,
subsequently referred to
Dalí using the anagram
Avida Dollars.
Dalí: a life less ordinary
Many have traced Dalí’s
famous eccentricity back
to his childhood. He was
born nine months after the
death of an elder brother,
also called Salvador,
from gastroenteritis.
Dalí himself made a link
between this early
weirdness and his lifelong
search for attention.
He was a shameless self-
publicist, to the degree
that some critics claim he
never let the size of his
talent get in the way of
his ambition, and that his
early, promising work was
overshadowed later by
relentless publicity stunts.
While living in New York
in the 1940s he apparently
roamed the streets one
Christmas carrying a bell;
whenever he felt he
wasn’t receiving enough
attention, he’d alert
passers-by to his presence
with a quick ring.
An earlier stunt found Dalí
lecturing at a Surrealist
exhibition in London
dressed in a deep-sea
diver’s suit. He nearly
suffocated when the
helmet became stuck to
his head. Even on his
deathbed in a Catalan
hospital he apparently
remained glued to the
television, eager to hear
how his final days were
being reported.
“I DON’T DO DRUGS: I AM DRUGS.”
Salvador Dalí