Salvador Dalí was one of the most celebrated and recognisable artists of the 20th century, famed for his extraordinary imagination, technical precision and pioneering role in the Surrealist movement.
Born in Figueres, Catalonia, and classically trained in Madrid, Dalí combined a mastery of traditional painting techniques with a fascination for the irrational and the dreamlike.
Joining the Surrealist group in Paris in 1929, he became one of its defining figures, developing a meticulous style that he called “hand-painted dream photographs”. His imagery, melting clocks, burning giraffes and shifting landscapes, drew on psychoanalytic theories of the subconscious and themes of desire, religion, and mortality.
Dalí’s creative reach extended far beyond painting. He experimented with printmaking, film, photography, sculpture, furniture and fashion design, collaborating with figures such as Luis Buñuel and Coco Chanel. A prolific writer and showman, he blurred the lines between art and persona, leaving behind a body of work that remains both technically brilliant and provocatively original.
Two museums are dedicated to his legacy, the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres and the Dalí Museum in Florida, and his works are represented in major collections worldwide, including the Museo Reina Sofía, the Tate, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
