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22 March, 2018
Chapultepec: Everything You Need to Know to Visit It
21 March, 2019On January 23, 1989, Salvador Dalí, a Spanish painter, sculptor, engraver, stage designer and writer, passed away. He was considered one of the greatest representatives of surrealism.
To remember him, we share with you some interesting facts that you may not know about him:
Dalí accidentally made his secretaries millionaires
Before he was famous, Dalí refused to pay his secretaries, instead offering them commissions, which didn't pay much at the time, but later on, he allowed some of them to charge up to 7-figure sums.
Walter White (from the Breaking Bad series) and Dalí shared an alter ego
Dalí often drew inspiration from weird and obscure scientific theories throughout his life and in practice. In 1958, he became interested in the work of Nazi physicist Dr. Werner Heisenberg from a catalogue he found. But according to Dalí, the feeling between him and Heisenberg was mutual; this name was adopted by the Breaking Bad series' anti-villain, Walter White, an alias for the purpose of cooking Methamphetamines. Dalí wrote: “I, who before only admired Dalí, will begin to admire Heisenberg who reminds me of myself.”
Dalí was expelled from his art school, but only because he wanted it that way
The artist refused to be graded for the final exam for his art history degree, saying that “none of the teachers at the school are competent enough to judge me, I withdraw.” Dalí’s reason for withdrawing was not ideological, but practical: He wanted to continue to be supported financially by his father, as this support would end upon graduation. On the contrary, he now had a reason to go to study in Paris at his father’s expense.
His aversion to England resulted in a useless portrait of Lawrence Olivier
Now regarded in artistic circles as a great painter, in 1955 Dalí was asked to paint a portrait of Laurence Oliver for a movie poster for Richard III, in which Oliver played the starring role, a film by director Sir Alexander Korda. However, the poster was never published. Despite sketching Oliver at Shepperton Studios, Dalí refused to paint in England, which he called “the most unpleasant place”, and returned to Spain to complete the portrait. The portrait was held up at Barcelona airport as it was considered too valuable to be transported. Although Korda was furious about this, Oliver was lucky and received it as a gift.
Dalí nearly choked himself explaining his own importance
During the 1936 International Surrealism Exhibition in London, Dalí, then at the height of his career, gave a talk dressed in an old diving suit, to represent what he would later reveal; that he was deep in the subconscious. What no one present could notice was that Dalí was suffocating inside the suit, thinking that his exaggerated acting and gestures were part of the performance. On the verge of fainting, the poet David Gascoyne came to his rescue with a wrench.
Dalí found a fascination with cauliflower
Dalí filled a white Rolls Royce Phantom II with 500kg of cauliflower and drove it from Spain to Paris in December 1955. He later revealed to an audience of 2,000 people that the reasoning was that “everything ends up being like cauliflower!” He explained three years later to reporter Mike Wallace that he was fascinated by the “algorithmic curve” of cauliflower.
For Dalí, even his pets were works of art
In the 1960s, Dalí had a pet called Babou, who accompanied him on a leash and collar with metallic decorations – including the famous time when she accompanied him to a restaurant in Manhattan. When a diner became alarmed, Dalí replied that it was just a normal cat that he had “painted over a design IN art.”
Dalí married a friend’s wife
Dalí met his beloved wife Gala while she was married to his friend, the French poet Paul Eluard in 1929. Eluard diplomatically even appears as one of the witnesses at the wedding. The wedding offended Dalí’s family, who disapproved of the fact that Gala was already a mother and also 10 years older than Dalí. For this, Dalí was disinherited by his father.
Dalí was very accommodating of Gala's whims until her death
Gala and Dalí were together until the day she died, despite Gala's frequent infidelities. In 1969 Dalí bought a castle in Pubol for Gala, about 50 miles from his home in Port Lligat. According to a striking article published in Vanity Fair in 1998, Dalí was not allowed inside without a written invitation. Gala continued to see her lovers throughout the 1980s, one of whom was Jeff Fenholt, musical star of Jesus Christ Superstar, who had a recording studio in the castle.
Dalí never traveled light
On arrival in New York harbor for the second time, in 1934, after having worn a life jacket throughout the trip and during the train rides, tying himself to his paintings with a rope; Dalí tried to wave two huge pieces of bread (baguetes) at the paparazzi, who, to his dismay, did not take the slightest interest.
