Salvador Dali – Paintings and Artworks

The Spanish painter Salvador Dali, one of the most controversial artists of the twentieth century, is world famous for his paintings as well as his enigmatic and eccentric behaviour. He is considered as gigantic a figure in the world of art as Picasso and Matisse, whose life and work has a great contribution in the history of modern art. His name is considered to be synonymous with Surrealism itself. His work involved paintings, sculpture as well as graphic designing. During his long artistic career he experimented with different styles of paintings, but he is well known for his surrealistic style. Most of his paintings show some type of dream sequences where some characters are shown as if from hallucination. Explore the life-long works of this great art dynamo, checkout Salvador Dali biography to understand the artist and if you are lured into the psychedelic world of Salvador Dali, have a closer look into Salvador Dali paintings.

Dali is well known for his “Paranoiac-critical Method”, his contribution to Surrealism that involves a form of mental exercise to access the subconscious part of mind for creative inspiration. He often used this method to depict the world he imagined, not necessarily the real world.  

In the course of his career he also dealt with Cubism, Futurism and also metaphysical painting styles. In 1929 he joined the group of Surrealist artists and concentrated on this form of art, which made him a leading figure in this form.

Salvador Dali consciously created an impression of eccentricity about himself and he was fond of exhibitionism. In 1936 he presented himself in a dive suit in the opening ceremony of a Surrealist exhibition in London. When asked, he said, the suit was the source of his creative energy. In fact, such eccentricities helped him gain his popularity and leading position in the Surrealist movement. An avid reader of Sigmund Freud, he believed in dreams and imagination as driving forces in human life. He also believed in the Surrealist theory of Automatism and extended it to something called ‘Critical Paranoia’, which says that the artist should focus on cultivating a genuine delusion, simultaneously being conscious in the back of their minds that control and focus will be suspended for some time. The artist said about himself, “The only difference between a madman and myself is that I am not mad”. His visit to Italy in 1937 changed his artistic style to more traditional, which resulted in him to be expelled from the Surrealist art movement. In 1940 he shifted to America and experimented on his new art form till 1955. During this time his art work revolved around religious themes, such as ‘Christ of Saint John of the Cross’, created in 1951. Some sexual subjects also entered his oeuvre, like images of his wife Gala. He also worked on sculptures, jewellery designing and book illustrations. He also worked for set designing in theatres.  Through the many works of Salvador Dali, he has proven to be one of the most intriguing character of twentieth century, explore Salvador Dali biography to know more and if that intrigues you enough, don’t stop yourself from being smitten by Salvador Dali paintings. 

Salvador Dali was inspired by the masters of traditional paintings such as Rafael, Donatello and Diego Velazquez. His technique was based on a mixture of Flemish paintings at the time of Van Eyck as well as works of the Dutch Little Masters of the seventeenth century. His drawings were reminder of Renaissance drawings. However, Dali has made a place in the history of art as a twentieth-century painter who has combined a tremendous respect for the traditional art with a modern outlook. Explore the world of art through his eyes, read Salvador Dali biography and explore Salvador Dali paintings, he owes it from this twenty-first century generation of art lovers.

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