Salvador Dalí: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Painters)

Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, Spain, and became one of the twentieth century's most important painters. He demonstrated artistic talent from childhood, and his parents supported his development by enrolling him in three art schools. Despite his technical skill and brilliance, Dalí was a difficult student—he was expelled twice and openly told his examiners they were incompetent to judge him. Influenced by Sigmund Freud's ideas, Dalí became the most famous Surrealist of his generation, creating paintings that depicted his dreams, fears, and obsessions. His personal life was equally intense. He struggled with his sexuality throughout his life, and his relationship with his wife and muse Gala was devoted, turbulent, and unconventional. Gala managed, protected, and exploited him, and was the one person he could not live without. Dalí achieved both fame and considerable wealth. When he and Gala moved to America during World War II, he pursued celebrity with theatrical flair. In his later years, he shifted away from Surrealism toward classical and spiritual styles. He died in 1989 and was buried in the museum he built in his birthplace—a characteristically Dalínian conclusion.