What influenced Salvador Dali’s artwork?

Shock, Horror, Disgust

Salvador Dali was a famous artist from the 1920s to 30s. Throughout his years of creating artwork he had many inspirations and found many useful techniques to aid his creations. From his “unscrupulous obsession with money” Brennan (2016), the use of the subconscious mind and drugs and his connection to them, saying “I don’t do drugs. I am drugs” Dali (No date) and his family history being the reincarnation of his dead brother. With these techniques influencing his artwork he stood out from the crowd and was followed by the fame.

During the popular rise of Surrealism in the late 1920s, Salvador Dali produced many famous paintings which came with high price tags “ranging from $4 USD to $21,743,488 USD” MutualArt ( No Date) which ultimately funded his obsession with money. This love for money influenced his artwork as it meant it gave him the urge to create in order to make more money and fuel his obsession further. With his large wallet, Salvador Dali spent it on a castle for his wife, “but needed her written permission to visit” Brennan (2016), and also had bought With Salvador Dalis full pockets of money and his expensive taste in castles and drugs his art continued to be produced and this further increased them, this created an endless cycle of income for Salvador which highly influenced his creations as his love for money was deep rooted within him and supply his greet and lust for more.

Salvador Dali’s art style through the surrealist movement was very abstract and bizarre which presents the question, what caused these obscure abstractions on the canvas? One major influence was the drugs in which he was taking at the time causing his paintings and to state, “I don’t do drugs. I am drugs” Dali (No date). At the time of Dali’s creations, the use of drugs was commonplace. Alcohol and tobacco was taken multiple times a day, cocaine was added to tonics and widely available, opiates were used to cure anything from headaches to boredom and Benzedrine and other stimulants were not even unusual. Overall, Dali most likely dabbled in substance taking as did most of the population in that time and place. With these many choices of hallucinogenics and drugs to change perception, Salvador Dali most likely thrived of these and played big influences onto his artwork creating bizarre and strange abstractions onto his canvases. These weird and wonderful marks of paint consisted of such things from melting, deformed and obscure clocks in “The persistence of Memory”which attracted many viewers from around the world and may be one for the most famous paintings from the Surrealist movement. “When asked if his clocks were inspired by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, Dalí simply replied that they were a Surrealist perception of cheese melting in the sun. As this motif went on to become so memorable, Dalí reincorporated it into a variety of his other paintings throughout his career, such as The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952 – 1954).” ArtInContext (2022). Looking at “The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory” we can see a continuation of this motif from Salvador Dali as there are many similarities throughout both pieces which could be due to the popularity of the first painting and Dali’s love for money spotting an opportunity to profit off the somewhat recreation of “The persistence of Memory”.

Furthermore Salvador Dali used another technique of the subconscious mind to aid his artistic creations throughout the surrealist movement. To do this he would have many different ways of achieving the subconscious state, for example, he would sleep deprive himself causing hallucinations and deep dreams in his sleep,”tapping deep into the non-rational mechanisms of his mind—dreams, the imagination, and the subconscious—to generate the unreal forms that populate The Persistence of Memory” MoMA (no date). With these dreams they influenced his artwork and would come the magnificent and magical mark makings on canvases in which he would produce further increasing his fame and pockets. Another technique used by Salvador Dali was falling asleep with something in his hand and then as he would doze off he would drop the small object, like keys or a fork, onto the floor or a metal plate waking him up and this is when he would start his paintings of images he saw in his dreams, “They tried to sleep while holding a small object in their hands, which would then clatter to the floor and wake them up just as they started to doze off.” Aridi (2021). Theses methods of madness into creating artwork really inspired Salvador Dali to create and therefore played big parts into the primary research he would use through the images of his dreams.

Another major impact on Salvador Dalis artwork was his family and younger life. Salvador Dali’s mother had a first child who she named Salvador but died at 22 months old from Gastroenteritis, however just nine months after that child’s death, the Salvador Dali we know was born and believed he was the reincarnation of his older brother, “Dali was told by his parents at the age of five that he was the reincarnation of his brother, a belief he carried into his adult life.” Brennan (2016). This weird family history definitely played an impact on Salvador Dali’s mind and artwork expressed through his obscure creations. At a young age Salvador Dali also pushed a “friend” off a bridge as he admitted to having sadistic tendencies throughout his life. “he once pushed his childhood friend off of a 15-foot bridge” Brennan (2016), this shows those exact tendencies bringing exposed and his weird twisted mind.

In conclusion, Salvador Dali’s artwork is inspired by many characteristics and influences on his life from drugs, a love of money, his weird family history and his obscure methods to creation. After my research I believe Salvador Dali’s mind is a deep dark mind of madness however that may have given him the edge in which made him one of the most famous men in the history of art and the father of Surrealism.

Salvador Dali Bibliography

“When asked if his clocks were inspired by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, Dalí simply replied that they were a Surrealist perception of cheese melting in the sun. As this motif went on to become so memorable, Dalí reincorporated it into a variety of his other paintings throughout his career, such as The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952 – 1954).” ArtInContext (2022) The Persistence of Memory – Inspecting Dalí’s Melting Clocks Painting. Art In Context. Available at : https://artincontext.org/the-persistence-of-memory/ (3rd April 2022)

“They tried to sleep while holding a small object in their hands, which would then clatter to the floor and wake them up just as they started to doze off.” Radha Aridi (2021) Need a Creative Boost? Nap Like Thomas Edison and Salvador Dalí. Smithsonian Magazine. Available at : https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-first-stage-of-sleep-is-a-creative-sweet-spot-180979211/ (3rd April 2022)

“Unscrupulous obsession with money” Ailis Brennan (2016) 11 seriously strange things you didn’t know about Salvador Dali. Britain : GQ. Available at : https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/salvador-dali-facts/amp (21st March 2022)

“he once pushed his childhood friend off of a 15-foot bridge” Allis Brennan (2016) 11 seriously strange things you didn’t know about Salvador Dali. Britain : GQ. Available at : https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/salvador-dali-facts/amp (3rd April 2022)

“Dali was told by his parents at the age of five that he was the reincarnation of his brother, a belief he carried into his adult life.” Allis Brennan (2016) 11 seriously strange things you didn’t know about Salvador Dali. Britain : GQ. Available at : https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/salvador-dali-facts/amp (3rd April 2022)

“I don’t do drugs. I am drugs” Dali (No date) Salvador Dali quotes. Available at : http://www.salvadordali.com/quotes/ (21st March 2022)

“tapping deep into the non-rational mechanisms of his mind—dreams, the imagination, and the subconscious—to generate the unreal forms that populate The Persistence of Memory.” MoMA (no date) The Persistence of Memory. MoMA Learning. Available at : https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/salvador-dali-the-persistence-of-memory-1931/ (3rd April 2022)

“ranging from $4 USD to $21,743,488 USD” MutualArt (No date) Salvador Dali Available at : https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Salvador-Dali/22E6B9CD238FB05A (28th March 2022)

Additional websites I looked at

https://artradarjournal.com/2022/03/01/how-much-is-a-salvador-dali-painting-worth/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Salvador-Dali

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sex-death-fame-fortune-obsessions-10699431.amp

https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Salvador-Dali/22E6B9CD238FB05A/Artworks

https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/21-facts-about-salvador-dali