How Did Salvador Dali Create Identity

From an exceptionally young age, Salvador Dali understood that he was different from other people. An extremely shy young boy – insecure to a point – he went out of his way to draw attention to himself, and when the attention arose, he reveled in it. From his early years until his death, Dali at home when he pushed a friend off of a cliff, to his years in art school when he flung himself down a flight of stairs, to his obsession with thinking he remembered being in the womb and being birthed, to his determination in perfecting his own hallucinatory images and fabricating memories that would later serve as inspiration for a countless number of his drawings, Salvador Dali remains an artist that will always be the focus of conversation and intrigue. Born in 1904, in Northeast Spain, Salvador Dali struggled with his identity. Although he was a spoiled child, he …show more content…
While in Paris, he had met countless influential artists such as Picasso, Miro, and Rene Magritee. His paintings began to be associated with these themes: “1) man’s universe and sensations 2) sexual symbolism and 3) ideographic imagery” (biography.com). All of the above led to Dali’s first Surrealistic period in 1929. It was also during this year, that Dali met, and later married, Elena Dmitrievna Diakonova, also known as “Gala”. Gala became the norm to Dali’s eccentric nature and she eventually managed his finances and his negotiations. Influenced by Renaissance artists, his work took on a precise hallucinatory style and appearance. “Dali’s major contribution to the Surrealist movement was what he called the ‘paranoiac-critical method’, a mental exercise of assessing the subconscious to enhance artistic creativity” (biography.com). “Dali was the most prominent representative of the Surrealist Movement. The ‘Persistence of Memory’ is his most celebrated piece, though his ‘Lobster Telephone’ and ‘Mae West Lips Sofa’ are icons of Surrealism”