Painted by Salvador Dali in 1947
An oil on canvas painting
Surreal style, still life genre.
77.5 x 96.5 cm.
Salvador Dali:
Born: Figures, Spain in 1904
Family:
Father - Salvador Dali. Middle class lawyer and notary. Had strict disciplinary approach to raising his children.
Mother - Felipa Domenech Ferres. Supportive of Dali's art, balanced her husband's discipline.
Brother - Salvador Dali. Died of gastroenteritis nine months before Dali was born.
Sister - Ana Maria. Author. Three years younger.
Growing up:
When he was five, he was told he was the reincarnation of his brother.
His mother died of breast cancer when he was sixteen.
Attended drawing school.
Was friends with Sagibarba and Josep Samitier, who eventually were FC Barcelona footballers.
FC Barcelona is a professional football club.
In 1922, he moved to Madrid and went to an Art school.
He became interested in Cubist style art, although there were no Cubist artists in Madrid to learn from.
He visited Paris, and met Picasso, who had heard of Dali, even though he was not yet famous.
At this time, he also grew a mustache which was influence by Diego Velazquez, which would be iconic for him throughout his life.
In 1929, he met his future wife, Gala. He also joined a Surrealist group.
After a fallout with his father over his relationship with Gala, Dali bought a cabin, which would eventually become his villa by the sea, which he loved.
In 1934, he and Gala were married via civil ceremony.
He was removed from the Surrealist group for not denouncing Fascism, as he believed Surrealism should be apolitical.
In 1938, Dali met Freud
In 1939, Surrealists started talking about Dali in past tense, as if he were dead, because many thought his work was becoming too commercialized.
In 1940, Dali and Gala moved to America. During this time, he converted to Catholicism.
In 1947, it is claimed that Dali had an exorcism performed on him.
In 1949, he moved back to Catalonia.
He became increasingly interested in Quantum mechanics due to the Atom Bomb.
In 1980, his health became a major concern, and his art career was forced to an end.
In 1982, the King granted him a noble title, and out of appreciation for this, while the King visited him on his death bed, he gave the King his last drawing.
After Gala died, Dali became depressed and attempted suicide.
In 1989, Dali died of heart failure.
Spain:
Figures was loyal to the Republican government during the Civil War, and was bombed repeatedly by rebels. In the 1950's, it rebuilt it's economy to be based around tourism.
Spain, during it's early years, was the only time and place until modern times that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam lived in relative peace.
Madrid and Barcelona are Spain's two largest cities, with populations of over 6.5 million and 5.5 million, respectively.
During the mid 1940's, Spain was isolated by the UN, because it was seen as a Fascist regime, and many countries removed their ambassadors to Spain. Due to this isolation, Spain sought to become self-sufficient.
The isolation ended in 1953 when Spain allowed America to open military bases within Spain's borders.
Quantum Physics: (This is due to Dali's interest)
String Theory - Electrons and Quarks within an Atom are 1 dimensional.
Extra dimensions to the universe in addition to four spacetime dimensions.
Potentially a Theory of Everything, with it being believed to be mathematically consistent, and hopefully describes our universe.
Perturbation Theory - Mathematical methods used to find an approximate solution to a problem which cannot be solved exactly, by starting at the exact solution of a related problem. The trajectory of a particle can be found through this theory.
1947:
The Berkeley Building in Boston was built.
Another World was painted by M.C. Escher.
Movies - Unconquered; Mother Wore Tights; Road to Rio; Forever Amber.
Books - This Mortal Coil, by Cynthia Asquith; The Maids, by Jean Genet; The Cold War, by Walter Lippmann.
Near You by Francis Craig was the top song in America.
Science - Fruit flies were the first living things sent to, and returned from, space, on a V2-rocket launched by America.
Darwin's Finches was published by David Lack.
First use of the term 'computer' in modern sense.
The defibrillator was brought into use.
Television - Proceedings of the US Congress televised for first time.
First presidential address from the White House televised.
Meet the Press first aired.
World Events - Communists take power in Poland.
Truman Doctrine is said to help prevent the spread of Communism.
Hindus and Muslims clashed in Punjab.
Marshall Plan is outlined to reconstruct Europe.
The supposed UFO crashed near Roswell, New Mexico.
The Exodus, a ship, left France, with 4,500 Jewish people headed to Palestine, later to be stopped by the British and denied entry.
India and Pakistan become independent from the British Empire.
Communists took power in Hungary.
The then princess Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh, eventually to become known as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
The British troops began to leave Palestine.
