Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí was a Spanish artist and the most famous of the Surrealists, as well as one of the great self-promoters in art history. Born in Catalonia in 1904, he painted dreamlike scenes with hallucinatory precision, placing melting clocks, distorted figures, and strange creatures in vast, empty landscapes. His most famous image, of soft watches draped over branches and rocks, has become shorthand for the Surrealist dream world.

He cultivated an outrageous public persona, complete with a curled moustache and endless provocative statements, and he worked across film, sculpture, fashion, and advertising. His fellow Surrealists eventually expelled him over his politics and his hunger for money and fame. Even so, Dalí's technical brilliance and unforgettable images made him one of the most recognizable artists of the twentieth century.