How Did Salvador Dali Contribute To Surrealism?

“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings”(McNeese 14). Salvador Dali was an intelligent artist with the ambition to bring the art of Surrealism to the level of importance that it is today. His unique and creative works amazed viewers to think as they puzzle through Dali’s optical masterpieces. Dali created some of the most celebrated artwork of today, and his personality and story increase his fame even more.
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali i Domenech was born in Figueres, Spain on May 11, 1904 at 8:45 a.m. Dali later wrote that this was the “most significant event” of his life and claims that he remembers his birth (McNeese 15). His father, Salvador Dali Cusi, was a respected lawyer, and a disciplinary atheist. This contradicted
He met Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, and Rene Magritte whom all had an influence on Dali’s work. This was a peak time in Dali's career as he created some of his best works. He spent his summers in Cadaques, where he also met his wife Gala who appeared in his artwork as well. Dali was an essential factor in the surrealist movement for his unique art and more importantly his distinct personality and style. Salvador Dali was a famous artist in his time and he was not afraid to let people know. His flamboyant taste in clothing included his golden robes and walking canes. Other than these eccentricities, his most famous trademark is unmistakably his mustache. The waxed, upturned signature Dali mustache symbolizes Dali’s character. He was an extravagant man just like the young Dali. “ Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure- that of being Salvador Dali.” ( McNeese
It painted in 1931. The Persistence of Memory was nine and one-half inches by thirteen inches, quite small. It was a oil painting done on canvas and currently displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.This painting is also known as “melting clocks” or “soft watches” due to the three soft melting pocket watches in this painting. These watches may express Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as even time has an end and that each watch shows a different time. The fourth clock is swarmed by insects as if the clocks were a dead animal. Another story behind the idea of the melting clocks was the famous Camembert cheese tale. Dali was hosting some guests with wine and cheese. They had planned to go to the cinema afterwards, but Dali stayed back to take a nap. When he awoke he noticed cheese melting over the fork, inspiring the famous painting.The setting of the painting is a desert painted with warm colors in a dull, soft manner. The background landscape of mountains could very well be the Catalonian cliffs in Northern Spain. In the middle of the foreground, a figure is shown. Some art historians claim this to be a blanket and others a profile of Dali’s dreamlike