Salvador Dalí

With his expressive face and gravity-defying moustache, Salvador Dalí is one of the most recognisable – and influential – artists of the 20th century. Famed for his paintings of melting clocks and his lobster telephone, Dalí also cultivated a larger-than-life character for himself to play, using fashion and performance to blur the boundaries between art and reality. But alongside the deliberately provocative persona lurked a fascination with fascism and a sometimes-violent temper. So what can we be sure of about the life of an artist who loved to self-mythologise? And how did he become the best known of the surrealists, creating images that far outlasted his own lifetime? This is a Short History Of Salvador Dalí. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Dr Elliott H King, a professor of art history at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, who has studied the life of Salvador Dalí for more than two decades. Written by Nicola Rayner | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Mirianna Pitman-Latham and George Tapp | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check: Sean Coleman Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 0:56Speaker 02

  Es el 1 de julio de 1936. En la exhibición internacional surrealista llevada a cabo en un gran edificio en el distrito de Mayfair de Londres, una multitud emocionada se desliza bajo las luces de la galería. Están esperando al famoso artista Salvador Dali para hacer su entrada para su conferencia.

• 1:17Speaker 02

  Uno de los organizadores, el poeta David Gascoigne, se dirige a las puertas dobles para ver lo que está pasando.

• 1:24Speaker 02

  Con Dali, nunca podrías estar seguro de lo que esperar. El corredor sigue vacío, pero entonces escucha algo extraño. Son pasos, pero el travesía es demasiado lento, demasiado pesado. Luego, una figura gira la esquina y se acerca a él y incluso sin darse cuenta de su rostro, Gascoigne sabe que puede ser solo el artista mismo.

• 1:48Speaker 02

  Apoyado en un vestido de diving completo, con un vasto helmeto metálico encerrando su cabeza, Dali gurra mientras se mueve.

• 1:58Speaker 02

  En una mano lleva un cubo de billard, en la otra, sostiene la guía para dos perros de bordes aristocráticos con longos collares y rostros cortos.

• 2:08Speaker 02

  Después de sonreír con Gascoigne, entra al salón. Hay un momento de silencio mientras aquellos asesinados se fijan a él. Luego, un murmullo de aplausos se escurre a través de la multitud.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Llegando al escenario, el invitado de honor comienza su conferencia, aunque su voz se entiende desde dentro del helmet. Al principio, el público se inclina hacia adelante indulgente, pero es casi imposible distinguir lo que se está diciendo. Y incluso si pudieran oírlo, gran parte del público lo perdería, ya que el artista está hablando en francés.

• 2:41Speaker 02

  Incluso las ilustraciones son confusas. La conferencia de Dali está acompañada de slides, pero por razones más conocidas que él, ha elegido mostrarlas al revés. Pero pronto, eso es lo menos de los preocupaciones de los organizadores. Al medio camino, los gestos del orador se vuelven erráticos. El artista comienza a estancarse alrededor, agarrando su helmet. El público empieza a rir, relajando que las cosas se han levantado. Pero mientras Dali gesticula con cada mayor urgencia, Gascoigne se da cuenta que esto no es parte de la performance. Parece que está sufocando.

• 3:18Speaker 02

  Un asistente alegre aparece a la izquierda del organizador con la noticia de que la llave al helmet fue dada a la esposa del artista, Gala, para almacenarlo. Escanearon la galería, pero ella no está en ningún lugar a ser vista. Hasta ahora, una junta de rescate de maquillaje ha empezado a tratar de sacar el helmet de Dali sin la llave. Gascoigne se desplaza a la entrada de la galería y pregunta al puente si ha visto a Gala.

• 3:42Speaker 02

  Sabiendo que ahora está headed hacia un café cercano, Gascoigne se desplaza hacia la calle. Tan pronto encuentra a Gala en una mesa en el pavimento, calmemente bebiendo su café. Ansiadamente explica la situación y la llave importante se produce de su bolsillo elegante.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  Volviendo a la galería, sigue el caos, pero aunque reprimido, Dali sigue vivo. Gascoigne pone a través de la multitud, pone la llave en el helmet y finalmente la saca libre.

• 4:13Speaker 02

  El artista gaspita por aire, sus ojos salvajes, su famoso moustache oscuro. El organizador exhale. Luego, y como si todo fuera parte de la performance, el salón de conferencia se llena de aplausos.

• 4:38Speaker 02

  Con su rostro expresivo y el moustache defiendor de la gravedad, Salvador Dali es uno de los artistas más reconocibles y influyentes del siglo XX. Famoso por sus pinturas de rebotantes de relojes, su teléfono de lobster y los rojos labios de su sofá de Mayo West, se elevó a la fama como figura líder en el surrealismo. Durante su larga y variada carrera, Dali también cultivó un personaje más grande que la vida para él. Usando la moda y la performance para mezclar las fronteras entre arte y realidad. Pero junto a la persona deliberadamente provocadora surgió una fascinación con el fascismo y a veces un tempero violento.

• 5:18Speaker 02

  Entonces, ¿qué podemos estar seguros sobre la vida de un artista que amaba auto-mítologizar? ¿Cómo se convirtió en el mejor conocido de los surrealistas, creando imágenes que mucho más duran su propia vida? ¿Y realmente fue un fan de Adolf Hitler? Soy John Hopkins, del Noyza Podcast Network. Esto es la corta historia de Salvador Dali.

• 5:48Speaker 02

  El 11 de mayo de 1904, en Figueres, una ciudad en Cataluña, noreste de España, Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali y Dominic hace el primer de sus muchos primeros entradas dramáticas. Con el nombre de un hermano mayor que murió nueve meses antes, Salvador crece, aterrado por la pérdida del hermano que nunca conoció. Su infancia y adolescencia tempranas se pasan en Cataluña, una región que tiene su propio idioma catalán así como una fuerte identidad independiente. Cuando tiene cuatro, el joven Salvador está acompañado de una pequeña hermana, Ana Maria. A este tiempo, ya está un poco engañado, con ocasiones explosiones de violencia hacia otros niños, incluyendo a su hermano más joven.

• 6:30Speaker 02

  Su madre artística, Filipa, es indulgente con su hijo, pero su padre es más estricto.

• 6:37Speaker 02

  Dr. Elliot H. King, profesor de historia de arte en Washington y la Universidad de Lee de Virginia, ha estudiado la vida de Salvador Dali durante más de dos décadas.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  Dali ciertamente tuvo una relación muy repentina con su padre. Su padre era el jefe de la localidad, era un tipo de empresario de clase media, una especie de personalidad sin sentido, muy anti-clerical, muy catalán federalista y realmente no quería que su hijo entrara en nada más que convertirse en un jefe de la localidad como él mismo.

• 7:04Speaker 02

  Cuando Dali tiene seis, su padre lo inscribe en la escuela hispano-francesa de la concepción imaculada, donde aprende francés, el idioma que más tarde usa como artista.

• 7:18Speaker 02

  Mientras que los tiempos de mandato se pasan en la tierra, en Figueres, la familia pasa sus vacaciones en su casa de verano en el vecino pueblo costero de Cadacés. La región se convierte en una fuente de inspiración de vida. Pero también es donde ahora se encuentra el pintor Ramon Picot. Picot, un amigo de Picasso, enseña a Salvador sobre el impresionismo, un estilo desarrollado por pintores como Claude Monet. Las primeras foras de Salvador en el arte son gravemente influenciadas por el movimiento, con su foco en el trabajo rápido de brochas, capturando la luz, el color y la atmósfera de escenas de aire abiertos.

• 7:54Speaker 03

  Sus primeras pinturas son cuando tenía unos 10, 12 años. Pero no muestran ese tipo de maestría como alguien como Picasso. Pero disfrutó pintar, estaba pasionado por ello. Pintaba la zona alrededor de su hogar, los rumbos en el Mediterráneo. Y su padre pensó que era un buen pasado, supongo, pero ciertamente no era algo que quisiera convertir en una carrera. Su madre era mucho más apoyada.

• 8:15Speaker 02

  Una vez que tiene 12, Salvador comienza su educación secundaria en el instituto Figueres Instituto, donde es enseñado por un profesor de dibujo carismático llamado Juan Núñez Fernández, quien también es director de la escuela de dibujo municipal. Tan pronto, Salvador también está inscrito en ella para clases de noche. Núñez enseña a su pupilito talentoso sobre grandes artistas como los pintores duches Rembrandt y Vermeer, así como el hombre que considera ser el mejor de los maestros españoles, Diego Velázquez.

• 8:44Speaker 02

  El entrenamiento intensivo se vuelve a pagar. Cuando Salvador tiene 15 años, su padre está más convencido de sus talentos y organiza una exhibición de sus dibujos de charco en el hogar de la familia. Pero consciente de que su hijo adolescente está becoming interesado en el sexo más justo, el hombre mayor deja un libro de fotos como un advertido, mostrando cuerpos desfigurados por enfermedad venérea. Deja a la juventud con una miedo de vida a lo sexo y una preocupación con el voyeurismo y el onanismo.

• 9:13Speaker 02

  Su compromiso con el arte sigue constante y en 1918 tiene su primera exhibición pública. Pero no mucho después, cuando solo tiene 16 años, su querida madre murió de cáncer uterine, una pérdida que más tarde describe como el mayor golpe de su vida. El año siguiente, su padre se marica a su hermana más joven, Catalina. Una cambio que Salvador parece aceptar relativamente calmamente. Pero el cambio en las circunstancias, así como el aconsejo de Núñez y Picot, contribuyen a cambiar el pensamiento de su padre sobre el futuro de su hijo.

• 9:46Speaker 03

  Aunque su padre no quisiera que se convirtiera en un artista cuando finalmente se convenció de que esto era algo que tal vez no podía ayudar, su insistencia fue, bueno, puede hacer esto si va a la mejor escuela de arte en el país, que sería la Academia de Arte San Fernando en Madrid. Y así su padre lo permitió si obtuvo una educación de arte realmente adecuada. Y esta es una gran parte de lo que lo envió a Madrid para obtener esta educación muy tradicional artística académica.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  A los 17 años, Salvador pone sus bajas para mudarse de Cataluña a la busta de la capital de España.

• 10:22Speaker 02

  In Madrid, far from home and his father's stern gaze, Dalí soon gains a reputation for both his talent and his flamboyant sense of style.

• 10:31Speaker 03

  Dalí was really from the outskirts. He was from the coast. He was from far off in Catalonia, not even Barcelona. He was far off in the sticks, if you will. And so when he comes to Madrid, he really sort of has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, I think, and he wants to prove himself. And he's very eccentric. He presents himself as a really grand artist really from the start. He wears a big floppy hat. He wears a cape. He has a walking stick. And there's sort of a sense of this is what an eccentric artist looks like. And so I think that even as early as going to art school, that a little bit of his performative personality starts to shine through of how do I distinguish myself amongst everybody else? I can paint, but what else can I do? How are people going to notice me? And how can I cultivate this persona that actually becomes a little bit of the persona that he keeps for the rest of his life?

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• 14:00Speaker 02

  The young artist makes friends, too, with Luis Buñuel, who would become known as a pioneering filmmaker. He also grows particularly close to Federico Garcia Loca, later celebrated as one of Spain's most important poets. It becomes a passionate relationship, though the artist's fear of physical intimacy persists.

• 14:21Speaker 02

  Many of those in his wider friendship circle share his interest in the experimental and boundary-pushing work of the avant-garde. But while in Madrid, Dalí also spends as much time as he can studying the masters.

• 14:34Speaker 03

  When Dalí was a student, there were really sort of two tracks to his work, I would say. On the one hand, he was very influenced by Velázquez. He was interested in the Spanish masters. He was going to the Prado and seeing the Zuberan works. And there's a very traditional academic sense to pieces like this basket of bread, for example, that have a very dark background, highly naturalistic appearance, almost a religious tone, if you will. He loves technique. That's very important to him. At the same time, while he's in art school, he also begins experimenting. So he can't help but be influenced by Picasso. Dalí was intrigued with those newer kinds of styles. So there are really two different parts of his work that, again, continue to manifest really throughout, something that's very experimental and something that's actually very traditional.

• 15:20Speaker 02

  As well as developing a keen interest in the relatively new style of cubism, which breaks subjects into geometric shapes, Dalí also becomes aware of surrealism. The movement's leader, André Breton, champions the power of the subconscious in the creation of artistic work and calls for what he sees as a liberation from rational constraints. It is perhaps not a philosophy that blends well with the rigor of traditional academic life. Despite the promise he shows as a student, Dalí's time at the academy ends abruptly.

• 15:53Speaker 03

  Dalí always did have this tendency to provoke. And the story that he tells is that he was expelled from the academy specifically because of a test, an examination, where his professors were examining him on Raphael. And he refused to sit for it, saying that he knew more about Raphael than his professors did. And I've sometimes given this as an example to my own students, not to do this, because it doesn't go well. And in fact, indeed, Dalí was expelled from the academy.

• 16:23Speaker 02

  After a brief stay back in Catalonia and the shores of Catarcaz, he continues his artistic development in Paris, where he also meets one of his heroes.

• 16:34Speaker 03

  The first time he goes to Paris, this is his story, it could be true, it could be false, but I love the story anyway. First time he goes to Paris, he goes to Picasso's studio and tells him, "I've come to see you before going to the Louvre." And Picasso said, "Well, that was probably a good idea."

• 16:49Speaker 02

  By the late 1920s, Dalí has developed the traits that define his lifelong work: a fascination with classical masters such as Velázquez and Raphael, combined with a keen interest in avant-garde styles. He also hones his flair for self-presentation, adopting the Velázquez-inspired pointy moustache that becomes an enduring trademark.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  At around this time, one of Dalí's friends from the academy, Luis Buñuel, approaches him with an idea to make a film. The resulting work features dreamlike scenes that include grand pianos with dead cattle being dragged across a sitting room, and, most famously, a woman's eyeball being sliced by a razor. Called un chien andelou, or an Andalusian dog, it will shift the course of Dalí's life.

• 17:36Speaker 03

  They've decided to make a film that overtly doesn't make sense, and it's supposed to defy every convention of film. So anything, as they're writing the script, that they think follows too closely or makes too much logical order, they exclude that. They're trying to make something that's very confusing, very strange. And consequently, the cuts don't really make sense. The timeline doesn't really make sense. The title doesn't make sense because there's no dog in the film, despite the title. And so it's really something that they think is going to be very provocative.

• 18:05Speaker 02

  When the film premieres in Paris, Dalí and Buñuel are prepared for complaints. But almost to their disappointment, it is well-received, particularly by the surrealists.

• 18:17Speaker 02

  On Dalí's invitation, a group of them head to Catarcaz that summer. The party includes Buñuel, the artist René Magritte, and the French poet Paul Elouard and his beautiful wife. Known simply as Gala, the Russian-born 34-year-old is a powerful figure in the surrealist circle. Charismatic and unconventional, for a time, she lives with her husband and the surrealist artist Max Ernst in a menage à trois. Dalí, 10 years younger, is immediately captivated and breaks into hysterical laughter whenever Gala is near. For a time, however, the object of his affection remains unimpressed, prompting him to reinvent himself with an unusual makeover.

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• 21:03Speaker 02

  It is August 1929 in the village of Caracas. 25-year-old Salvador Dali wakes up just before dawn in his family's summer home in an anxious state. Beyond the window, the village is stirring. Just outside, on the beach, an early-morning fisherman is heading out to make the first catch of the day. The splash of oars is accompanied by the light tinkle of a flock as a shepherd takes his sheep out to pasture. The artist makes his way from his bed to his easel on the other side of the room. Usually, he enjoys these quiet hours, but today he is restless, preoccupied with a rendezvous he's arranged with the beautiful Gala Eloade in a few hours.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  He needs to make himself unforgettable in some way, irresistible. But how? Dali gets to his feet and starts to pace. As he is thinking, he puts on a pair of earrings belonging to his sister, who often models for him. He admires himself briefly in the mirror before discarding the idea and trying a pearl necklace instead. The image pleases him, but not enough. He needs something more primal. Abandoning the idea of painting altogether, he puts on one of his finest silk shirts and starts to cut it short until it hangs above his navel. Next, he starts tearing it to expose his chest and shoulders, and finally, he cuts away the collar completely.

• 22:31Speaker 02

  Still dissatisfied, he turns his attention to his armpits, which he tries shaving. But that's not quite right. Perhaps he needs to make them blue. Improvising, he applies a blue-colored laundry powder, but the product mixes with his sweat and causes bright streaks to run down his side. Irritated, Dali wipes it away, leaving his skin raw, reddened, and smeared with blood from the shaving. He cocks his head as he takes it in, the idea blooming. Red, the color of passion, will work better. Cutting himself again, he smears blood over his knees, then darts outside to fetch a geranium to match the color.

• 23:15Speaker 02

  The flower looks perfect behind his ear, but still, the final picture is missing something: the right scent. For Gala, they'll need more than cologne. The sharp scent of the sheep outside still lingers in the air. If only he could replicate that odor. Lighting a small alcohol burner, which he uses for his etchings, he sets about dissolving some fish glue into water. As he waits for the water to boil, he runs out to the back of the house where several sacks of goat manure have been delivered. Back in the studio, he throws a handful of the dung into the glue solution, as well as a touch of aspic oil.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  Now the concoction is smelling as potent as a ram. With the mixture applied, at last, everything is complete. As the bell tower strikes 11, Dali approaches the window and sees Gala waiting on the beach. But faced with her presence, at the final moment, he has a change of heart. Perhaps he has gone too far. Hastily, he washes away what he can of the paste and removes most of his accessories, keeping only the pearl necklace and half the geranium. With a final glimpse in the mirror, he gives his reflection a small nod of approval.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  He is as ready as he'll ever be. Whether or not it's the lingering whiff of goat's manure that seals the deal, a spark ignites between Gala and Dali. Communicating in French, the two quickly fall in love, and after Gala returns to Paris, Dali withdraws into his studio. He works obsessively on a painting of his lover's husband, but it is far from a traditional portrait, with a skeletal hand floating and a lion's head bursting out of the subject's temple. Having now met the woman who will become his lifelong muse, Dali's artistic style shifts decisively towards surrealism.

• 25:19Speaker 02

  In his painting, The Great Masturbator, a huge head resembling the artist can be seen in profile, nose pressed against the ground. A grasshopper clings to the face, while a nude female figure who looks like Gala rises from the back of the head. Another work from this time, The Legubrious Game, is more crowded with figures, including a man in excrement-stained underwear. It's an image that shocks its viewers, though the surrealists often aim to provoke. The same year, Dali officially joins the group and prepares for his first exhibition in Paris with work described by Breton as "hallucinatory." But rather than attending the opening night in person, he elopes with his lover.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  Before long, Gala divorces Eloade and also leaves behind her young daughter, Cécile, for her new life with surrealism's hottest new artist. Meanwhile, Dali's father, already unhappy about his son's relationship with a married woman, is about to be further outraged.

• 26:25Speaker 03

  Dali made a painting and exhibited in Paris called Sometimes I Spit With Pleasure on the Portrait of My Mother, which was an anti-clerical painting, but his father took it to mean it was a slight against his deceased wife, Dali's mother. And consequently, his father kicked him out of the house and he cut him off for a number of years.

• 26:44Speaker 02

  Though heartbroken by the estrangement with his father and sister, the artist is confident he can forge his own path with Gala by his side. It helps that she is practical in ways that he is not, and she assumes the role of his manager, as well as appearing as a model in a huge number of his works.

• 27:01Speaker 03

  Gala was very much a motivator in, like, you know, is Dali getting paid? She's the one who's really checking contracts at the beginning. If he's just making sketches at a restaurant and he leaves, she's gonna go back and collect all those sketches, because she doesn't want them to just kind of fall out into the market or whatever. So, you know, she's really the one who's checking this. She's a pistol, and not to be reckoned with.

• 27:21Speaker 02

  The following summer, the couple rent a fisherman's cabin in Port Ligat, just along the coast from Caracas. Not long after, Dali purchases the property and gradually expands it into a labyrinthine villa overlooking the sea. The early 1930s proved to be a fruitful period, due in part to his honing of a new method.

• 27:42Speaker 03

  Now, the idea of the paranoid critical method is not actually that unfamiliar in a lot of ways. It's really seeing images, seeing ideas in something else. And so, other artists were doing that. I mean, if we take it back to Aristophanes, he talks about seeing images in clouds. So the whole act of seeing something in something else is very, very common. Surrealists like Max Ernst were already looking at wood grain or doing frottage images and seeing animals that would come out of them. Dali basically gave that a very scientific language.

• 28:15Speaker 02

  Inspired by the ideas of Sigmund Freud, he develops psychological techniques to induce what he calls a "paranoic state." It's not paranoia in the modern sense, but a deliberate suspension of rational thought and ordinary perception. From this approach, some of his most famous works emerge. Elephants, ants, and grasshoppers appear in desert landscapes that incorporate uncanny double imagery, and human faces or bodies are concealed within the surrounding forms. One night, when Gala is out, this method leads Dalí to create his most famous painting. It is a small work depicting a dreamlike Catalonian landscape scattered with melting clock faces,

• 28:59Speaker 02

  one of which is crawling with ants.

• 29:02Speaker 03

  The story that Dalí tells about the persistence of memory is very interesting. It's probably not true, but it's very interesting. It's that he was in Paris, and he'd just had dinner with Gala, and Gala went to a movie while he stayed home and nursed a headache. And he had been reading about Einstein's theory of relativity and the elasticity of space and time. And he was staring at this soft camembert cheese that they had just been eating after dinner. And that gooey aspect of melting cheese and the idea of elasticity of time-space came together in a very paranoiac way for Dalí. And he's like, "Oh, wow, a soft clock." And so he said by the time that she got back from the film, he had put all of those clocks into this painting. And when she came home,

• 29:45Speaker 03

  he covered up her eyes and took her into the studio and said, "Okay, what do you think?" And when she opened her eyes, she said, "Once somebody's seen it, they'll never forget it." And so he called it the persistence of memory.

• 29:57Speaker 02

  This painting will have enormous ramifications for Dalí. In 1932, an art dealer called Julien Levy brings it to the United States for inclusion in an early surrealist exhibition. American audiences are captivated. Two years later, having by now married Gala in a civil ceremony, the artist follows his painting over the Atlantic. Arriving in New York by steamboat, he is an immediate hit. He strides out of his hotel on East 55th Street, announcing to the waiting crowd, "Dalí is here", and immediately gets to work to cement his reputation. When he is celebrated at a lavish ball thrown by New York's high society,

• 30:40Speaker 02

  he arrives with a glass case strapped to his chest containing a brassiere. But at another masquerade party, he and Gala take their trademark theatricality too far. Referencing the highly-publicized abduction and murder of the infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh, they dress as a baby and kidnapper, outraging the American press and public. Back at home, while the left-leaning surrealists are horrified by the rise of Hitler, Dalí's own thoughts on the issue land him in hot water.

• 31:13Speaker 03

  Dalí's political leanings or lack of leanings are generally the biggest problem that the surrealists have with him. There's really no evidence that Dalí ever supported Hitler in a real tangible way. In 1933, Hitler just became chancellor. There's certainly something that is very interesting to Dalí, and as Dalí says, about Hitler's rise to power and the power that he has over the masses, that it's kind of an hysteria that he is trying to understand. Like, how did this little guy suddenly have such a sway and such a destructive sway over so many people? How is he making people act so irrationally, in fact? And then because Dalí is very interested in the irrational, this is something that he finds intriguing. The surrealists will look at that and say

• 31:57Speaker 03

  that you need to just be taking a stance against it. You can't just explore it, you have to say, "No, I'm anti-Hitler."

• 32:02Speaker 02

  When Dalí returns from New York, the surrealists hold a trial for him at Breton's house to see if he should remain in the organization.

• 32:11Speaker 03

  Dalí actually saves himself from expulsion. Sometimes this is reported as being the time that Dalí's kicked out of the group, but it's not true. He continues to show throughout the 1930s. But he explains that he has no real interest in Hitler. He knows that as a modern artist, Hitler would have nothing to do with his paintings. And in fact, several of Dalí's paintings are presumably destroyed from the time of the Nazis because they were considered degenerate art. So Dalí recognized that he's not the kind of artist that Hitler would want to support. But again, he's interested in Hitler as an idea.

• 32:44Speaker 02

  Of more pressing concern is the political turmoil at home. By now, the Spanish monarchy has fallen, and what is known as the Second Republic has been established in its place. The new government attempts to modernize Spain through reforms that reduce the power of the Catholic Church and introduce land redistribution. But instead of unifying the country, these changes only deepen existing divisions. Eventually, in 1936, General Francisco Franco leads a military uprising against the republican government. What begins as a coup quickly escalates into a full-scale civil war, as Spain splits into two opposing camps. Dalí's friends and family suffer at the hands of both sides.

• 33:29Speaker 03

  Dalí is in a bit of a curious position because, on the one hand, his good friend and significant other for a while, Federico Garcia Lorca, is killed by the nationalists. So there's a murderer on that side. On the other, his sister Anna Maria is captured by the Republicans in Cateches and is reportedly tortured under the prospect that she could have been a spy. So Dalí's whole family has become Francoites for personal reasons. And so Dalí is kind of actually between the two. He has friends and family on both sides as a Spaniard in the middle of a civil war.

• 34:09Speaker 02

  Despite the turmoil in his homeland, Dalí's career continues to flourish internationally. In 1936, he delivers a lecture at the London International Surrealist Exhibition wearing a deep-sea diving suit to symbolize his plunge into the subconscious. It's a fruitful period, seeing the collaborative production of his most famous so-called surrealist objects, including the lobster telephone with the shellfish spread over the receiver and the Mae West lips sofa, inspired by the film star, as well as joint projects with fashion designer Elsa Scaparilli. Yet, behind this picture of success, tensions are building. Dalí's ambiguous political stance and provocative behavior alienate him further from the surrealists.

• 34:54Speaker 02

  In 1939, after years of disagreement, he is formally expelled from the movement. But with work, money, and acclaim pouring in from the United States, Dalí continues to hog the headlines.

• 35:12Speaker 06

  New and exclusive holiday decor just launched online at The Home Depot. Check out the viral Grand Duchess collection with smart holiday lights you can control from your phone. Easily customize the twinkle across trees, wreaths, and garlands to match your holiday vibe. Create stunning light effects, then switch it up with the tap of your fingers. Even the man in red will be impressed. Shop the holiday decor you want online only at homedepot.com.

• 35:43Speaker 00

  Everyone's got a hard question about AI: your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai/spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai/spotify.

• 36:09Speaker 02

  It's 7:00 in the morning on March 16, 1939. Tom Lee, display manager at Bonwit Teller, the upmarket 5th Avenue department store, watches with a flicker of trepidation as Salvador Dalí puts the finishing touches to his window displays. The great surrealist has worked through the night. Now, in the clear light of morning, Lee stands to one side as the displays take their final form. Inspired loosely by the myth of Narcissus, the youth who falls in love with his own reflection, Dalí is calling these two windows "Day" and "Night." In the daytime scene, an ancient mannequin with long red hair wears a negligee of green feathers.

• 36:55Speaker 02

  She is poised as if about to step into a fur-lined bathtub from which wax hands rise, each holding a mirror. In "Night," another figure lies on a mattress of glowing coals. Dalí has designed windows for the store before, but Lee suspects New York's well-to-do shoppers might not be ready for his latest display. Nevertheless, he nods politely when the tired artist heads home for bed, his famous moustache slightly drooping. Even before the shop opens, Lee can hear a crowd gathering on 5th Avenue and peers out from an upstairs window to see the pavement growing thick with onlookers. Some point to their gloved hands,

• 37:37Speaker 02

  others stare, transfixed or horrified. As soon as Bonwit Teller opens at night, shoppers sweep through the doors, flushed with indignation. Out on the street, the crowd continues to swell. There's nothing for it. Lee will have to telephone Dalí. But when he gets through to the artist's hotel, Dalí has left strict instructions not to be disturbed. Sighing, Lee heads for the displays himself. With a couple of assistants, he replaces the mannequin in "Day" with a more decent figure in a Mollini suit. He pulls "Night" out of her burning bed and stands her on the opposite side of the window. After their adjustments,

• 38:21Speaker 02

  the windows, though still bizarre, are not quite so indecent, and the crowd begins to fear him. But at 5 o'clock that afternoon, Lee is interrupted from a meeting by a breathless shopper assistant. Their guest window dresser is back from his nap. The display manager hurries to the windows to explain himself, but nothing prepares him for the speed at which the artist moves. Furious, Dalí has already charged into the "Day" window and seems to be wrestling with the bathtub. Whether by accident or design, the tub slips from his grasp and through the glass, the artist flying with it out into 5th Avenue.

• 39:05Speaker 02

  The street erupts into chaos. Two detectives on a passing bus scramble down and push through the crowd. Seizing the red-faced Dalí, they brush debris from his coat and hurry into the nearest station. As onlookers surge around the bathtub and broken glass, Lee surveys the scene. Then, sighing, he sends an assistant to fetch a broom.

• 39:33Speaker 02

  Charged in court with disorderly conduct, Dali receives a suspended sentence. The following month, a show of his opens at the World's Fair in New York. The central attraction, Dream of Venus, is dubbed a surrealist funhouse, where visitors can encounter an elaborate underwater set, apparently populated by seventeen real-life mermaids.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  For a short time that summer, Dali and Gala return to Port Ligueat, where the artist works on paintings of Sigmund Freud and the child star Shirley Temple. He also creates a piece titled "The Enigma of Hitler", in which a melting telephone hangs above a tiny photograph of the Nazi leader on an almost-empty plate.

• 40:17Speaker 02

  Not long after, Hitler invades Poland, and the Second World War begins. Though Spain remains neutral, Dali and Gala see out much of the conflict in the United States. And though Dali watches from afar as Germany advances through Europe, his work grows increasingly dark.

• 40:35Speaker 02

  His painting, "The Face of War", depicts a disembodied head floating against a barren landscape. Inside its mouth and eye sockets are identical, stricken faces, which in turn contain more faces, suggesting an endless cycle of suffering. In 1941, he begins work on his autobiography, entitled "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali". It is by turns flamboyant and deeply unreliable, and is published the following year. Other projects at this time range widely, from a bejeweled human eye with the hands of a watch set into the iris, to costume designs for ballets.

• 41:13Speaker 03

  He delves into fashion design, into jewelry design. He makes really amazing jewels. One is a little heart made of rubies that has a beating mechanism in the inside, so it looks like it's beating. So there's something slightly macabre, but certainly very creative and interesting and unique about any of the ventures that Dali goes into. You know, whether it's film, whether it's fashion, objects, anything, Dali does have a particular mark about him that you can recognize it as a Dali.

• 41:40Speaker 02

  His ability to turn his hand to anything win him accusations of greed from his old detractors among the surrealists, earning him a memorable nickname.

• 41:48Speaker 03

  Andre Breton creates that name of Vita Dollars for him, which is an anagram of Salvador Dali. And Dali ends up saying that he wears it proudly, in fact. He says, "You know, I love gold. I love money. I want to drown in checks. I want to drown in a diarrhea of gold." I mean, he's very open about the fact that he likes money. And I suppose there's a sort of a romantic 19th-century notion that artists shouldn't do that, that artists should be sort of suffering figures. And Dali goes against that openly. Like, why should I be poor when I could be rich? Wouldn't it be better to be rich?

• 42:17Speaker 02

  But not all of his grand ideas bring success. A dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's film "Spellbound", initially envisioned by the artist as a 20-minute clip, is cut to just three minutes in the final edit. More successful in the long run is "Destino", an animated short film for Disney. Though shelved because of post-war financial struggles, the project, featuring melting clocks and dreamlike landscapes, is revived and completed many decades later, earning an Academy Award nomination.

• 42:54Speaker 02

  By now, the Second World War has come to its gruesome conclusion in a summer of unprecedented violence. While the world reels from the United States' deployment of the atomic bomb in Japan, Dali becomes fascinated by the emergence of the nuclear age. For the rest of his career, he explores a fusion of Catholic iconography and scientific imagery in his work, which he calls "nuclear mysticism".

• 43:23Speaker 02

  In 1948, Dali and Gala return to their home in Spain, which is now under the authoritarian rule of Francisco Franco, following the nationalist victory at the end of the Spanish Civil War.

• 43:35Speaker 02

  Their return provokes a backlash, particularly among those who oppose Franco's repressive regime. But Dali's wealth and fame insulate him from the economic hardship that affects much of Spain. His perceived sympathy for the regime, along with his avoidance of political criticism, helps keep him out of danger.

• 43:55Speaker 02

  Though Dali's personal beliefs remain complex, religion exerts a growing influence on his work.

• 44:02Speaker 03

  "Madonna of Port Ligueat" from 1949 is really the first more fully-formed image of his turn to religious subject matter. It looked very conservative at the time. It certainly looked very traditional, but at the same time, it was looking at new ideas of science and technology, considerations about atoms and the nuclear world. And so I think that really signals a change in Dali's work and a direction that he was going that had connections to his earlier pieces certainly looked very different.

• 44:32Speaker 02

  His interest in Catholicism deepening, he secures a private audience with the Pope and presents the "Madonna of Port Ligueat", featuring Gala as the Virgin Mary for his blessing.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  Dali continues to draw on ideas from contemporary science and mathematics. His longstanding fascination with perception leads him to experiment with optical effects in holograms and photomosaic imagery. But despite his technical brilliance, he is accused of becoming overly commercial. Dali's work is often met with skepticism, even as it continues to attract popular attention.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  But his taste for a good stunt remains. Booked to speak at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1955, he arrives in a white Rolls-Royce filled with cauliflower. Later, as promotion for a book, he signs copies in a Manhattan store while connected to a machine that records his brainwaves and blood pressure. Each buyer of the book is gifted with a printout of the data.

• 45:36Speaker 02

  Back in Catalonia, he begins work on the Dali Theatre and Museum in his hometown of Figueres. Now in his 60s, he still cuts a striking figure. He adopts an ocelot and walks an anteater through the streets of Paris before bringing it with him onto the Dick Cabot show.

• 45:53Speaker 03

  He's always realized that pushing the envelope is a way of publicizing his work. He's realized that his personality is as much of a part of his general body of work as his art is. Once television becomes popular, he's showing up on game shows. He's doing commercials for chocolates and things like this in France. I think that the time in America exposes him at first to the media, and that becomes such a way of propelling his image in various guises, not just through art exhibitions and painting, but really as almost a Renaissance man, if you will.

• 46:28Speaker 02

  Dali embraces mass culture and advertising. He blends surrealism with consumerism in campaigns for brands such as Lanvin, Alka-Seltzer, and Dats, even designing the Chuppa Chups lollipop logo.

• 46:46Speaker 02

  The money keeps rolling in, but it doesn't necessarily make for a happy home. Though the couple are increasingly spending time apart, in accordance with Dali's newfound religiosity, they confirm their marriage in a religious ceremony in Girona, Spain, almost two decades after their initial vows. The following decade, Gala sets her sights on acquiring a castle in the village of Poubelle, around 40 miles from Port Ligueat. Dali undertakes its renovation, transforming it into a theatrical space, complete with a mausoleum and a throne room containing a single throne reserved for his beloved wife.

• 47:23Speaker 02

  Gala moves in in 1971, but it becomes increasingly clear that her husband is not welcome without invitation. Now in her late 60s, Gala remains as commanding as ever, hosting orgiastic parties and surrounding herself with a succession of younger lovers. Dali, for his part, leads a separate life at Port Ligueat, where he is said to host sexual gatherings of his own, though his preference remains for looking rather than touching.

• 47:54Speaker 02

  By 1980, both the artist and his country have changed. With the dictator Franco now dead, his successor, King Juan Carlos I, begins guiding the country through a transition to democracy. But though life improves in Spain, it's a period of decline for Dali, now 76 and increasingly fragile. Things are worse for Gala, now in her 80s, who begins to develop dementia. Even so, Dali is paranoid that she will leave him, and at one point physically assaults her, breaking two of her ribs. In an attempt to calm him, Gala gives her husband large quantities of Valium and other drugs, but the sedatives almost kill him. The resulting tremors in his right hand cause him trouble every time he picks up a paintbrush.

• 48:41Speaker 02

  In spite of their bitter antipathy, the couple remain married until Gala's death from influenza in June 1982. Now a widower, Dali descends into a state of derangement, refusing to eat or drink, and scratching at his face in despair.

• 49:03Speaker 02

  In his final years, he is a demanding and verbally abusive invalid for his army of nurses. His final honour comes from King Juan Carlos I, who awards him the title of Marquis of Poubelle Castle. But even Dalí's final act isn't without drama. In 1984, a short circuit in the coal button by his four-poster bed causes a fire. He is rescued from the flames and lives another five years. But after a period of ill health, the artist dies on January 23, 1989, aged 84. He is buried in a crypt of his own design at the Dalí Theatre Museum in Figueres. Yet, even after his death, there is one more unexpected twist.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  In the 2000s, a tarot card reader and psychic called Pilar Abel files a lawsuit claiming to be his daughter. Initial DNA tests taken from traces on Dalí's death mask prove inconclusive. When the artist's remains are exhumed, it is proven that Abel is not Dalí's child. But the embalmer who prepared Dalí's body notes with satisfaction that the artist's famous moustache remains in excellent condition.

• 50:20Speaker 02

  A pioneering surrealist icon, Salvador Dalí revolutionized modern art through his exploration of the subconscious with his dreamlike imagery and technical precision. Though best known for his melting clocks and phantasmagorical desert landscapes, which adorn everything from student posters to jigsaw puzzles, his impact extends beyond painting into cinema, fashion, and pop culture. But in spite of his faults as a person, perhaps his greatest work was the creation of the persona of Salvador Dalí himself.

• 50:54Speaker 03

  Dalí's had a tremendously prolific resonance across popular culture. His posters are of course very common to find, or calendars and things in mass culture. A big part of what Dalí was doing, which seemed very controversial at the time, of making money, of being a greedy artist, of putting his images on fashion design and commercials, and putting his face on Alka-Seltzer commercials or whatever it might be. Those are all things that an artist in his own time thought were just completely strange and not something a serious person would do. But I think now we have a much different view of what an artist is. I mean, an artist can be a personality, an artist can be much freer, and that kind of success isn't looked down upon today like perhaps it was before.

• 51:43Speaker 02

  Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

• 51:49Speaker 07

  You can't get away from the fact that he was one of the most influential engineers of his generation and of the 19th century. He did things that nobody had ever done before, and we are left with an amazing legacy. He was not an innovator, he was an adopter. He was very clever at picking up on new kinds of technology and running with them and doing something very different. And as a result, we're left with an amazing legacy of high-speed railways, the foundations of a maritime dynasty of ships and liners. His imprint is all over the UK and certainly on other parts of the world, and I'm sure that he would have been proud of that kind of legacy today.

• 52:30Speaker 02

  That's next time.

• 52:37Speaker 02

  You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History of right now, without waiting and without adverts, by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to unlock more episodes today.

• 52:53Speaker 00

  Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai/spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai/spotify.

• 53:17Speaker 06

  New and exclusive holiday decor just launched online at The Home Depot. Check out the viral Grand Duchess collection with smart holiday lights you can control from your phone. Easily customize the twinkle across trees, wreaths, and garlands to match your holiday vibe. Create stunning light effects, then switch it up with the tap of your fingers. Even the man in red will be impressed. Shop the holiday decor you want, online only, at homedepot.com.