Los Angeles, CA

Though this exhibit opened in October, I still feel it’s worth sharing (one, because I wasn’t here in October, and two, because it’s freaking Dalí!). The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a great retrospective on Salvador Dalí’s work up right now, and while it features his trademark surrealist paintings which were his main claim to fame, the well-rounded exhibit also features his lesser-known film work, including his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock on the film Spellbound. Work from his recently unearthed short film Destino, made with Walt Disney, will be shown as well.

A little bit of history for you: Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904 in Spain to a strict lawyer father and a more understanding mother. Dalí’s mother, whom he worshipped, encouraged his artistic endeavors. He attended drawing schools and discovered modern painting at the age of twelve and started exhibiting his work at the age of fifteen. At the age of eighteen he moved to Madrid and attended the School of Fine Arts, but was expelled when he decreed that no one on the staff was competent enough to judge his works. Not letting that stop him, Dalí traveled to Paris and met Pablo Picasso, and eventually ended up working with Luis Buñuel, writing the script for Un Chien Andalou. It was also the year that Dalí would meet his future wife.

Dalí’s fame steadily grew from there, and in 1931 he painted what is arguably his most well-known piece, The Persistence of Memory (above). He also grew more and more eccentric, showing up in public wearing women’s bras under glass, diving suits, and of course his trademark moustache. Dalí and his wife moved to the U.S. at the start of World War II, and in 1942 he published his autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí. As he grew older, Dalí became increasingly interested in math, physics, and his old religion of Catholicism. His work with optical illusions inspired a young Andy Warhol. Unfortunately, Dalí had to ultimately give up his art when his wife accidentally gave him a bizarre concoction of medicines that wrecked his nervous system and left his right hand ruined. Shortly thereafter his wife died, and Dalí lost his will to live. Seven years later, and after many failed suicide attempts, he followed her in death.

This was just a severely abridged version of Dalí’s life. If it was at all interesting, please read more, either through his Wikipedia page, or by a biography.

Dalí: Painting & Film will be on display at the LACMA through January 6th, 2008. Note that tickets to the Dalí exhibit are separate from general admission to the museum. You can read more about the exhibit through LACMA’s website here, and get more detailed ticket information here.

“Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure — that of being Salvador Dalí.”