Salvador Dalí

Born in Figueres, on the French border of Catalunia, Dalí studied between Barcelona and Madrid. At the Academia de San Fernando he met artists such as Luis Buñel and Federico García Lorca, who remained close friends, and Picasso during a trip to Paris. Once expelled from the Academia he went back to Figueres to focus on painting. He collaborated with the vangardist journal L’Amic de les Arts and published the Yellow Manifesto (Catalan anti-artistic manifesto). In 1929 he went back to Paris to present his first film Un chien andalou, result of his collaboration with Buñel. In the same year he met Gala, at that time wife of Paul Éluard and later his muse and wife. After his second film with Buñel L’age d’or, Dalí developed his unique surrealist style. In his series of articles named La femme visible he defined the principles of his paranoic-critical method. With the Nazi occupation of Bordeaux in 1940, he sought asylum in US where he got involved in illustrations, theatre and ballet productions, film collaborations with Hitchcock and Disney. In 1948 he published his 50 Secret in Magic, before returning to Spain until his death.