Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), a universal artist and emblematic figure of Surrealism, was born in Figueres, in the heart of the Empordà region. From a very young age, he showed exceptional sensitivity to painting and literature. His education began at the Colegio Hispano-Francés de la Inmaculada Concepción in Figueres, where he learned French, a language that would later become his language of culture. Dalí’s childhood and youth were shaped by defining experiences: his stay at the El Molí de la Torre estate, surrounded by art and the collection of Ramón Pichot, awakened in him an early interest in Impressionism and the pictorial tradition, while his studies at the Municipal School of Drawing and the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid consolidated his technical training and allowed him to explore his independent and transgressive character.
During the 1920s, Dalí began exhibiting his first works and forming friendships with figures who would shape the artistic landscape of the 20th century, such as Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, and Joan Miró. It was in Paris, at the end of the 1920s, where his encounter with André Breton and the Surrealists transformed his work, laying the foundations of the paranoid-critical method that would characterize his unmistakable style.
In the 1930s, Dalí achieved international recognition: his exhibitions in Paris, London, and New York, along with the release of films such as Un Chien Andalou and L’Âge d’or, consolidated his prestige. At the same time, his relationship with Gala, his inseparable companion, became central to his personal and artistic life. In the following decades, Dalí expanded his interests to cinema, scenography, jewelry, and science, exploring the third dimension and nuclear phenomena, always maintaining a profound dialogue between avant-garde and tradition.
Dalí Family (1910): From left to right: Aunt María Teresa, mother, father, Salvador Dalí, Aunt Catalina (later father’s second wife), sister Ana María, and grandmother Ana.
Dalí Family (1910). From left to right: Aunt María Teresa, mother, father, Salvador Dalí, Aunt Catalina (later father’s second wife), sister Ana María, and grandmother Ana.
His return to Spain in 1948 marked the beginning of his mystical and nuclear phase, combining intense spirituality with references to contemporary scientific advances. The creation of the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, inaugurated in 1974, consolidated his legacy, becoming a space where his many facets converge: painter, scenographer, writer, and creator of imaginary universes. Until his final years, Dalí continued exploring three-dimensionality and hyperstereoscopy, reaffirming his insatiable curiosity and fascination with the symbolism that permeates his entire work.
As a specialist in Dalí’s work, I offer a personal and critical interpretation of his life and legacy, based on my experience visiting the places he inhabited and observing his dialogue with the Empordà and the surreal world he created. This perspective allows approaching his work from a unique and intimate angle, respecting historical facts and his legacy while offering a symbolic reading that connects his creativity with his environment and biography.
It is also important to mention that, although Dalí expressed his wish to be buried at the Castle of Púbol alongside Gala, this aspect of his will was not fully carried out. This reality is part of the biographical analysis and allows reflection on the relationship between the artist’s intention and the subsequent management of his legacy.
Those wishing to delve even deeper will find in my book, “Cadaqués, Portlligat, Figueres, Púbol: Dalí from the Lived Corners of Cadaqués and the Symbolic Reading of His Works,” an intimate and profound perspective. The result of nearly fifty years exploring the very places he inhabited and personal connections with people from his circle, my experience allows discovering the essence of the artist, his dialogue with the Empordà, and the life that inspired his surreal world—from the sensitivity of someone who has shared and lived the environment Dalí made his own.
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