Salvador Dali: Influences

Perhaps one of the world's greatest artists is the Hispanic artist Salvador Dali. He won many awards and became very successful in his work as an artist. During his childhood and thereafter, during the Depression, Salvador Dali's artwork and personality were influenced by many different people and entities. Dali's personal life exhibited to his contemporaries and those who enjoyed his works after his lifetime the various influences that led to his artistry. During his childhood, his family life was difficult and operose. This had an extensive influence on Salvador and his artwork. His father opposed Salvador's chosen occupation. By the time the young wonder was twenty years old; his father had already disowned him. Both his mother and his father were embarrassed and disappointed by their son and his vocation. Dali's uncongenial side showed through in a painting titled The Enigma Of William Tell, which depicted Lenin nearly nude with a deformed buttock supported by a crutch. The group found this picture to be offensive because of the disrespect it showed to the proletariat. Dali's obsession with Hitler also angered the Surrealists and made the group demand explanations of his works. Within the same time period, Dali managed to offend the International Exhibition of Surrealist Art by wearing a diving suit to a convention and almost suffocating himself in the suit. On the other hand, Dali was also an achiever. He worked very hard on whatever he was doing to attain success. He collaborated with magazines like Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Town & Country. Dali also wrote books. His most famous publications of this time period were La Femme Visible and Conquest of the Irrational. He also wrote a small article titled "Minotaure", which explained the symbolic function of surrealism. Dali worked on costumes and scenery for the plays "Labyrinth", "Sentimental Colloquy", and "El Cafe De Cuintas", to name a few. His paintings were numerous and praiseworthy