Dali. The Paintings

At the age of six, Salvador Dalí wanted to be a cook. At the age of seven, he wanted to be Napoleon. "Since then," he later said, "my ambition has steadily grown, and my megalomania with it. Now I want only to be Salvador Dalí, I have no greater wish."

Painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker, Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was one of the century's greatest exhibitionists and eccentrics — and was rewarded with fierce controversy wherever he went. He was one of the first to apply the insights of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis to the art of painting, approaching the subconscious with extraordinary sensitivity and imagination. 

After years of research, authors Robert Descharnes and Gilles Néret located painted works by the master that had been inaccessible for years — so many that almost half the featured illustrations appeared in public for the first time in this book.  Beyond the paintings themselves, the book contextualises Dalí's oeuvre by examining contemporary documents — from writings and drawings to material from other facets of his work including ballet, cinema, fashion, advertising, and objets d'art.

George Orwell called Dalí a disgusting human being — then admitted he had fifty times more talent than most of the people who would denounce him. Freud, who hated modern art, rethought his position after seeing Dalí's technical mastery. Walt Disney desperately wanted to work with him. Few artists have ever been so impossible to ignore.