http://www.dali-gallery.com/html/dali.php

Taken while my creativ inner self was working on my less creative paper on Dali. I found it really hard to describe a site that didn't have too much to decribe to begin with... all pics of his work, some info here and there, but a nice thing about his wickedness :)

Salvador Dali Art Gallery

This online gallery is a peek into the life of Salvador Dali, one of the most famous artists of the Surrealism movement. The site traces Dali's output from his early, formative period and onward. The chronological organization of the “Galleries” shows how Dali's art and personality developed through his life. Although he was productive in the 1920s, his familiar style surfaced in the 1930s and simply expanded for the next half-century. Among other things, we can see how Dali used different media to get his ideas across and how his sketching advanced from pen drawings in the early works to loose oil sketches later in his career. Additionally, under the “About Dali,” the author of the site presents numerous black and white photos of Dali and uncovers the history of his life – a cycle of stages which greatly influenced his style by moving him from the relative vulgarity of his early work, to the lucid finish of his best-known years, back to imprecision again, but with all of his self-confidence and mature expressiveness. For those who are not familiar with the Surrealism movement, the author reserved lengthy history note on the style and its main ideas under the “Surrealism.”

I found this site interesting as it helped me to understand what led Dali to produce the works he made. The broad range of works is an evidence of how thoroughly dedicated Dali was to his art and how intellectually involved his work was. He seemed to really know himself and live his life by his own philosophies no matter how bizarre they would be or what anyone else would say. The site thoroughly describes the story of Dali’s life thus revealing how truly special and significant Dali was as an artist, art theorist, and explorer of the areas of the mind and soul. It seems as though his paintings turned out to be a bit like his life -- random and irrational. Through his works Dali shows something amazing – the world in his head – as well as his personality - the brilliance, the cruelty, the humor, and the megalomania -- which I must admit, I found fascinating. The art works he made are controversial and divide opinions of the viewers -- people love it or hate it. To me, it seems that Dali was a genius and a master of hype, and I think that this site has the means to support my opinion.

What surprised me the most was the fact that Dali worked in all media. The splendid collection left by the artist involves oils, watercolors, drawings, sculptures, films, photographs, performance pieces and many other things. I found out that Dali had published at least 2 books, most often discussing his own mastermind in an arrogant manner or describing some of his twisted visions. I also learned that he was fascinated by other people’s backs, like that of Hitler’s or his wife Gala, and portrayed them very often in his works. In addition, Salvador Dali is the only known artist who had two museums dedicated exclusively to his works in his lifetime.