Dali best described the complex state of his genius mind, and the creative nightmare in which he has dwelled for the last eight decades of his life, when he said, The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad

Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904, in Figueras, Spain. He was a rebellious youth, dissatisfied with the world around him, and frustrated with himself. He fought a lifelong battle against conformity, rationality and inhibition, which transformed into a prolific and immensely creative artistic career.

He entered the School of Fine arts in Madrid when he was 17, but was expelled in 1923, and spent a brief time in jail for political activity. After gaining re-admittance in 1925 he was permanently expelled again that same year.

In 1927, while traveling to Paris for the first time, he met Picasso, who Dali felt was the most destructive genius of modern times. Dali considered Picasso his greatest rival, but felt he was less of a painter than himself.

Also in 1927, Dali was introduced to Andre Breton who was the founder of the surrealistic movement in Paris. He joined the surrealistic movement in 1929, the same year that he met Elena Deluvina Diakanoff, known simply as Gala. Gala became his lifelong love and inspiration, and was present in hundreds of his works. Dali once said, I love Gala better than my mother, better than my father, better than Picasso, and even better than money. They were inseparable until she died in 1982.

In the late 1980’s Dali created Persistence of Memory introducing the image of the soft watch, symbolic of the disintegration of matter and typical of the symbolic usage he soon became renowned for. This became one of his most productive periods. Throughout the 1930’s Dali achieved worldwide recognition through his surrealistic visions, and in 1939, he made the cover of Time Magazine.

During the 1940’s Dali’s visions reflected his despair and hope for a world brutalized by war. He also wrote two novels, Hidden Faces and the best seller, The Secret Life of Salvador Dali.

In the 1950’s Dali’s public personality flourished as he created his greatest religious masterpieces. In 1955, at a lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris, he arrived in a Rolls Royce filled with Cauliflowers, publicly reaffirming his eccentricity. The following year he wrote Dali on Modern Art.

Throughout the 1960’s he illustrated books, choreographed ballets, designed surrealistic jewelry and wrote more books. In 1966 one of the greatest retrospective shows of any living artist was mounted in New York by the Museum of Modern Art. The Dali Museum opened in Figueras in 1973. Seven years later, another retrospective exhibition was held, at the Pompidou Center in Paris, where 800,000 people gathered to view his work.

Throughout the life of Salvador Dali, each decade reveals new and imaginative works, which include thousands of paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, sculptures, and illustrations. The quality, quantity, and subject matter continue to stretch the imagination of an audience striving to understand the mind of an artist who compared himself to a madman.