Neat idea.
My favorite artist is Salvador Dalí...such a character.
"I do not take drugs. I am drugs." - Salvador Dalí
I was going to start off by posting Un Chien Andalou, a 1929 short film he created with Luis Buñuel, but it turns out all the videos I can find of it have been removed
Dalí had quite the ego, and deservedly so: his first exhibition was at the young age of 15. With these early works, keep in mind that he was born in 1904. The first image below was painted when he was 6.
Landscape Near Figueras, 1910
Duck, 1918
Self-Portrait in the Studio, 1919
Cubist Self-Portrait, 1923
Female Nude, 1925
It wasn't long before he joined the surrealism movement...
Dalí was a fan of Freud's work and it heavily influenced his own. In Lugubrious Game, for example, you'll notice scatological references, references to emasculation, a number of vaginas, and much more. It is in the details that I think Dalí's work comes alive.
Lugubrious Game, 1929
He also had an interest in physics and was heavily influenced by Einstein's work, leading to one of most famous symbols: the soft watch, a reference to the relativity of time. Eventually, Dalí's work begins to focus less on Freudian imagery and more on scientific references such as this.
The Persistence of Memory, 1931
Unsurprisingly, World War II (and the time leading up to it) had a huge impact on Dalí, and his work took a much darker tone in this period. This is when some of my favorite paintings of his took place...
The Horseman of Death, 1935
Autumn Cannibalism, 1936
Sleep, 1937
Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937
Ballerina in a Death's-Head, 1939
The Visage of War, 1940
Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man, 1943
The dropping of the atomic bomb brought further influence to Dalí's work, as he became interested in the atomic nature of all things.
He revisited his famous painting, The Persistence of Memory, with this new perspective...
The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, 1954
He was also developing an interest in Christian imagery...
Crucifixion, 1954
The Last Supper, 1955
There's so much more to show...so many different styles he used...but this post is probably already too long. So, just a few more from his later works...
Fifty Abstract Paintings Which as Seen from Two Yards Change into Three Lenins Masquerading as Chinese and as Seen from Six Yards Appear as the Head of a Royal Bengal Tiger, 1963
Portrait of My Dead Brother, 1963
Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea Which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln - 1976
The Harmony of the Spheres, 1978
And his final painting...
The Swallow's Tail — Series on Catastrophes, 1983
