Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí lived from 1904 to 1989 and is one of the 20 centuries most important artists. The Pichot Family played a big role in Dalí's early years. The friend of Dalí's father, Ramón Pichot, who was a painter made Dalí's father sea the potential of his son, Salvador, and so started his painting career. At the same time, the paintings of Pichot (that can be seen at the museum in Figueres), made an impression on Dalí and inspired him. The Pichot family had their piano put outside on the rocks nearby the coast, a motif to be seen in some of Dalí's paintings.

"The paintings that mostly excited my curiosity were those in which impressionism was dissolved in favor of pointillism. The systematic use of orange and violet gave me a feeling of hope and joy, a feeling reminiscent of the one I got when I saw things through a prism surrounded by a rainbow. In the dining room in my house there was a glass jug with a small opening through which the world was presented in the impressionistic style. I used to have it in my pocket and took it out all the time in order to see things from the impressionistic angle.

"The possibility of not been recognized seemed terrifying to me."

"Since then my ambition has never stopped growing, and so is the case with my megalomania. I will only be Salvador Dali and nothing else, and as I approach this target, Salvador Dalí moves from me."

"The only difference between a madman and myself is that I'm not a madman."

"The only difference between the Surrealists and myself is that I am a surrealist."

"I needed the fame to avenge the dishonor of my mother's death"

"I will be heard throughout the world, for I am the most representative incarnation of postwar Europe, having experienced all the adventures, experiences and dramas."