Salvador Dal

Christ of Saint John of the Cross, 1951

Salvador Dal & Christ of St. John of the Cross

Salvador Dal was born in 1904 in Figueres, Spain, a town just outside Barcelona. Salvador was

said to be a reincarnation of his brother, passing away shortly before his birth. When he was

about 5 years old, his parents took him to his brothers grave and told him that he was alike his

brother as two droplets of water were; same but with different reflections. At a young age, Dal

would have sparks of random eccentricity and rebel against his parents often. Salvadors father

usually did not approve of his creativity, and would punish him. Later, young Salvador would

start to create more intricate and articulate charcoal drawings, when his parents started to notice
that he had a real talent. His parents would later enroll him in the Madrid School of Arts. At 16,

his mother died of breast cancer. This affected Dal and put him into a shallow depression for a

short time. At 19, his father fully supporting his art profession, he organized his first exhibition

of his charcoal drawings in his house.

While in art school, Salvador learned to embrace his personality fully and excelled.

Sadly, Dal was expelled during his final exam before graduation for insulting a teacher. After he

was expelled, he didnt make art for a while. After a trip to Paris, France where he met famous

artists and influencers like Picasso, Dal came back to Spain to find his style. Combining all the

art styles he had discovered from travelling, he came up with his own style of surrealism with

hints of cubism and abstract in it. He would later go on to paint his most famous painting The

Persistence of Memory with this style. Many think Dal was influenced with psychedelic drugs

such as LSD, however he replied to this by saying I dont do drugs, I am drugs. This was

reflected in his art by the influencing of lust and human anatomy. His style later reflected war

politics when the world wars broke out. Dal had a major presence in the US before he had even

traveled there. When Salvador first went to the United States, someone had already organized,

sold, and displayed some of his most popular pieces, including The Persistence of Memory.

Dal lived in the US off and on for periods of time, and he knew he wanted to achieve

cinematic fame. Dal had made short films before, but could not achieve the desired fame in

Hollywood, but did work with Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney. Later in his life, Dal had

bought his wife, Gala, a castle. She would go on retreats for weeks at a time alone, causing Dal

to spiral into depression. After her death, it is believed that Salvador attempted suicide, and then

moved into the castle.

 On January 23, 1989, Dal died of heart failure while listening to his favorite record. He

is buried under the museum he built for his legacy to live on in, located in Figueres, Spain.

The Christ of St. John of The Cross was inspired by a geometric construction. Salvador

constructed a circle and inscribed a triangle in it, and drew the crucifixion of Christ inside of it. It

was then tilted to a perspective of looking down on it, and put into cubism. Dal did this with

mostly oil paints on canvas. This painting is thought to be one of his most normal pieces. In

the 1970s, an art critic thought the painting to be banal, and slashed it with a blade. The painting

was repaired and put back onto display, only to be shot by an air rifle a few years afterward. The

painting has been repaired again since, and has not been vandalized. Dali was raised catholic,

then later converting to atheism for a few years, then back to Catholicism, when he then

commissioned this art piece.

SOURCES CITED

http://english.op.org/godzdogz/art-of-the-redemption-4-christ-of-st-john-of-the-cross-by-

salvador-dali

https://www.biography.com/people/salvador-dal-40389

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dali-salvador.htm