The Shameful Life of Salvador Dali - Softcover

Gibson, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571193803 ISBN 13: 9780571193806

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 1998

Synopsis

Ian Gibson has written the definitive biography of the surrealist painter who caught the imagination of the twentieth century. Dali produces a mixture of feelings in us: intense admiration for his paintings and writings; respect for his rebelliousness; delight at his Wildean wit; boredom with his brash, extravagantly moustached public persona; revulsion at many of the things he did (not least supporting the Franco regime).

As Ian Gibson shows in his revelatory biography, Dali lived a 'shameful life' in every way: underlying his exhibitionism was an intense feeling of shame - the individual hanging his head is one of the recurrent themes of his painting. By way of compensation, he did some outrageous things. Relying on extensive original research and recently discovered sources, Ian Gibson presents a convincing portrait of this disjoined character. He emphasises the literary side to Dali's career - his voluminous correspondence, his novel, poems and essays; and re-examines the two principal relationships of his life - with Federico García Lorca, and with the enigmatic, libidinous Gala.

About this title

Review:

Ian Gibson's fascinating portrait of Salvador Dali depicts an artist whose life is as fragmented as his paintings. Perhaps surprisingly, Gibson argues that an intense sense of shame was the driving force in the surrealist's life and art, steering him between leaps of creative invention and personal ruin. With access to previously unknown biographical details, Gibson concludes that Dali's shame centred around sexual conflict, particularly in his relationships with his muse Gala and his friend Garcia Lorca. In lieu of the sexual act, Dali cultivated a deeply exhibitionist persona and used his art as protection against the shame he associated with sex. As his fame grew so did his need to hide behind his extravagance; the sense of shame is directed outward rather than inward as a result. In the process, Dali betrayed his family, many of his artistic mentors, and in the end his own art.

Colour reproductions of Dali's work illustrate the conflicts playing out in the artist's history and mind, and while Gibson cannot fully explain the origins of Dali's genius and where the artist's true motivations originate, his argument is compelling and reveals a great deal about the tragic and brillant painter. --Aaron Abrams

Synopsis:

This biography argues that Salvador Dali lived a "shameful" life in every way: that underlying his exhibitionism was an intense feeling of shame, the individual hanging his head being one of the recurrent themes of his painting. The book presents a portrait of a disjointed character.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0571193803
• ISBN 13: 9780571193806
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 800