As a very young artist in training at the academy in Madrid, Salvador Dal#65533; worked in two distinct modes--a highly detailed naturalism (under the influence of the "return to order”) and a more avant-garde, cubist-derived style that owed much to Picasso (whom Dal#65533; visited in Paris in 1926). Then, in 1927, the twenty-three-year-old artist, influenced by Andr#65533; Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto of 1924 and the paintings of such artists as Joan Mir#65533; and Yves Tanguy, began to move towards Surrealism. In the spring of 1929, to coincide with the shooting of Bu#65533;uel’s Un Chien andalou, Dal#65533; organized his first Paris exhibition, thereby gaining acclaim as a full member of the surrealist movement.
This book offers a wealth of new material about Dal#65533;’s formative years as a young artist in Spain and first years in Paris. F#65533;lix Fan#65533;s, one of the most knowledgeable Dal#65533; scholars in the world, transforms perceptions of the artist and shows how the stage was set for the emergence of Dal#65533;’s mature artistic personality. With a fresh and detailed assessment of Dal#65533;’s truly revolutionary work, Fan#65533;s reveals the central role of the artist not only in the development of the Surrealist movement but also the course of 20th-century art.