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Dali did what?
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 11TH MAY 2004
May 11th 2004 marks the centenary of the birth of Salvador Dalí,
the 20th centaury master of surrealism. The Dalí Universe
has compiled the top five most bizarre events in his life:
Salvador
Dali is one of the world’s most well known artists whose legacy
has gone on to influence and inspire generations of artist not to
mention sprucing up many a dreary student digs!
Famous
if not infamous for his art and attitude Dali is generally loved
or hated in the art world. But the fact remains without Dalí,
contemporary art as we know would not be the same.
Andrea
Pedroni Managing Director of County Hall Gallery said, “Love
him or hate him Salvador Dalí is one of the world’s
most recognisable artists and still one of the most fascinating
for young and old. In this his centenary year we should take time
to appreciate Dalí’s legacy of brilliance and the bizarre.”
The
Dalí Universe has compiled Dalí’s TOP 5 surreal
moments…
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5. Salvador Dalí gained a significant amount of media attention,
sparking controversy with his appearances by playing the role of
a surrealist clown. Speaking about himself, Dalí once proclaimed:
"It
is difficult to hold the world's interest for more than half an
hour at a time. I myself have done so successfully every day for
twenty years”…
4.
Dalí swam every day in the summer, and when he began to feel
unsafe swimming in the sea, he had a swimming pool built –
in the shape of male genitalia – in the garden of his summer
home in Cadaques.
3.
Dalí once landed in New York dressed in a golden space suit,
inside a transparent sphere. This was his famous invention, the
'ovocipede’ (presented in Paris in 1959), which, according
to Dalí, was a new means of locomotion based on “the
fantasies provoked by the intra-uterine paradises”
2.
At the Hotel Meurice in Paris where Salvador Dalí often stayed
(in the hotel’s most famous suite - occupied by Alfonso XIII
during his exile from Spain), the surrealist demanded that his wooden
toilet seat be restored after it was replaced with an updated model,
reportedly crying, "What's happened to Alfonso's throne?”
Dalí dismissed all the wooden seats brought to him; until
he was satisfied he had found the one he shared with the buttocks
of Alfonso.
1.
In the steamy summer of 1936, Salvador Dalí suffered from
a backfired stunt, which almost cost him his life. Dalí arrived
to make a lecture at the International Surrealist Exhibition in
London’s New Burlington Gallery, in a deep-sea diving suit,
holding in one hand two Russian wolfhounds on a leash and in the
other a billiard cue. Dalí stood on stage unable to remove
his helmet, he famously had to be extracted from it with a pliers.
By the time he was freed he was suffocating and practically dead.
While the oblivious audience applauded what it thought was a humorous
pantomime. Nobody seems to remember whether the lecture was otherwise
a success.
For more information on the Dalí Universe centenary celebrations,
interview opportunities, and images please contact Nnenna Oleforo,
County Hall Gallery – 020 7450 7619 nnenna@countyhallgallery.com
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