The Persistence Of Memory: A Biography Of Dali [Paperback]

Meredith Etherington-smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1995

Surrealist painter, author, filmmaker, lecturer, performance artist, charlatan, genius, clown, Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) once asked himself, "Where does the deep and philosophical Dalí begin, and where does the loony and preposterous Dalí end?" This evenhanded but exacting biography, based on interviews, unpublished letters, and previously unavailable archives, explores the relationship between his eccentric life and the hallucinatory imagery of the paintings that, like the soft watches, have become twentieth-century icons. The author penetrates the artist's self-mythologizing facade to reveal the man behind the outrageous mustache and cryptic canvasses: his Catalan childhood; his relationships with Garcia Lorca, Bunuel, Breton, Picasso, Miro, de Chirico, Man Ray, Ernst, and Eluard; Dalí's fixations, phobias, and Surrealist pranks; and his bizarre marriage to Gala—muse, business manager, nymphomaniac, gold digger, and finally tormentor. With reproductions of sixteen Dalí paintings, The Persistence of Memory offers an unrivaled tour of the absurd and haunting landscape of Dalí's life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Piercing the flamboyant persona of a self-mythologizing artist, this lively, gossipy, well-researched biography of Salvador Dali lays bare the demons that fed his paranoia and fueled his art. Dali was given the identical name of a baby brother who had died nine months before his birth in 1904. According to Etherington-Smith, editor of Christie's International Magazine , Dali carried a lifelong burden of guilt at having "stolen" his elder brother's existence. Shattered by his adored mother's death when he was 17, the Spanish painter craved fame because he needed to prove himself to his father, a bullying notary, reports the author. She maintains that Dali (1904-1989) had homosexual desires but was terrified of being physically touched and probably shied away from a sexual relationship with demanding, possessive poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Dali's marriage to Gala (born Helena Diakonoff) is convincingly presented here as a relationship of mutual, morbid dependence. This biography candidly confronts the darker facets of Dali's life, such as his right-wing politics, his allegiance to Franco in the Spanish Civil War, his masochism, phobias, manipulativeness and frenzied autoeroticism. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this first major biography since the artist's death, Etherington-Smith has created a brilliant portrayal of the enigmatic Salvador Dali. The author shows the emergence of Dali and surrealism, detailing his dealings with principal figures such as Andre Breton, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Luis Bunel. Dali's quick rise to fame and fortune through his masterful manipulation of the art world and general public is fully documented; the integral and enigmatic role of Gala, Dali's wife of more than 50 years, is intelligently explored. Though Picasso is certainly a greater artist and Max Ernst or Rene Magritte more "pure" Surrealists, it is Dali who has captured the imagination of the greater public. His iconography--arising, as the author shows, from childhood memories of his native Catalonia--has become a key element of the 20th-century mind. A vital work for understanding Dali, his art, and his times that will be popular in public and and academic collections.-- Martin R. Kalfatovic, Natl. Museum of American Art/Natl. Portrait Gallery Lib., Smithsonian Inst., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 510 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 22, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306806622
• ISBN-13: 978-0306806629
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,004,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dali's life, March 1, 2010

By 

pinksno "pinksno" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Persistence Of Memory: A Biography Of Dali (Paperback)

A basic biography about such a curious individual. Ordered this book for a paper that I am writing on psychopathology and Dali. Very helpful information; lots of description in this biography. Not just a time line.

10 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The memory man, October 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Persistence Of Memory: A Biography Of Dali (Paperback)

Surrealists said that someone who came up with something out of the ordinary must have been in love with Gala Eluard: her husband Salvador Dali's unforgettable imagery, from early autobiographical works through Surrealist dream symbols to metaphysical and religious themes, drew into the art world people who had been uninterested in painting. Perhaps he revealed the secret of his appeal when he said that he drew just one picture, mixing what happened to him and in the world with eternal themes from his childhood, such as the threatening father in "The old age of William Tell." Some childhood memories found expression in Hieronymus Bosch-styled decaying soft objects, as in "The persistence of memory." With "Cenicitas" and "La miel es mas dulce que la sangre," he launched his psychoanalytically symbolic art by following the Surrealist ideal of uncensored and uncontrolled imagery, knowing what to apply from Sigmund Freud's "The interpretation of dreams," and using sleepwalking shadows, Joaquin Sorolla-type light, and jewel-like clear colors. One of his hallmarks became pictures with multiple images: "The endless enigma" double, triple and quadruple imaging into such disturbing visions as a fish skeleton balanced on top of a stick and Gala's eyes staring cruelly out at viewers; "The image disappears" double imaging a Jan Vermeer-styled girl into a bearded man; "The metamorphosis of Narcissus" double imaging Narcissus into a petrified hand holding an egg cracking into a narcissus, with Sandro Botticelli-type dancing figures and Umbrian school-like golden glowing background; his metaphysical "Dali a six ans soulevant avec precaution la peau de l'eau pour observer un chien dormir a l'ombre de la mer" covering a dog with atomic reactor-type, mirrorlike heavy water and reflecting granite cliffs, in a Piero di Cosimo-styled seascape; one of his nuclear fission series, "The three sphinxes of Bikini," double imaging the atomic explosion into three heads, with one turning into two trees. Later, one of the high points in his religious paintings was floating a foreshortened "Christ of St John of the cross" over an early evening sky and above the rocks of the painter's homeland. From his fascination with three-dimensional art and as an exercise in the stereoscopy that he saw in Gerard Dou's art, he painted "Dali from the back painting Gala from the back externalized by six virtual corneas, provisionally reflected by six mirrors." And his final masterpiece Teatro museo Gala-Dali was a three-dimensional autobiography of all his ideas and images. Author Meredith Etherington-Smith reads magnificently with DALI'S OPTICAL ILLUSIONS edited by Dawn Ades and Robert Radford's DALI. Readers might want to look into Ruth Brandon's SURREAL LIVES, Sharon Fermor's PIERO DI COSIMO, Carl Linfert's BOSCH, Bruno Santi's BOTTICELLI, and Arthur K. Wheelock's JAN VERMEER.