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Salvador Dali
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"Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy - the joy of being Salvador Dalí - and I ask myself in rapture, 'What wonderful things is this Salvador Dalí is going to accomplish today?'" Already a legend in his own lifetime, Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol, (11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989) joined the surrealists in Paris in 1928, and became one of their most vehement exponents. He combined with fantastic ease, the realistic material world with morbid and pathological alienation. He placed dreamlike objects and shapes in new, surrealistic relationships. He often included the themes of older masters in his works, or created the so-called "double paintings", composing human beings of objects. A leader of surrealism, his precise style enhanced the nightmare effect of his paintings. In 1940 Dalí emigrated to the United States, where he wrote "The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí", (1942). He also made surrealist ventures in advertising, ballet and films, e.g., Luis Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou", Walt Disney’s "Destino" and Alfred Hichcock’s "Spellbound". His spectacular self-presentations sometimes irked those who loved his art, as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric, amusing and shocking manner often drew more public attention than his artwork. He was one of the 20th century's most prolific artists, producing well over 2000 finished works in his lifetime, right up to his death in 1989. The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, is devoted entirely to his works. "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."
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