Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Emerging from the Catalan town of Figueres, Spain, Salvador Dalí developed into one of the 20th century’s most iconic Surrealist artists. A gifted student, he enrolled at Madrid’s prestigious San Fernando School of Fine Arts before joining the Paris Surrealist movement in 1929, where he quickly became its most flamboyant and influential figure.

Dalí pioneered the "paranoiac-critical method" a self-induced hallucinatory state designed to unlock the subconscious and invite subconscious symbols into his work. This approach gave rise to imaginative, illusionistic dreamscapes filled with vivid imagery and psychological complexity.

Represented globally in leading museums, Dalí’s legacy is defined by fearless experimentation with form and psyche, forever altering how art captures the unconscious.