Art of the 20th Century



 

Art Styles in 20th century Art Map



 

If You Act the Genius, You Will Be One!




1910 - 1928

 

Siphon and Small Bottle with Cork
1924

Salvador Dali y Domenech, Apprentice Painter
 

Whatever one's position on Dali' s conduct, the fact remains that even before he entered the Academy in Madrid he was so industrious a worker that his father, compelled to respect his son's efforts, started to paste material relating to his son in a scrapbook. Dali senior even wrote a preface, presumably for the benefit of posterity, under the title Salvador Dali y Domenech, Apprentice Painter:
 

"After twenty-one years of cares, anxieties and great efforts I am at last able to see my son almost in a position to face life's necessities and to provide for himself. [...] We, his parents, did not wish our son to dedicate himself to art, a calling for which he seems to have shown great aptitude since his childhood. [...] We knew the bitterness, the sorrows and the despair of those who fail. [...] We did all we could to urge our son to exercise a liberal, scientific or even literary profession. At the moment when our son finished his baccalaureate studies, we were already convinced of the futility of turning him to any other profession than that of a painter, the only one which he has genuinely and steadfastly felt to be his vocation. I do not believe that I have the right to oppose such a decided vocation, especially as it was necessary to take into consideration that my boy would have wasted his time in any other discipline or study, because of the 'intellectual laziness' from which he suffered as soon as he was drawn out of the circle of his predilections. When this point was reached, I proposed to my son a compromise: that he should attend the school of painting, sculpture and engraving in Madrid, that he should take all the courses that would be necessary for him to obtain the official title of professor of art, and that once he had completed his studies he should take the competitive examination in order to be able to use his title of professor in an official pedagogical center, thus securing an income that would provide him with all the indispensable necessities of life and at the same time permit him to devote himself to art as much as he liked during the free hours which his teaching duties left him. [...] This is the point we have now reached! I have kept my word, making assurance for my son that he shall not lack anything that might be needed for his artistic and professional education. The effort which this has implied for me is very great, if it is considered that I do not possess a personal fortune, either great or small, and that I have to meet all obligations with the sole honorable and honest gain of my profession, which is that of a notary, and that this gain, like that of all notaryships in Figueras, is a modest one. For the moment my son continues to perform his duties in school, meeting a few obstacles for which I hold the pupil less responsible than the detestable disorganization of our centers of culture. But the official progress of his work is good. My son has already finished two complete courses and won two prizes, one in the history of art and the other in 'general apprenticeship in color painting'. I say his 'official work', for the boy might do better than he does as a 'student of the school', but the passion which he feels for painting distracts him from his official studies more than it should. He spends most of his hours in painting pictures on his own which he sends to expositions after careful selection. The success he has won by his paintings is much greater than I myself could ever have believed possible. But, as I have already mentioned, I should prefer such success to come later, after he had finished his studies and found a position as a professor. For then there would no longer be any danger that my son's promise would not be fulfilled. In spite of all that I have said, I should not be telling the truth if I were to deny that my son's present successes please me, for if it should happen that my son would not be able to win an appointment to a professorship, I am told that the artistic orientation he is following is not completely erroneous, and that however badly all this should turn out, whatever else he might take up would definitely be an even greater disaster, since my son has a gift for painting, and only for painting.

Figueras, December 31, 1925
Salvador Dali, Notary."
 

Dali's student identification card for the 1924-25 academic year

 

In February 1922, Dali exhibited at a group show at Dalmau's Gallery in Barcelona; the eight paintings he had in the show were especially praised by reviewers. In 1923 he exhibited at the Figueras municipal library, and in June 1925 exhibited the portrait of Buhuel, and Siphon and Rum Bottle with Cork, in Madrid. Finally, from 14 to 27 November 1925, he had his first solo show at Dalmau's in Barcelona. It included one painting done in 1917 (Landscape near Cadaques); two 1924 still lifcs (in Cubist style); and fourteen pictures painted in 1925, among them the Portrait of my Father, two portraits of his cousin Montscrrat, and the famous Venus and a Sailor. In January 1926, the magazine Gaseta de les Arts ran a lengthy article on him, while another appeared in D'aci, d'alld. His father duly clipped the articles and pasted them into the scrapbook recording the doings of the apprentice painter.
 

Portrait of the Artist's Father
1925

Venus and a Sailor (1)
1925

Portrait of Manuel de Falla
1924