Dalí, Salvador, 1904-89, Spanish painter. At first influenced by futurism, in 1924 Dalí came under the influence of the Italian painter de Chirico and by 1929 he had become a leader of surrealism. His precisely realistic style enhances the obsessively nightmarish effect of many of his paintings. Among his best-known works is Persistence of Memory (1931; Mus. of Modern Art, New York City) with its strangely melting clocks. In 1940 Dalí escaped from Nazi-occupied France and emigrated to the United States. He wrote The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942) and also made surrealist ventures in films (e.g., Luis Buñuel's Un Chien andalou, 1928), advertising, and the ballet. A self-proclaimed genius, Dalí was certainly a multitalented artist-a superb draftsman whose wildly inventive imagination has left a strong impression on contemporary culture. However, his publicity-seeking antics, commercialism, and encouragement of art-world trickery that made fake Dalí prints an industry caused some to brand him a charlatan. The Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Fla., and Teatre-Museu Dalí, Figueres, Spain, are devoted to his works.

The Dalí Theatre and Museum (Teatre-Museu Dalí in Catalan language), is a museum of the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres, in Catalonia.

The heart of the museum was the building that housed the town's theatre when Dalí was a child, and where one of the first public exhibitions of young Dalí's art was shown. The old theater was bombed in the Spanish Civil War and remained in a state of ruin for decades until Dalí and the mayor of Figueres decided to rebuild it as a museum dedicated to the town's most famous son in 1960. The museum also occupies buildings and courtyards adjacent to the old theater building.

The museum opened in 1974, with continuing expansions through the mid-1980s. It houses the single largest and most diverse collection of works by Salvador Dalí, the heart of which was from the artist's own collection. In addition to Dalí paintings from all decades of his career, there are Dalí sculptures, 3-dimensional collages, mechanical devices, a living-room with custom furniture that looks like the face of Mae West when viewed from a certain spot, and other curiosities from Dalí's imagination.

The museum also houses a small selection of works by other artists collected by Dalí, ranging from El Greco to Marcel Duchamp, and a gallery devoted to the work of Dalí's friend and fellow Catalan artist Antoni Pitxot, who became director of the museum after Dalí's death.

Dalí is buried in a crypt in the Teatre-Museum basement.

The collection

Some of the most important exhibited works are Port Alguer (1924), L'espectre del sex-appeal (1932), Autoretrat tou amb bacon fregit (1941), Poesia d'Amèrica-Els atletes còsmics (1943), Galarina (1944-45), La panera del pa (1945), Leda atòmica (1949), Galatea de les esferes (1952) and Crist de la Tramuntana (1968). There is also a set of works carried out by the artist expressly for the Theater-Museum, like the room Mae West, the room Palau del Vent, the Monument to Francesc Pujols, and the Cadillac plujós.

See also

• Dali Universe - in London, England
• Salvador Dalí Museum - in St Petersburg, Florida, USA
• Espace Dalí - in Paris, France

External links

• Dalí Theater Museum English language web page
• Dalí Theater-Museum situation map in Figueres