"The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad." so said Salvador Dali,
one of the most important artists of our time.

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dal i Domnech, was born on May 11, 1904, in Catalonia, Spain. Dal's older brother, also named Salvador, had died nine months earlier. When he was five, Dal was taken to his brother's grave and told that he was his brother's reincarnation.This greatly influenced Dali for the rest of his life as he believed it to be true. Though Salvador's father was strict,his mother encouraged the boy's creative efforts.

Dal attended drawing school and had his first public exhibition at the Municipal Theater in Figueres in 1919.His mother was his greatest advocate and supporter. When she died of cancer in 1921,he was devastated.Being only 16 years old, he said her death was the greatest blow he had ever experienced.He and his younger sister,Ana Maria, were not resentful however,when their father married their mother's sister.

In 1922, Dal moved into the Residencia de Estudiantes (Students' Residence) in Madrid[7] and there studied at the Academia de San Fernando (School of Fine Arts).He began to experiment with Cubism,a new movement of that time. His flambouyant personal style had already earned him the most attention of all his fellow students.

Dal was expelled from the Academia in 1926 because he said he was so much better than his teachers that they could not judge his work.Undaunted,Dali made his first trip to Paris where he met with Pablo Picasso. Having great admiration for Picasso,Dali painted several pieces in that style as he developed his own unique way of working.

1929 brought the most important event of Salvador Dali's life.He met the love of his life and his muse... Gala, born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, a Russian immigrant eleven years his senior who was then married to the surrealist poet Paul luard.

Gala and Paul Eulard promised to visit Dali in Cadaqus during the next summer, a meeting arrangement that also included other artists and their wives.

Dali's love for Gala, became obsessive then . He tried everything to get her attention such as waxing his armpit and dying it blue, applying goat excrements upon himself and wearing a red geranium on his head. His emotion was such, that every time he tried to talk to her, he suffered uncontrollable laughing attacks.
Once Dali fell on his knees laughing, he declared his love for her, and Gala said "... my boy, let us never

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