Famous Bis: Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí is one of the most famous artists of all time. His surrealist drawings and paintings have sold more than 200 million copies and have been seen by billions. But did you know that Dalí was bi, or that he had a fraught relationship with his mother, suffered from depression, and often struggled to survive as an artist?

Dalí was born in the town of Figueres, in the south of Spain, in 1904, the middle child of Ana María Dalí Güell and Salvador Dalí Casanovas. The Dalí family was very wealthy, owning the wood and paper industries in the area, as well as a large amount of land, including the Dalí family home, the “Villa Dalí”. Dalí was taken out of school at the age of 16 to help manage the family business, where he worked for the next five years while he continued his artistic studies.

By 22, Dalí had begun to gain recognition as an artist. His paintings, particularly his surrealist depictions of ordinary objects, soon gained him an international following.

Dalí’s life as an artist was not without drama. His first wife, the artist and model Elsa Triolet, was a lesbian. This caused great distress for Dalí, who had been in love with Triolet for many years. The two were married in a Catholic ceremony in 1937, but they separated in 1941 and then divorced in 1948.

The Spanish artist claimed to have had a brief but “sharp” affair with artist Jean Cocteau. However, many people believe that Dalí was bi, including his biographer, Peter Shandy. Shandy holds that, as a young man, Dalí was “drawn to men” and that he had many same-sex encounters during his lifetime, though he did not openly identify as gay or bi himself.

Dalí had a sensitive disposition and suffered from clinical depression throughout his life, often isolating himself from his friends and family during these periods. He was also prone to bouts of comparatively milder bouts of melancholy. Time and again, he would take to his bed or sit at a table in his studio, staring off into space.

In one incident in 1983, Dalí attempted suicide by slitting his wrists with a razor. According to his first wife, Elsa Triolet, Dalí was so distressed by the sudden death of his friend Luis Buñuel that he tried to take his own life.

Dalí’s relationship with his mother was complicated. She was a strict, moralistic woman who expected her son to achieve great things. She disapproved of Dalí’s sexuality, and when he was young, objected to him wearing a skirt and insisted he wears pants. Dalí wrote about this in a letter, saying that he “could not understand the reason for this obsession with fashion” and that he “was beginning to hate my mother.” She died of uterine cancer when Dalí was only a teenager. Years later he recounted that Ana María’s death "was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. I worshipped her... I could not resign myself to the loss of a being on whom I counted to make invisible the unavoidable blemishes of my soul."

Dalí moved to Paris in 1924 and lived there for the next three decades. He had his first exhibition in the city in 1929, a smashing success that boosted his career internationally. Dalí’s fame grew so much that he was often referred to as “the Spanish surrealist” referencing the Surrealist movement.

In 1943, Dalí moved to the United States and settled in New York. He had several solo exhibitions during this time and was well-received in the art scene. Dalí’s health began to decline as he got older, however, and he suffered from various ailments including arteriosclerosis, gout, and stomach ulcers. He also had chronic bronchitis for which he had to undergo several surgeries. Plagued by financial problems, the Spanish artist fell into debt and was often in need of money. In 1982, Dalí told an interviewer: “I have no fortune, no money... but I don’t want to die. If I were to die, I’d like to be cremated; I don’t want a tombstone.” Dalí died in 1989 at the age of 84.

The life of Salvador Dalí was full of twists and turns, not only because he lived during an era of great cultural and political upheaval, but because of the many personal challenges he faced. The Spanish artist was bi and struggled with mental health, family, and money. Despite this, Dalí was a true visionary and master of his craft, celebrated as one of history’s greatest artists, even in his own lifetime.