We know people who are not afraid to be authentic, people who have free souls and embody their personality in everything they do even if others don’t like it or think it’s too exaggerated. People with eccentricities teach us that not everything has to be square and that there can be a thousand ways to do things even if it is not common, that is why they transcend over the years, and their work remains a part of all of us, eccentricity is revolutionary and generates a real change in art, music, and soul.
But what happens when all that eccentricity exceeds the moral norms of society and then those proposed changes are not as positive as we thought? Do we have to continue to support the artist’s work or separate the art from the artist and ignore the bad things they do in their daily life? For me, in some cases, it is important to separate the art from the artist but there are some cases where it’s crucial to stop glorifying people who were not as captivating as we thought they were, then we should continue to support the work of the artist.
Salvador Dalí is one of those people whose eccentricity made him transcend; his paintings seemed to make little sense when analyzed from his perspective. He portrayed just another way of seeing reality, in a more fun way that broke with life and art’s monotony. Dalí created a world of his own; that’s a fact.
The greatest representative of surrealism commented after visiting Mexico that he would never return because “he could not see a place more surreal than his paintings.” We are talking about a painter whose mascot was an anteater and who brought a horse up to a hotel room. Often, these stories are deemed as simply part of Dalí’s eccentric personality but where do we draw the line between being unorthodox or simply a jerk?
¿Eccentric or Narcissist?
In this article, we will also comment on the other side of the painter, because despite being a historical icon, it is also commented that his paintings had too many references to his sex life, and he really just enjoyed exposing himself and labeling himself as someone eccentric. Since he was a child, Dalí wrote in his diary that he wanted to be rich, which is not bad, but he took extra and questionable lengths to achieve his goal.
He had an obscure and sick obsession with Germany’s infamous leader and even painted him; he also sided with Francisco Franco, Spain’s fascist dictator during the civil war in Spain. He didn’t care about morals when it came to preserving his fame, but curious enough, he sided with those in power who would consider his art deviant.
Dalí greatly admired these two characters and considered them his heroes; let’s put it in all its words, Salvador Dalí was a fascist. His fanaticism for fascism caused him to be removed from the surrealist movement, to which he defended himself by saying “Surrealism is me.” Such a jerk.
Dalí the Abuser
Dalí was also known for his many exotic pets and his performances with animals, which despite contributing to art, made harmed and hurt the animals used. Such as the time he filled a piano with cats and played it, causing the cats to be mistreated by the percussion inside the piano.
One of the painter’s strangest contributions was to propose a new type of religion based on surrealism and masochism. He used to say that surrealists were becoming priests and proposed the exclave of all non-white people. This was exposed through letters where he proposed this to his friend André Bretón; however, before Franco Dalí presented himself as a Catholic person. He was simply a coward that hid behind an ‘eccentric persona.’
Yes, he revolutionized art and his work has definitely great importance, but it’s time we stop glorifying Salvador Dalí and start referring to him for what he was, a jerk with horrible ideas towards women, animals, and anything that went against white status quo. A man who inflicted pain on many living beings and hid his cowardly and horrible acts behind the tag of ‘eccentric genius.’