Diary of a Genius by Salvador Dali, J. G. Ballard (Introduction)

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Synopsis

Diary of a Genius stands as one of the seminal texts of Surrealism, revealing the most astonishing and intimate workings of the mind of Salvador Dali, the eccentric polymath genius who became the living embodiment of the 20th century's most intensely subversive, disturbing and influential art movement.

Dali's second volume of autobiography, Diary of a Genius covers his life from 1952 to 1963, during which years we learn of his amour fou for his wife Gala, and their relationship both at home in Cadaques and during bizarre world travels. We also learn how Dali draws inspiration from excrement, rotten fish and Vermeer's Lacemaker to enter his 'rhinocerontic' period, preaching his post-holocaustal gospels of nuclear mysticism and cosmogenic atavism; and we follow the labyrinthine mental journeys that lead to the creation of such paintings as the Assumption, and his film script The Flesh Wheelbarrow. This new edition includes a brilliant and revelatory essay on Salvador Dali, and the importance of his art to the 20th century, by the author J G Ballard.

Annotation

A self-portrait of the great artist that covers the period from 1952 to 1963, written at his home in the South of Spain.

Biography

Salvador Dali (1904—1989) entered the ranks of the Surrealists in 1929 with a series of iconoclastic paintings which fused technical virtuosity with Freudian infantilism, leading to his invention of the "paranoiac-critical" method. Later expelled from the Surrealist Group, he was christened "Avida Dollars" by Andre Breton whilst acquiring the reputation of master showman and scandalist. His art and writings remain amongst the most unique and important bodies of work of the 20th Century.