Salvador Dali (1904-89) is one of the most controversial and paradoxicalrtists of the twentieth century. A painter of considerable virtuosity, hesed a traditional illusionistic style to create disturbing images filledith references to violence, death, cannibalism and bizarre sexual practices,rom the extraordinary fluid watches in The Persistence of Memory to theruesome monster in Soft Construction with Boiled Beans and the fetishisticobster in the famous Lobster Telephone.;Born in Figueras, Spain, Dalitarted out as a Cubist, but subsequently became involved with theurrealists in Paris, the most revolutionary artists of the time. Theyegarded his paintings as revealing the hidden world of the unconscious.ndeed, the Surrealists' leader, Andre Breton, remarked: "It is perhaps withali that for the first time the windows of the mind are opened fully wide".owever, Breton later expelled him from the group for his Fascist sympathiesnd derided his commercial success in the United States, calling him "Avidaollars", an anagram of his name. Dali's response was equally curt: "The