Salvador Dali Chronology

11 May 1904
Salvador Doménec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech is born.

1914–18
Attends school run by Marist Brothers in Figueras.

1921
Enters San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts, Madrid.

1925
First one-man show, Barcelona.

1926
Expelled from San Fernando Academy.

1928
Goes to Paris. Meets Picasso, members of the Surrealist group and Gala Uluard.

1929
First works in personal Surrealist style, mainly showing sexual fears and preoccupations. First one-man show in Paris. Film Un Chien Andalou with Luis Bunuel. Marries Gala.

1930
Film L’Age d’Or with Bunuel. First sets up home in Port Lligat, Spain.

1934
Quarrells with Surrealists. First one-man show in London.

1936
International Surrealist exhibition, London. Paints two works connected with Spanish Civil War. Dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock’s film Spellbound.

1937–8
Series of paintings on Adolf Hitler and the Munich crisis.

1939
Meets Sigmund Freud.

1940
Moves to the United States where he remains until 1948.

1941–7
Major retrospective exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Designs murals for Helena Rubenstein and sets for various ballets. Publishes autobiography The Secret Life of Salvador Dali.

1948
Returns to Port Lligat.

1949
First religious works. Smaller version of the Madonna of Port Lligat shown to the Pope for approval.

1951–2
Paints Christ of St John of the Cross. Publishes Manifesto Mystique and lectured on Nuclear Mysticism.

1954–5
Paints Corpus Hypercubicus and The Sacrament of the Last Supper.

1964
Publishes The Diary of a Genius.

1970
First major retrospective exhibition, in Europe, Boymans Museum, Rotterdam.

1971
Touring exhibition of Dali jewels.

1973
The Dali Museum opens at his birth place, Figueras.

1979–80
Major retrospective exhibition, Pompiduo Centre, Paris; and Tate Gallery, London.

1983
Finishes his final painting, The Swallow’s Tail.

23 January 1989
Dies of heart failure at Figueres.
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