Salvidor Dali Was Born

Dali became a member of the surrealist movement. He was surrounded by artists who accepted his outlandish behaviour and celebrated the bizarre imagery in his art. Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings.

It was founded in Paris by a small group of writers and artists who painted pictures which gave a vivid reality to the world of dreams and the subconscious. Amongst other artists Dali met in the surrealist group, he made acquaintance with Gala, the wife of the Surrealist writer Paul Eluard. Dali and Gala fell in love and moved to Paris together in the autumn of 1929 and married five years later.Dali painted 'Christ of Saint John of the Cross' in the summer of 1951. It is a reworking of a drawing of the Crucifiction believed to have been made by Saint John of the Cross, a 16th century Spanish saint.

It is an oil painting on canvas and is 205 cm by 116 cm. The painting was purchased by Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in 1952 for �8,200. The spanish government offered �80 million for the painting but the offer was turned down. It is one of the best-loved works of art in the city.

The painting has aroused admiration, criticism and controversy since it was painted! Students of Glasgow school of Art submitted a petition against the purchase because they thought the money would have been better allocated to artists in the City. It was thought by religious groups that with his reputation, Dali shouldn't be painting religious works and Art Critics believed that with this painting, Dali was not pushing the boundaries of the surrealism he was known for.

The painting was attacked by a visitor in 1961 who used a stone and his hands to tear the canvas, but it was successfully restored. Dali relied on his dreams for guidance, he aimed to combine nuclear science and religion in Christ of Saint John of the Cross, and also used mathematical theories to try and work out the ideal proportions for his work. Dali wrote "In 1950 I had a cosmic dream in which I saw in colour this image, which in my dream represents the nucleus of the atom. This nucleus afterwords took on a metaphysical meaning. I consider it to be the very unity of the universe, Christ" and "When thanks to Father Bruno (Carmelite), I saw the Christ drawn by Saint John of the Cross, I worked out geometrically a triangle and a circle which aesthetically summarised all my previous experiments and I drew my Christ in this triangle".

In the paintings 'Christ of Saint John of the Cross' and 'Crucifixion' Jesus's cross floats above the ground. In the painting' Christ of Saint John of the Cross' you see Christ's point of view from above, while in 'Crucifixion' (1954) you see the view of the spectators below. These paintings show how reality is perceived. Dali started painting from science after World War II, this is when he began the nuclear (or 'atomic') period of his work. In the painting 'The persistence of memory' (1931) you see a distorted fetus like head lying on the ground and melting clocks and in the backround a landscape that looks similar to Port Lligat where Dali grew up, the landscapes in many of his paintings resemble Port Lligat with sandy beaches and old sail boats.

The melting pocket watches suggest the irrelevance of time during sleep, when we are asleep time does not persist, but memories do. Dali called his paintings hand painted dream photographs.This painting also relates to perceived reality and suggests that "Time is a human perception".Salvidor Dali is my favourite artist, I love his work! I admire Dali's eccentricnes, I would love to have met him! The painting 'Christ of Saint John of the Cross' is my favourite painting as i love religious paintings and when Dali paints from his dreams I find it really interesting as dreams are so fascinating to me. I love surrealism art as I feel like it takes me away to another place just like when I dream.

Dali painting his dreams has inspired me to start doing this. I love the idea of Christ on the cross up up above looking down on earth and there is always something going on down below, in this painting the fishermen on the beach. I love the colours and the light coming through the clouds in the sky and the distances above the hills in the landscape.I think Dali's 'Christ of Saint John of the Cross' inspired other artists to paint from science and religion.

I think it has inspired people to think about religion and surrealism art.