56. The Life and Legacy of Salvador Dali

The Life and Legacy of Salvador Dali. Charles River Editors. 2017.

The Life and Legacy of Salvador Dali. Part of the History's Greatest Artists series, this book could not have been more different than #56 S, S, D, M. This very dry book is more like what I had read about Dali in the past, a very cleaned up version of his life story. Not only did it gloss over everything relating to his gender expression ("Although he wore his mother's make-up and jewelry as a child, this was not an expression of being transgender, but instead a precursor to his need for attention."), it apparently completely misunderstood his relationship with sex and love by saying simply that he remained deeply in love with his wife his whole life, despite evidence that she may have been having affairs (a very significant understatement if Lozano is to be believed since Dali not only found lovers for her, but often watched), and taking the position that he "may have had homosexual affairs when he was young." The Lorano memoir add in a lot of detail that makes this statement seem unrelated to the actual reality of the situation. For a non-art person like me, though, it contained a lot of information about his art and I enjoyed having this background, particularly the commentary on specific pieces that I saw at his museum when I was there. That aside, though, feel confident that you can skip this one.

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