History's Greatest Artists: The Life and Legacy of Salvador Dali

"Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali." - Salvador Dali In his review of Salvador Dali's first autobiography, George Orwell declared that "One ought to be able to hold in one's head simultaneously the two facts that Dali is a good draughtsman and a disgusting human being." Whether or not one agrees with the famous author's assessment, Orwell captures the polarizing nature of Salvador Dali, and the extent to which his undeniable technical virtuosity often brushed against his penchant for provoking his audiences (not to mention provoking long-entrenched standards of "proper" taste). Dali, after all, was unafraid to eschew Renaissance perspective, thereby incorporating often graphic subject matter. In other words, if Dali stands as one of the canonical figures of modern art, this involved holding both a seminal role in the canon of cutting-edge art but also a tendency to challenge audiences, challenging the contours of "Art with a Capital A".