34 Splendid Photos Of Salvador Dali Being Salvador Dali

Published September 15, 2014
Updated November 7, 2023

Dali was at once an artist and a work of art himself -- these delightful Salvador Dali pictures of the legendary surrealist prove it.

Like ballerinas, Salvador Dalí was simultaneously an artist and a work of art. When not piecing together some of the most mind-bending paintings known to man, Dalí employed the bizarre and sublime when concocting his inimitable public persona.

As the following photos show, Dalí was as much an extension of his art as art was an extension of Dalí:

Famous Salvador Dali Pictures

Salvador Dali Meets A Rhino

Lobster Head

Salvador Dali On A Motorcycle

Dali With A Monkey

Dali Dictators

Interesting Salvador Dali Pictures

Atomicus

Creepy Salvador Dali Pictures

Salvador Dali Eating

Frida Kahlo
With Frida Kahlo

Salvador Dali Jumping

Salvador Dali And Andy Warhol
With Andy Warhol

Salvador Dali And Alice Cooper Photo
With Alice Cooper

Salvador Dali Painting

Salvador Dali Red Hands

Salvador Dali Indian

Salvador Dali With A Cat

Salvador Dali Sabina Nore
With Sabina Nore

Salvador Dali With Francoise Hardy
With Francoise Hardy

Surrealist Pictures Of Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali With Yves St. Laurent
With Yves St. Laurent

Salvador Dali With Butts

Salvador Dali Picture With Baguettes

Vintage Salvador Dali Images

Old Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali Anteater Photo

Salvador Dali In A Robe

Salvador Dali Color Photograph

Salvador Dali Mask

Salvador Dali Leering

Funny Photos Of Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali In Front Of A Crucifixion

Salvador Dali Fashion

Throughout his life, Salvador Dalí embraced the irrational as his truth, and dug deep into the unconscious self to splash his findings onto the canvas. Pure aesthetics didn't motivate the surrealist quest to unearth the irrational, though: In the eyes of surrealists, it was cold, rational calculation that led to the conflicts, wars and alienation seen in the early 20th century.

By uncovering the irrational and sublime through shape and color, one could show that another world — one not dictated by zero-sum games and the intellectual strictures of reason — was not only possible, but already existing. By looking inward instead of outward to understand the world in which we live, so thought the surrealists, we might survive.

In a technical sense, Dalí and his contemporaries did not succeed in altering the world's consciousness, but their work — as complex as it is absurd — presents an invaluable artistic challenge to the chilly realism that largely defined the 20th century. That alone is a triumph.


After you enjoy these vintage Salvador Dali pictures, check out our posts on the most iconic surrealist paintings and art and famous photos that changed history.

author
Savannah Cox
author
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.