From politics to religion, psychology to nuclear physics, learn how Dalí's work embraces nearly every major historic development of the twentieth century.

Although Salvador Dalí’s characteristically provocative behavior and bizarre pictorial language made him an outlier in high society, his body of work reflects his century’s most important innovations and concerns.

This introduction to Dalí’s work features dozens of exquisite reproductions as it traces the artist’s development, life and career. Readers will learn how he was influenced by contemporaries Miró, Ernst, and de Chirico as well as by Raphael and Gaudí. It explores his early adoption of Surrealism, his fascination with the subconscious, and his antipathy toward war. It illustrates how Dalí’s return to the Catholic church and his interest in nuclear and atomic physics was manifested in his paintings; how he experimented in film and, later, even created holograms.

By making Dalí’s often perplexing art accessible to audiences of every level, this engaging introduction helps readers understand why he remains one of the most influential—and imitated—artists of all time.