15 Reasons Salvador Dalí Was The Man

Here are some of the coolest things about your favorite surrealist artist.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Salvador Dalí is most famous for his surrealist landscape paintings of scenes too good to be true. A true Renaissance man, he also dabbled in many other mediums such as cinema, sculpture, fashion design, and writing. He approached everything he did in life, from art to interviews to facial hair, in an equally individualistic way. His eccentricity earned him a reputation as a genius, a lunatic, and a gimmick, though he didn't seem to really care about what anyone thought of him. He is remembered as one of the greatest and most intriguing artists to have ever lived. 

Today, May 11, would have been Dalí's 110th birthday. We imagine that he is in heaven at this moment constructing a cake made out of carpet squares and tuna, or blowing out candles made of lead. Today we revisit his life and achievements to bring you 15 Reasons Salvador Dalí Was The Man.

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He was fascinated by the rhinoceros and saw its horn as a symbol of perfect geometry.

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Dalí's interests spanned beyond the world of arts and culture and into science and mathematics, as well. He developed an obsession with rhinoceros horns, because they grow in a perfect logarithmic spiral. This interest is first evident in his 1954 painting Rhinocerotic Figure of Ilissos of Phidias.

He collaborated with fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.

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In his most scandalous photo shoot, he arranged seven naked women into the shape of a skull.

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He liked to draw and paint in the bathtub.

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He dabbled in filmmaking and produced the short film Un Chien Andalou.

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Millionaire Cummins Catherwood commissioned him to design a line of jewelry that is now known as the Dalí-Joies or Dalí-Jewels.

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He engineered crazy photographic effects that preceded the existence of Photoshop.

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He had the best pets.

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He used extreme methods to capture his weirdest dreams for inspiration.

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He had a great sense of interior design.

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He collaborated with Walt Disney.

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He had the world's most famous mustache.

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He was friends with many celebrities, including Coco Chanel and Alice Cooper.

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He painted cover art for popular magazines.

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He was his own number one biggest fan.

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