The surrealists hailed what Dali called the 'paranoiac-critical' method of accessing the subconscious for greater artistic creativity. He established himself as the principal figure of a group of surrealist artists grouped around French poet Andre Breton. After leaving the Academy, Dali went to Paris where he met Spanish painters Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. Dali was expelled before final exams, after asserting that those judging his work were not competent enough to grade him. The artist experimented with forms of Cubism and Dadaism during his studies.

He developed a reputation as an eccentric, attracting attention with his manner of dress, hairstyle, and provocative comments on art. At eighteen, Dali moved to Madrid to study painting at the Academy of Arts. His father, a prominent notary, encouraged his artistic inclinations and arranged for drawing lessons at age ten from the Spanish impressionist painter, Ramon Pichot. Salvador Domenec Felip Jacint Dali Domenech was born in Figueras, Catalonia, Spain. He described his art as 'hand-painted dream photographs,' and had certain preferred and recurring images, such as the human figure with half-open drawers protruding from it, burning giraffes, and watches bent and flowing as if made from melting wax. His work juxtaposes a meticulous academic technique with depictions of hallucinatory characters in fantastic dreamscapes. The surrealist Salvador Dali is considered to be one of the masters of 20th-Century art.

Salvador dali the divine comedy