Dali's Surreal Stache

Since my attempts to grow my own mustache have, sadly, all but failed I thought I would follow my classmates' lead and write a profile of a famous hairy-lipped figure from history.

When I think of unique mustaches, one of the first people who comes to mind is Salvador Dali; apparently I am not the only one as a recent poll of 14,000 men ranked Dali's stache as number one. His unique upturned stache was an important part of his eccentric public persona and is nearly as recognizable as his surrealist paintings.

Born Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech on May 11th 1904, Dali was raised by his middle-class family in the Catalonia region of Spain. According to my intensive Wikipedia research, he was not, in fact, born with that great mustache but apparently grew it sometime during his adolescence. Dali was artistic from a young age, studying drawing at a local academy and discovering modern painting during family trips abroad.

Dali moved to Madrid in 1922 in order to study art at the Academia de San Fernando. It was here that he began experimenting with cubism and surrealism. These early paintings earned him a good deal of praise from his classmates and teachers, so much so that he grew quite arrogant and was eventually expelled from the Academia for stating that no one at the schools was qualified enough to examine him and his work.

Dali's personal style was notorious. He dressed as a dandy, wearing long hair, stockings, and knee breeches typical of the late 19th century aesthete fashion. Seventeenth-century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez influenced his iconic mustache.

1929 was a big year for Dali. Not only did he collaborate with surrealist director Luis Buñuel on a short film but he also met his future wife, Gala. And really, what lady wouldn't be attracted to that spectacular stache? Dali married the Russian immigrant who was ten years his senior in a civil ceremony in 1934. That year also marked his first exposure to America where his show Persistence of Memory became a huge hit. The title painting of this show is perhaps Dali's most famous work. Populated by soft, near melting watches and clocks, the most popular interpretation is that the work rejects the notion that time is rigid or deterministic.

Dali continued to paint, write and work in film. In 1940 he and Gala moved to the United States to escape the Second World War where he enjoyed increasing levels of commercial success. In 1949 he returned to Catalonia where he lived for the majority of the rest of his life. His choice to return to a Spain ruled by Franco brought much criticism from his mainly leftist surrealist contemporaries. Dali's politics had long been ambiguous but his acceptance of the Spanish military General's right-wing authoritarianism caused many artists to reject his later works. Nonetheless he continued to  experiment with bulletism (which involved shooting ink at a canvas) and holography. His use of optical illusions would influence young artists such as Andy Warhol. Dali also became more involved in the advertising world and in 1969 designed the Chupa-Chups logo.

Here he is on the popular American television show "What's My Line?":





By 1980, Dali's health was deteriorating quickly. Allegedly, the nearly senile Gala had been providing him with her own cocktail of medication which eventually wreaked havoc on his nervous system rendering his hands artistically useless. After Gala's death in 1984, Dali lost much of his will to live. He died of heart failure on January 23rd 1989, listening to his favourite recordings of Tristan and Isolde.

Dali's use of surrealist symbolism was enormously influential and the popularity of his works, especially his prints, persists today. Just look at the undergrad poster sale. His famous mustache set the creative bar high, but I hope with the rising popularity of Movember his eccentrically upturned stache will make a resurgence.

Finally, if you have never done so before be sure to check out the World Beard and Mustache Championships website. The picture below is just a sample of all the wonderfully styled facial protein growth showcased in these rather bizarre contests.