Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was a Spanish Surrealist painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and writer known for his eccentric persona and dreamlike imagery. Influenced by Cubism, Futurism, and Metaphysical Painting, he joined the Surrealist movement in 1929, gaining fame for his “hand-painted dream photographs” that featured melting clocks, burning giraffes, and ambiguous double images (e.g., The Persistence of Memory, 1931). Expelled from Surrealism in the late 1930s, Dalí moved to the United States (1940–1948), where he embraced commercial success, before returning to Spain. His later works explored religious and sexual themes, often centered on his wife, Gala. Beyond painting, he contributed to film, designing sequences for Spellbound (1945), and wrote novels and autobiographies. Though his legacy is debated, Dalí remains one of the most recognizable figures in modern art, with museums dedicated to his work in Figueras, Spain, and St. Petersburg, Florida.