Salvador Dali

Dali is best known for his surrealist work, such as Melting Clocks. He studied art in Madrid and early on experimented with Cubism, which he learned about from magazines. Dali quickly became known for his paintings in surrealism, and at 22 years old, he completed the famous Basket of Bread, which offers a clear example of Dali's grasp on realism as well. His works even made a mark on Picasso, whom Dali met in Paris after being expelled from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. Over the course of his career, Dali sampled and perfected many styles of art including sculpture and film, and seemed to be able to devour and regurgitate classic, modern, post-modern and surrealist techniques with ease. He blended these methods flawlessly and drew inspiration from a wide range of artists, drawing large crowds of fans as well as puzzled critics wherever his installations were publicly displayed. For the trivia buffs, his full name is Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech.