10 Weird Things About Salvador Dalí You Should Know

It was very difficult to choose only 10 weird things about Salvador Dalí. He is widely known as one of the most eccentric artists in art history. And that manifests in his art, difficult character, and behavior. Dalí was enchanted by things like Freudian psychoanalysis, sadomasochism, fear of castration, or tarot reading… But here it is: 10 weird things about Salvador Dalí you should know!

1. His parents believed he was the reincarnation of his dead brother

Salvador Dalí’s mother gave birth to her first son in 1901, but the child died of gastroenteritis at 22 months old. His name was… Salvador. Nine months after the child’s death, the second Salvador was born and named after his late brother.

When Dalí was five, his parents took him to his brother’s grave and told him they believed that he was the reincarnation of his dead brother. This had a profound psychological effect on him.

2. He stole a wife from his friend

In August 1929, Dalí met the love of his life, Elena Ivanovna Diakonova—better known as Gala. At the time, Gala was married to the French Surrealist poet Paul Éluard and had previously been involved with Max Ernst. This did not deter Dalí, and she eventually married him in 1934. Although she was ten years older, the two remained together until she died in 1982. Gala became Dalí’s muse and business manager; her financial shrewdness supported his extravagant lifestyle. She was also famous for directing Dalí’s business by checking it out in Tarot cards.

3. Dalí appeared on the TV show What’s My Line?

Dalí loved himself. He once stated: “Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure—that of being Salvador Dalí.” Dalí was eager to showcase his polymathic talents during his chaotic appearance on What’s My Line?, answering “yes” to almost every question and professing to be an athlete, a writer, and a comic strip artist.

4. Dalí had a perverse obsession with Hitler

During the Nazis’ rise, most Surrealists were outspoken anti-fascists and opposed Hitler. Dalí, however, began painting the dictator. These works include The Enigma of Hitler and a sketch sometimes referred to as Hitler Masturbating. Dalí once admitted that he “often dreamed of Hitler as a woman” and claimed that the Nazi leader “turned [him] on.” Because of his controversial behavior and perceived fascist sympathies, Dalí was expelled from the Surrealist group, though he denied being a Nazi sympathizer.

5. Dalí loved money so much that he even starred in commercials

Alka Seltzer advertisement with Salvador Dalí, 1974.

Within the art community, Dalí was notorious for his love of money. He was even called “Avida Dollars,” which is both an anagram of Salvador Dalí and a signifier of his greed. Dalí appeared in advertisements for Lanvin chocolates, brandy, and even Alka Seltzer—you can watch all of them here.

6. He designed a logo for Chupa Chups

He designed the famous Chupa Chups lollipops logo and the 1969 logo for the Eurovision Song Contest. Nothing to add to this.

7. Dalí hosted weekly orgies

Gala encouraged Dalí to maintain an unconventional marriage, which included an open relationship. According to some accounts, the couple occasionally hosted orgies. Cher, along with her ex-husband Sonny and director Francis Ford Coppola, recalled visiting Dalí’s home during one such event. She described encountering a “beautiful, painted rubber fish with a little remote-control handset,” which Dalí explained provocatively. Biographers note that Dalí himself generally did not actively participate in these gatherings, preferring to observe.

8. He was addicted to masturbation

For a long time, I experienced the misery of believing I was impotent.

Salvador Dalí

In his autobiography, Dalí recounted that, like many boys, he explored the pleasures of self-gratification. In his case, however, masturbation became the primary—and perhaps sole—sexual activity he enjoyed throughout his life. In his autobiography, he claimed he kept up the practice well into adult life, often in front of a mirror. At the time, masturbation was widely believed to cause impotence, homosexuality, and insanity, which contributed to Dalí’s own fears surrounding the act.

9. He found deep meaning in cauliflowers

In December 1955, Dalí filled a white Rolls-Royce Phantom II with 500 kilograms of cauliflowers and drove it from Spain to Paris. The reasoning was, he later told an audience of 2,000, that “everything ends up in the cauliflower!” Three years later, he explained to American journalist Mike Wallace that he was attracted to their “logarithmic curve.”

10. He had a lot of famous friends

Dalí knew many famous people, including Elvis Presley, John Lennon, David Bowie, Pablo Picasso, and even Sigmund Freud. One of his strangest acquaintances was rock musician Alice Cooper, who said that Dalí partly inspired his stage performances.

Dalí reportedly gave Cooper a plaster model of his brain, with a chocolate éclair on top and real ants crawling down the middle. Dalí also asked Cooper to pose for a piece of art. Cooper agreed, allegedly wearing an expensive diamond tiara provided by Dalí. At the end of it, Dalí had created an amazing revolving hologram of Cooper covered in diamonds and biting the head of a Venus de Milo statuette. He accomplished this by using lasers to capture a three-dimensional image.