Throughout his life, Salvador Dali produced a body of work both revolutionary and visionary. From the Purism of the twenties to the great mystical paintings of the fifties, Jean-Louis Gaillemin takes us on a complex journey through the life and career of an artist who turned paranoia into a way of painting and provocation into a way of life.

Rotting donkeys and soft watches, lobster telephones and simultaneous images: Dali spent his whole life striving to systematize confusion between genres and subjects. His anarchic visions foreshadowed many preoccupations of art in the late twentieth century, not only in the realm of painting but also in cinema, architecture and installation art.

Hundreds of colour illustrations and documentary pictures complemented by extracts from the writings of Dali and his contemporaries makes this the perfect companion to his work.