Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was a legendary Spanish surrealist painter, sculptor, and filmmaker celebrated for his flamboyant personality and bizarre, dreamlike imagery. Born in Figueres, Catalonia, he studied in Madrid and joined the Paris Surrealist group in the late 1920s. His most iconic work, The Persistence of Memory (1931), with its melting clocks, explores themes of time, memory, and the subconscious. Dalí collaborated with Luis Buñuel on avant-garde films, designed for fashion and theater, and cultivated a showman persona complete with his signature upturned mustache. A master of self-promotion, he remains one of the most recognizable artists of the 20th century.