Salvador Dali's 1972 Datsun 610 Wagon ad

that ad probably was done in exchange for this 180B wagon that Dali owned

This car now sits in the gardens of what is now the Castell Gala Museum in Pubol, but was once the home that Dali purchased in 1969 and gave to his wife Gala as a gift.

The Datsun was a rare vehicle in Spain and while Dali used it, it was primarily used by the staff to go shopping and run errands and was purchased because Dali did not want them to use his Cadillac.

If Dali and Datsun make no sense to you, then the Dali and Disney collaboration - Destino, will bewilder you. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/06/awesome-people-hanging-out-together-had.html

On the other hand, if you're fascinated by the really weird and inscrutable, anything that Dali worked on will probably amuse you, like the Dali Atomicus (cats, water, and Dali himself all trampolined into the air at the same moment for a cool photo effect)

though not as famous as his melting watches (The Persistence of Memory) it's probably the 2nd most famous art work he did.

Face of Mae West Which Can Be Used as an Apartment (1974)

After all, how many artists have worked so hard to be so odd, to amuse themselves by causing the rest of us to ask what's going on with that?

Salvadore Dali was, in my opinion, unusually connected with vehicular stuff, and I'd already forgotten the Vespa he signed https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/01/this-is-vespa-salvador-dalis-fashion.html

because I was remembering the Harley he had brought up to the 10th floor of a Paris hotel https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/07/salvador-dali-on-10th-floor-with-harley.html

And I forgot his Graziella bike https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/11/salvador-dalis-graziella-folding-bike.html

and in his museum in Spain, the Cadillac which rains inside if you insert a quarter

In 1976 he wrote in the first issue of his "Empordà Artistic Weekly" about The Rainy Taxi:

"... the famous Cadillac, of which six exist, that Dalí gave Gala (his wife) as a present, and in which the couple drove from coast to coast during their stay in the United States.

One of them had belonged to President Roosevelt, another to Clark Gable, etc. This is the fourth reproduction of the famous Rainy Taxi, all destroyed by now.

(At a 1938 surrealist show in Paris, Salvador Dali shocked visitors with the "Rainy Taxi." It was raining inside the car; a mannequin sat dripping wet in the rear seat. Dozens of snails wandered inside the car. In 1939, Dali created another rainy taxi, a yellow cab this time around. Finally, a last one was made for his museum in Figueres, using his own Cadillac.)

The first was exhibited, with great success, at the surrealist exhibition in Paris, the second at the World Exhibition in New York, and the third at the surrealist retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The fourth is this one, on permanent exhibition at the Dalí TheatreMuseum."


Frankly, I find that Dali had a cool way of thinking about art, and made some intriguing stuff that shows he was thinking about stuff.... deeply.  (Have you seen the swans reflections that are elephants?)

The automobile was featured by Dali in several paintings, unlike most surrealists. It appears in very early works, such as the oil painting entitled Bather (1924), a portrait of his friend Joan Xirau; in a drawing from 1925, or Figueres Girl dating from 1926, in which the word "Ford" appears, a work seen by Picasso when Dalí visited the artist in Paris.

he uses the fossilised car which appears in Imperial Monument to the Woman-Girl (1929)

Paranoiac-Critical Solitude 1935

Apparition of the town of Delft 1936

In Dressed Automobiles (1941) he creates a further dissociation of ideas: he dresses the Cadillac up elegantly in clothing worthy of an haute couture boutique.

And again, the car appears in one of his last works Double Victory of Gaudí (1982).


But I didn't know that he'd got fed up with being famous, and broke, and finally said to hell with it all, and painted dozens of portraits in the '50s, then sold out to advertise anything and everything. Chocolate, Datsuns, Alka Seltzer, Braniff Airlines, Old Angus Whiskey, Johnson Paint, and Bryan's Hosiery and Chupa Chups.... but hell, inflation caused everything to get more expensive in his old age... consider - he melting watches was painted in 1931. 2 decades later he did portraits, then a decade later, advertising.

Plus, he made a self documentary, narrated by Orson Welles, of course.

And seemed to have a thing for the train station too,

In August of 1963, Dali stepped off the train, and, in complete ecstasy, declared its station “the centre of the universe”. “The Railway Station at Perpignan"

One thing is for sure, after looking through all the paintings of Dali, you'll see what Von Dutch was either inspired by, or channeling, and probably Michael Parkes too

He predated the QR code with "Cybernetic Odalisque" in 1978, and was painting stereoscopes for Pete's sake

https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/01/31/can-we-talk-about-salvador-dali-was-an-amazing-our-favourite-art-scene-sell-out-can-we-talk-about-dalis-amazing-sell-out-era/
https://www.logodesignlove.com/chupa-chups-logo
https://cartype.com/pages/4173/dalis_datsun
https://www.travelingwithsweeney.com/featured-museum-a-dalinian-experience/
https://www.messynessychic.com/2018/04/18/four-grisly-murders-one-salvador-dali/
http://galerija.metropolitan.ac.rs/index.php/GD2014-2015/AD108-Istorija-dizajna-2014-2015/Salvador-Dali/Dali-Atomicus-photo-by-Philippe-Halsman-1948_
http://galerija.metropolitan.ac.rs/index.php/GD2014-2015/AD108-Istorija-dizajna-2014-2015/Salvador-Dali/
https://www.salvador-dali.org/en/artwork/catalogue-raisonne-paintings/obres/