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The Dream Life of Salvador Dalí (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Roger Basseck.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm Paula Davis. Spotlight uses a spatial English method
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: matter where in.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: The world they live. The clocks are melting. As you
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: look at the painting, that is the main thing you see.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The rest of the dreamlike landscape seems unclear. There is
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a shining lake, a dead tree, and the shape of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: something that may be a man's sleeping face, but all
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of these are minor details compared to the clocks. Each
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: shows a different time. Each hangs over the edge of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: something as if it was made from uncooked bread.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: This is a painting called The Persistence of Memory by
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: the Spanish artist Salvador Darley. One of Darl's most important paintings.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: The Persistence of Memory seems to show how time slides away.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: We remember people and places incorrectly. At times, our memories
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: seemed to slip away, just like the melting clocks in
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Darley's paintings.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Salvador Dolli was one of the most important artists of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the twentieth century, working mostly as a painter. Dolly's dreamlike
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: paintings were designed to shock people. As part of the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: surrealist art movement, Dolly's art changed how many people saw
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the world, but with a larger than life personality. Dolly's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: life may now be even more famous than his art.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Today's spotlight is on the dream life of Salvador Dali.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Salvador Dahli was born on May eleventh, nineteen oh four.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: He was born into a wealthy family. His mother recognized
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: his skillful painting at a young age. She had Darli's
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: father put him through art school in Madrid, though she
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: died when he was just sixteen. Darli would prove his
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: mother right.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: In school, Dolly began to experiment with modern styles of painting.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Though originally a classical painter, new artistic movements like Cubism
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and Futurism captured the young man's interest. These non traditional
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: styles of painting offer new ways to paint.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: However, Darli's most important artistic influence came from the Surrealist movement.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Surrealism was not a style of painting as Cubism or
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Futurism was. Instead, Surrealism was a philosophy or way of
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: thinking about art. Andre Breton was one of the founders
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: of surrealism. He wrote that surrealism's goal was to destroy
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the separation between the dreaming and the waking worlds. There
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: was no single subject or way of painting. A surrealist
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: goal was to do something to people.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Surrealism interested Dolly greatly. He began experimenting with it. He
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: grew very interested in painting scenes from his dreams. He
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: invented ways of waking himself from deep sleep so he
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: could remember his dreams. He began holding things in his
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: hand when he was about to fall asleep. As he
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: fell asleep, the object he was holding would drop to
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the floor, waking him. He would paint whatever he saw
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: in that brief dream.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Darley's dream landscapes made him famous. People had different opinions
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: about them. They invited others to discuss their opinions. His
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: colorful personality was also talked about. The more famous he became,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the stranger he began to act. Once, he gave a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: talk in a large diving outfit while walking too large dogs.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: It was so hot inside the outfit that he almost died.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: At another time, he filled a car with cauliflower, a
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: white vegetable. He rode around Paris giving them away Darley
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  Speaker 2: once wrote.
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  Speaker 3: Every morning, when I wake up, I expec experience a
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: great joy, the joy of being Salvador Darli. Then I
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: ask myself happily, what wonderful things is this Salvador Dari
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: going to do today?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: But Dolly's personality also got him into trouble. He often
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: seemed to rebel against what was most popular among his friends.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Francisco Franco was the dictator of Spain from nineteen thirty
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: nine to nineteen seventy five. He ruled the country through
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: military force. When the Surrealists spoke against Franco, Dolly publicly
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: supported him. Dolly once even announced that he thought Adolf
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Hitler was sexy.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Whether Darley truly believed these things is unclear. Much of
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: what he did in his public life was meant to
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: shock others. His desire for fame seemed to come from
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: a deep need for people to notice him. Whether he
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: was noticed for good or bad things did not seem
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: to matter to Dolly.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Dolly's need for money and fame pushed away many of
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: his Surrealist friends. In nineteen thirty nine, the Surrealists told
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  Speaker 1: Dolly he no longer belonged in their movement. His behavior
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: also hurt how people viewed his art. Many felt he
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: no longer believed in creating art that changed people. Others
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: found that his strange life made more of a statement
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: than his painting. Don Andyes is a teacher at the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: University of Essex who studies Dolly. She told the Smithsonian magazine.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: He had a personality that was hard to see passed.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: I have had to work very hard to make it
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  Speaker 3: clear how serious he really was.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: As time went by, Darley moved away from his surrealist interest.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: After World War II, he stopped painting his dreams. He
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: became a Catholic, a branch of the Christian faith, and
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: he became interested in nuclear science. He developed a style
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: that he called nuclear mysticism, which brought these two interests together.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: He also went back to his classical roots, based on
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: the works of older painters like Diego, Velasquez and Raphael.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Michael Taylor works at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: told Smithsonian.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: Darley was very mindful of his times. He said to
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: himself Velascus and Raphael, if they lived in the nuclear age,
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  Speaker 4: what would they paint.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Dolly's new work often showed the death of Jesus Christ,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: This is an important part of the Christian faith. Through
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Christ's death, Christians believe they are forgiven for the wrong
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: things they have done in life. Dolly's paintings, such as
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Corpus Hypercubis, often compared Christ to an atom, the smallest
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: form of matter. Dolly believed that Christ's death was not
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: just a moment in time like the atom, It existed
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: in everything.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Whether people liked it or not. Darli's new style of
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: painting was not as popular as his surreal paintings. Nuclear
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: mysticism was more difficult to understand than paintings of dreams.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: As he grew older, Darley was no longer respected by
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: other artists. Then, in nineteen seventy nine, Darli's health failed.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Doctors treated him for depression and drug dependence. He also
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: may have had Parkinson's disease. His arms shook, making painting impossible.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: He painted his last work, The Swallow's Tale, in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: eighty four.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Salvador Dolly died of heart disease in nineteen eighty nine.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: He was eighty four years old. He left behind a
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: very complicated history. There were few people who could touch
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: his technical skills as an artist. As a man, he
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: was larger than life. His personality sometimes threatened his art,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: but at his core, Dolly was a creator of strange things.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: He brought life changing ideas to life with his painter's tools.
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  Speaker 1: These dream worlds will stay with us for many years
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: to come.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Have you ever seen any of Salvador Daly's paintings? Which
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: one is your favorite? What do you like about it?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: You can leave a comment on our website at www
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and x You can also
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: get Spotlight episodes delivered directly to your andwriter Apple device
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: through our free official Spotlight English app.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: was mitchio Ozarki. The voices you heard were from the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: for this episode and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: artificial intelligence was used in this episode. Spotlight episode are
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: written forest and produced by real people, for real people,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: no matter where in the world they live. This episode
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: is called The Dream Life of Salvador Darlei.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Spotlight Advanced episode. Goodbye