NGV > Learn > Schools Resources > Salvador Dali. René Magritte. René François Ghislain Magritte (21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist.
He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images that fall under the umbrella of surrealism. His work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. Early life[edit] Career[edit] Salvador Dalí. Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marqués de Dalí de Pubol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), known as Salvador Dalí (/ˈdɑːli/;[1] Catalan: [səɫβəˈðo ðəˈɫi]), was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter and sculptor born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain.
Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters.[2][3] His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media. Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes"[4] to an "Arab lineage", claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors.