The Ateneu Barcelonès welcomed Salvador Dalí in 1950 with a conference that certainly did not seem banal: Why I was sacrilegious. Why am I mystical?
Long before the announced time, such a crowd had gathered that it completely overwhelmed the surveillance service and flooded the room, and even the surrounding area, with countless attendees on their feet.
The presence of professors, such as Mosén Ramón Roquer, directors of the French and Italian institutes and various intellectuals was logical. But he was surprised to see these giants: military lieutenant vicar, secretary of the Superior Police Headquarters, provincial delegate of Popular Education (a euphemism for the censorship boss) and civil governor of Santander.
What was really much more striking was that the civil governor of Barcelona, the second commander of the Navy and the superior chief of Police sat between the presidency. same.
Dalí was always a colossal salesman. And he displayed a seductive chameleonism: revolutionary (at the outbreak of the uncivil war he asked to be general commissioner of the public imagination), sacrilegious painter of La desecration of the Host and writer of Vida secreta or mystical creator of La Madona de Portlligat.
It is true that in his conference he persevered in the denouncing tone by apostrophizing not only the meapilas Brunet, but also the brunets, but it was angelic compared to what in 1930 and in the same Ateneu he had dedicated to the revered Guimerà: the great porc, the great pedophile, l'immens putrefacte pelut. Chairs flew over his head and he was escorted out.
During his stay in the United States, he realized that being a lecturer was an antique for only a few dozen present, when other media that were indeed revolutionary marked the future to follow before oceans of spectators. Thus, he imposed the powerful personal show, knowing that it would be broadcast on radio and television.
In 1936 he already deserved the most coveted newspaper cover, that of the American magazine Time. And in a country that he searches for, persecutes and lives pending the news, but that soon despises it and considers it consumed, Dalí knew how to arrive and succeed in the most difficult thing: to stay and surpass Picasso in popularity. His death made front page news around the world.
