Salvador Dali is widely considered as one of the most famous painters of the twentieth century and undoubtedly the most famous of the surrealists. The surrealists prided themselves on the contradictory nature of their work. Their pictures were designed to be permeable to the imagination. Thus everyone has their own interpretation of the work. Therefore a play of signs of sorts exists that allows every individual to see something different in Dali's work.
Like Andy Warhol, he worked hard to create a cult of celebrity around himself. His moustache was the only rival to Van Gough's ear and Picasso's testicles. Dali worked in earnest to fulfil the two ruling clichés about artists; firstly, the concept of the Painter as Old Master, and the second of the Artist as Freak. However, he failed at displaying himself as either whilst desperately trying to prove himself as both. All of Dali's most famous works of art were painted between 1929 and 1939. Modelled on Jean-Louis Meissonier, he sought to create realism that was pressed into such extreme detail that it would subvert one's sense of reality and become surreal. This allowed Dali to make any vision seem persuasively real. He focussed on objects of impotency, runny cheese, soft watches, fried eggs, which served to create a pessimistic feeling of doom.
Andy Warhol
Making something look greater than its value could be regarded as a postmodern theory. You are taking something low culture and relatively cheap and telling the customer its better than it seems almost looking at the product from a different angle. Andy Warhol was a true master at this with his images of Marilyn Monroe multi printed across canvas which could be argued a high culture person like her has been mass produced possibly because of her silver screen films and Hollywood lifestyle. This is ironic because although there is only one Marilyn Monroe, she had been turned into a product and