Gilles Néret’s compact monograph traces Salvador Dalí’s career through the extravagant public persona and back into his mechanics. 

Néret places the artist's famous images to demonstrate the body of development, from the early experiments of the 1920s through the paranoiac-critical method, his increasingly fraught relationship with the Surrealists, and the later religious and theatrical work. There is no divide between “great painter” and “professional lunatic”; the self-mythology is treated as part of the artistic project rather than an embarrassing annex to it.

Heavily illustrated throughout in colour, with reproductions, drawings and documentary material, this is a strong visual introduction to one of the twentieth century’s strangest and most technically accomplished image-makers. The volume forms part of Taschen’s larger-format art monograph series; this edition runs to 96 pages and measures roughly 25 × 31 cm.

Taschen, Cologne, 2013. Large-format hardcover. English translation by Catherine Plant. Originally published by Taschen in 1994. Light rubbing and handling marks to white boards, with minor corner and edge wear and a small bump/crease to upper edge. Internally clean and bright; binding firm. Very good condition.