Though he died just short of his 85th birthday, Salvador Dalí was the eternal evil teen; his pronouncements and gestures were designed to startle his “audience” — the World! Dalí seemed sure everyone, everywhere watched him with unflagging fascination and cared what he said and did. Perhaps Dalí’s attention-grabbing ways masked deep insecurities; one wonders if the weird, cruel, inexplicable opinions Dalí proclaimed were true expressions of his heart and mind, or only empty words intended to shock and awe. Did Dalí really “spit for pleasure on the portrait”1 of his dead mother; applaud the murder of his friend Federico García Lorca (“The moment I learned of his death…I cried ‘Olé’!’”)2; and support Franco’s torture and killing of dissidents (“Three times more executions are needed…. Personally I’m against freedom. I’m for the Holy Inquisition.”)3?
What type of perfume would Dalí have created? I imagine him saying something like: “Doesn’t everyone love the scent of blood and dung, sweaty breasts, fuzzy tongues and turtle shells, lady bug shellac and horses’ milk!? Let’s bottle the scent of desperation, the aroma of time running out.” (Actually, that sounds more like García Lorca than Dalí!) Dalí did say, “Of the five senses, the sense of smell is incontestably the one that best conveys a sense of immortality.”4 Dalí, always looking for ways to make money, signed a licensing agreement with Jean-Pierre Grivory of COFCI (now, Cofinluxe) in Paris on Dec. 17, 1982, and the Salvador Dalí brand was born…
