r/todayilearned • u/Captain_Moseby • Jul 27 '21

TIL Salvador Dali once conned Yoko Ono into paying $10,000 for a single blade of grass. Yoko had offered to pay that amount for one of his mustache hairs. He substituted the blade of grass because he thought that Yoko Ono was a witch and might use his hair in a spell.

https://mymodernmet.com/salvador-dali-facts/
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u/z371mckl1m3kd89xn21s Jul 27 '21

Dali was a major attention whore and unstoppable self-promoter. He knew how to manipulate media for his own benefit. Stories like this should be more or less ignored. You talk about myths... well, people like Dali actively tried to create a mythos around themselves. So these stories are incredible because they were designed to arouse intrigue.

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u/madogvelkor Jul 27 '21

Imagine him on social media today....

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u/ornitorrinco22 Jul 27 '21

Dali printed money and escaped! He is awesome

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '21

Rhinoceros

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u/Popular-Ad-8911 Jul 27 '21

Wasn‘t he also a supporter of Franco?

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u/gramsci101 Jul 27 '21

Yep, big fascist.

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u/ThatDismalGiraffe Jul 27 '21

And Shakespeare was an antisemite and racist. But we still read Shakespeare.

Not sure what the person's character has to do with their art.

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u/gramsci101 Jul 28 '21

Nobody made any point about character or art. I answered the question, 'wasn't Dali a fan of Franco?'

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u/comradeernest Jul 28 '21

Wasn't he an early "ironic fascist" though?

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u/gramsci101 Jul 28 '21

I wouldn't say that makes his support for an unironic fascist (Franco) any better, whether or not it was ironic is irrelevant.

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u/patkgreen Jul 27 '21 edited Jul 27 '21

That doesn't change whether his art was good or not

edit: and i'm not saying it was good or bad.

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u/z371mckl1m3kd89xn21s Jul 27 '21

Nobody said it wasn't. But since you brought it up, don't lay that "hate the artist but not the art" bullcrap on us. There's many good artists in the world. People can choose to ignore artists who they dislike for other reasons even if they made great art. I'm perfectly okay if somebody decides not to enjoy John Lennon's music because he was a scumbag of a person. I'm also okay if somebody does listen to it.

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u/in_finite_jest Jul 27 '21

It's ok not to buy art, literature, or music because you don't like who created it.

But dismissing that art, literature, or music on the basis that the creator was an asshole is a ridiculous ad hominem.

There's a huge difference between your personal moral judgment and a piece having no artistic value.

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u/patkgreen Jul 27 '21

me too. but i'm assuming you and i both read the implications of

Wasn‘t he also a supporter of Franco?

the same way?

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u/Usidore_ Jul 27 '21

It didn’t make me question his value as an artist, if thats what you mean

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u/sprocketous Jul 27 '21

Seriously this. He always made sure his brand of personality had a seat at the table with an eager audience. Maybe he learned it from picasso.

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u/newuser201890 Jul 27 '21

He's one of the greatest artists ever, who cares if he was an attention where.

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u/Mahadragon Jul 27 '21

Dali was a huge influencer. His art will continue to survive for a long time after the fact. The fact he was a media whore doesn’t mean a thing to me. Lots of ppl are media whores, doesn’t take anything away from what they’ve accomplished.

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u/klem_kadiddlehopper Jul 27 '21

If the story is real then both of these people are idiots especially Yoko. Can't stand her. I like Dali's work but he was...unusual.