The Great Masturbator

Brian Sewell knew Salvador Dali well enough to wank for him and- in a documentary broadcast last night- pretty much tore away the mystique. Dali was gay and sex mad and terribly, terribly fastidious. He hated to be touched. What he liked was to have young men masturbate for him and- in a curious twist- to masturbate himself with women watching. That's it. That's what his art is all about. Now you know.

By the 1960s- when Sewell was hanging out with him- Dali was all washed up. He'd stopped painting and spent his days shuffling along the beach at Cadaques in his hippie gear and his nights imperiously presiding over orgies. Any work with his signature on it dated 1960 and after is likely to be bogus. His wife Gala- who needed the money to fund her interest in studly young men- got people to turn out imitation Dalis and Dali- who was completely under her thumb- would sign anything she asked him to sign (including blank sheets of paper)- which explains why most of the work  in the Dali museum at Figueres is so crap. 

It's good to know all this. But of course none of it- as Sewell acknowledges- changes the fact that Dali was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. 



Dali and ocelot by Roger Higgins. 1965

Heaton Park

 

Heaton Park belongs to the City of Manchester and is one of the largest urban parks in Europe. The house- Heaton Hall- was designed by James Wyatt and built in 1772.