Salvador Dalí was expelled from Madrid’s San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in 1926.
Dalí had entered the academy in 1922 and became known for his strong technical ability and unconventional personality. He was suspended after unrest at the institution and later returned, but he eventually refused to complete his final examination.
In 1926, he was expelled after declaring that no faculty member was competent to judge him. The episode became part of the dramatic public persona he developed throughout his career, although it should not obscure his serious training in drawing, painting, and art history.
Dalí’s Madrid years also brought him into contact with Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel. His academic expulsion occurred before his formal association with the Surrealist group in Paris, which he joined during the following decade.