What is the title of Salvador Dalí's 1951 mystical manifesto?

The story behind the answer

Salvador Dalí’s 1951 mystical manifesto is titled Mystical Manifesto, also translated as Mystic Manifesto or Manifeste mystique.

Dalí published the manifesto during his post-Surrealist turn toward religious imagery, classical technique, and what he called nuclear mysticism. He connected Catholic belief and artistic ecstasy with contemporary ideas from physics, especially the strange, apparently immaterial structure of matter suggested by atomic science.

The text presents Dalí’s characteristically theatrical argument that modern painting should recover beauty, precision, and spiritual ambition. He praised figures including the architect Bramante and the Spanish monastery of El Escorial, while declaring that he wanted to begin a new era of mystical painting.

The title can appear as either “Mystical Manifesto” or “Mystic Manifesto” in English-language references because the original French title is Manifeste mystique. That translation difference does not change the identity of the work. It is not the same as Dalí’s books The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, Diary of a Genius, or Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

Add question to a list

Choose a list to keep this question in: