Which art movement is Salvador Dalí most associated with?

Salvador Dalí is most associated with Surrealism, the art movement that made dreamlike images, irrational juxtapositions, and the unconscious central to artistic expression.

Dalí joined the Surrealist circle in Paris in 1929 and soon became one of its most recognizable figures. His meticulously painted melting clocks, distorted bodies, barren landscapes, and strange symbolic objects gave Surrealism an unusually polished, technically realistic appearance. He also developed “critical paranoia,” a method he described as inducing hallucinatory associations while remaining conscious.

Dalí had earlier explored Cubism and Dada, and those movements influenced his development. That history can cause confusion, especially because his work crossed styles and periods. But Cubism and Dada are neighboring influences, not the movement with which his name is most firmly identified. His signature paintings, including The Persistence of Memory, are widely treated as classic Surrealist works.