*the-surreal-arts present this interview with Louis Markoya who was Salvador Dali’s protege from 1971 to ‘75.




The club wants to keep the Dalí´s spirit alive with the words of Markoya...this is another brilliant surreal moment for the club and for all the DA community.

Louis Markoya

How did you get started with art?

I liked to draw as a child but my first real kinship with art came as a middle school student. My first artistic influence was Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the fanatic custom car designer…..which got me drawing cars and loving it, and then, of course, Rat Fink characters.(It is interesting to note, that while I was not even aware of Dali, Ed Roth has been cited as being the “Salvador Dali of car designers” ) My art was going strong and I delighted in the idea that in High School, there was a dedicated art class…which I gleefully took, only to find the teacher wanted to teach only art history. He found me an intrusion to the class (because I wanted to produce, not learn the history of art at that point) and he locked me in the clay room to separate me from the class…….that was the end of my love of art for some time.


What is Art to you?

Very difficult question. I do not believe in art for arts sake, and abhor the abstract impressionists and Pop. To me Art should be intellectually or emotionally moving, or both. While Pop and Abstract can be that, I believe the general public has been led down a path of over intellectualizing some real crap by the so called “art experts” or “critics”.
While “Art” can be accidental, more often than not, it is not, and usually takes the transfer of ones soul, thoughts or emotions to the desired media, and even then, often does not qualify as art in my book.

What is Surreal to you?

What is Surreal can take form in many ways. The juxtaposition of objects, places or even words, to make a situation, object, or picture more than real. Not just dreamlike, which is somewhat trite, but in reality, having profound meaning. It is surreal to me that 30+ years after working with Dali, I am doing this interview, and enjoying it.

Dalinian Woman

What does Surrealism means today?

I believe Surrealism today has been trivialized to a large degree. People call anything with the image of an eye in it surreal. The Surrealists were genuinely interested in bringing the unconscious mind to the forefront….not kitsch. Surrealism should mean the same today as it did at it’s inception, but has been watered down by the masses.

What inspires and informs your art?

Nature, music, radiolarians, idiot savants, surrealism, Nuclear Mysticism, Dali, fractals, the golden section, jellyfish, Dutch Still Life painters, life, beauty and vulvas, to name a few things.

What media do you work with, and why?

Currently I am working on computer utilizing both 2D and 3D tools to generate and visualize my ideas, which then will be transferred to canvas or prepared Masonite. This for me is the best method as I am not nearly the draftsman I’d like to be. It also gives me the opportunity to work in fractal and mathmatical elements which could not be done without the computer. Outside the computer, oils are where I am most proficient , and what I admire most as it is the medium of the old masters.



Can you tell me a bit about how you first became involved in Dali´s world?

I had all but forgotten my love of drawing and art when in 1968 I came across the Dali Gold Candy Box covered book. I was instantly impressed and amazed. I was overcome with a flood of emotions and could hardly contain myself….I didn’t have the money to buy it, but went to the library to read “A Secret Life”, Dali’s autobiography. This convinced me not only of my passion for Dali, but that there were similarities in our feelings. Knowing Dali spent the winter in New York at the St. Regis hotel; I called him, and eventually spoke to him. He said I could come to meet him that evening (a Sunday) at 6PM in the hotel.

I excitedly went to the St Regis to be told I can find Dali in the cocktail lounge. This was my first introduction to Dali’s “court”. A large group of the rich, famous and bizarre. Dali was seated at a table in the back of the room, with a long line of people who trailed off on seats to his right. As a more, rich, famous, beautiful or bizarre person arrived, they would sit next to Dali and the others would move down. Watching this for a while I realized I did not really know what to say to him, and left. What I left to do, was spend the next year teaching myself to paint, going to the library to find out about technique and mediums. In that year I produced probably 20 paintings in the style of Dali which I photographed, and the next winter again called him. This time though, I would use the photos as a point to start speaking.

I met Dali again at the cocktail lounge in the winter of 70/71 where he critiqued each and every picture…..this is nice, this he had done before, etc. At the end of which he stacked all the photo’s carefully into a pile and completely surprised me saying, “We will do some collaboration”. This was the start of an amazing 5 years of work, errand running, doing assigned research and collaboration with the master.



How Dalí influenced or change your artistic vision?

Dali has influenced my artistic vision immensely.

While my passions were similar to begin with, Dali added fuel to the fire of my visions, and still does. Not only did I understand the workings of his paranoiac critical method but produced imagery based on it for him. I feel I have some unique opportunities in that I have known Dali and his love of science/technology well and can utilize some of these advances in artworks Dali may have done if he had the opportunity.
I see fractals as one very good example of this, where fractals can be holographic, mystical and natural arithmetic forms of beauty. They would definitely find themselves as elements of Dali paintings, and will soon, be a part of mine.

Was Dalí real or surreal?

Dali was both real and surreal.

For the most part Dali acted and lived beyond expectations. Examples of Dali being real would include him having contests with me to draw imagery within the spaces that occur between words in the New York Times on Sunday afternoons, or simply asking me to go to Brentano’s to pick up the cane he forgot there. On the other hand surreal may include him asking me to obtain glowing fire electric fireplace inserts for us to use as pillows to lie still on during a huge party he held, or turning an electric air car into flying fried eggs which we walked from the St. Regis to the Plaza creating a huge crowd, and when a news crew arrived, Dali exclaimed, “Some people walk their poodles, I walk my eggs”

Was Dalí the best friend of Dalí himself?

Unquestionably. Since Dali was an incredibly complex character, only Dali came close to understanding Dali, and therefore, he was his own best friend. While others can and did understand some pieces, or shrapnel of the Dali persona, few, if any understood him as a whole.

You´re the creator of the “Dalí´s anus”, what does that work means?

Dali’s Anus was an Homage created for the master for a number of reasons. First, it embodies not all, but much of what is Dalinian. Dali was not only somewhat anal as a personality; he was very enamored with the anus. It appears in many drawings; he made casts of Anus’s for his book “Ten Recopies for Immortality”, and knew more about assholes and excrement than anyone you can imagine.

He could roll off stories for hours on the subject, all with some ties to history and historical figures…..so this was naturally a fitting tribute to the king of surrealism. (As a side note Ernst Fuchs actually had a plan to crown Dali king of painters).

With that as a starting point I felt the imagery within the canvas would be formed by hemorrhoids…making the work the first art in hemorrhoids, another facet which would have delighted Dali. I formed the hemorrhoids into many of the classic Dali images, including rhinoceros horns, genetalia, butterflies, lips, hands, crosses and the like. To compliment the Dalinian feel of the image, ants crawl into and out of the hemmerhoidic crevices. The final elements are also part of the homage, a black hole was placed at the center of the anus, this symbolizes the drawing power of Dali, and as the golden coins of his desire flow into the anus, the power of his draw, can warp and bend them, and stretch them into the famous soft clock form, with a nod to Einstein.

The secondary reason I did Dali’s Anus was to actually test some concepts of surrealism. Hemmerhoidic art is quite different, and as a concept, may gross some (and does) people out…..but I did this work to see who can actually spot real surrealism when they see it, and recognize its relevance.

Dali's Anus

What´s your favorite Dalí´s work and why?

I have been asked this many times but the answer remains the same, I cannot choose a single favorite. There are elements of so many in which I find ecstasy in that it would not do justice to the body of work. It is easiest to point to masterworks like Tuna Fishing, Battle of Tetuon, Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and The Hallucinogenic Toreador which contain so many elements, encompass surrealism, mysticism and science, and outshine most of art history as works without parallel.

Who are yours favorites surreal artist today?

While I have friends and acquaintances that are surrealists today, I have no favorite surrealist. While many have succeeded in perfecting technique, draftsmanship or composition, I find that the real problem with today’s surrealists is content and the lack of relevance. This is of course too general of a statement, and exceptions exist, but it is in my opinion, the state of the art today.

What´s the future of the surrealism?

As stated above, I feel surrealism suffers greatly from associations with all kinds of new age crap, from fairies to unicorns. Surrealism is awaiting a second savior, who can meld technology, science and art to raise ones consciousness and expand the outlook of the viewer.

Will you side on Dali’s contemptuous derogatory accusation about Picasso's penchant for ugliness?

Quite happy to. Dali sincerely regarded Picasso as a genius. Not quite to the caliber of Dali, but quite highly regarded. Dali also loved the idea that Picasso was a fellow Spaniard. Dali felt Picasso was simply a worse (technical) painter than he, and of course he was right. Dali told stories of Picasso actually wanting him to paint the horse in Guernica, so one can see it so clearly and realistically, that you would smell it, and feel its sweat.

Does the name Dali deserve to epitomize the whole Surrealist Heritage?

Quite simply, Dali out dandied, and out surrealed and outshined all the surrealists, for which he was expelled. The expulsion quite simply did not work as it helped catapult Dali into the most recognized, if not the only recognized practitioner. I worked with Dali from 1970-1975 in which time he was not only a fanatical surrealist, but the master of ceremonies of a surreal circus. Art historians tired of Dali’s antics and bought into the abyss of modern movements which represent for the most part garbage and over intellectualized nothingness.

I think it will take another 500 years for the world to catch up to and appreciate Dali in his fullest.






Interview by Héctor Pineda


*the-surreal-arts