Salvador Dali cultivated madness the way other artists cultivated technique. The melting clocks, the lobster telephone, the pet ocelot, the waxed mustache — every element of his public persona was a calculated performance designed to keep the world watching. Behind the surrealist spectacle was a shrewd businessman and technically brilliant painter who understood that in the modern art world, the artist’s image was as marketable as the art itself.

This episode traces Dali from his Spanish childhood through his expulsion from the Surrealist movement, his controversial relationship with Gala, his embrace of Franco, and the question that haunted his career: where did the genuine madness end and the performance begin?

• Dali’s childhood obsession with his dead brother and the early signs of his theatrical personality
• The Surrealist years, the collaboration with Bunuel, and Andre Breton’s furious expulsion of Dali
• The relationship with Gala — muse, manager, and the woman who controlled his life and finances
• His embrace of Franco, his commercial sellout reputation, and the debate over genius versus fraud