2024 marks 100 years of Surrealism and 120 years since the birth of the Catalan artist Dalí.

In honour of the artist whose work still sees thousands flock to his exhibitions each year, we remember the fascinating moment he collaborated with rock legend Alice Cooper. 

A Match Made in the St Regis

Of the many collaborations between artists and musicians, few have been as shocking and innovative as the works produced by Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) and Alice Cooper (b. 1948). One was a Surrealist pioneer who would profoundly influence one of the 20th century’s major art movements. The other is a shock-rock legend who transformed the music industry, and worshipped the artist in his younger years. Together, they created a disturbing portrait of Cooper’s brain using chocolate éclairs, ants and diamonds, and ventured into early holographic technology. 

The duo first met each other in the King Cole Bar at the St Regis Hotel (a Manhattan favourite of Marlene Dietrich, Ernest Hemingway and John Lennon) in April 1973. Cooper recalled the moment he met Dalí in an interview for AnOther magazine: "All of a sudden these five androgynous nymphs in pink chiffon floated in,” said Cooper. “They were followed by Gala (Dalí’s wife) who was dressed in a man’s tuxedo, top hat and tails, and carrying a silver cane. Then came Dalí. He was wearing a giraffe-skin vest, gold Aladdin shoes, a blue velvet jacket and sparkly purple socks given to him by Elvis.” In the same breath, Cooper recalled how everyone in the room revolved around the fascinating Surrealist King. "I was entering his orbit” he said. The pair gravitated towards each other, perhaps due to a shared morbid curiosity and penchant for the macabre.

Alice Cooper & Salvador Dalí, 1973 © Bob Gruen

A Marriage of Macabre Minds

The tale behind Dalí and Cooper's collaboration began in 1972. Following the success of Cooper's School’s Out album, the rockstar had become a global icon. He was reviled in the music industry for blood-splattered concerts writhing with live snakes, beheaded baby dolls and fake blood. Yet, the star was equally lauded by anguished teens and his performative shows later influenced Punk Rock. In fact, it was his blood-soaked performances that first caught Dalí's attention and precipitated their meeting at the St Regis. “Dalí’s people rang my manager and explained that he’d seen one of my stadium shows,” explained Cooper. “He said it was like seeing one of his paintings come to life, and that he wanted us to work together.”

For his part, Dalí took no prisoners when it came to creating eccentric Surrealist art, and was eager to antagonise his audience. Born on May 11, 1904, Dalí's childhood was marred by tragedy since the off. The artist was named Salvador after his older brother (who died nine months before his birth), was raised by an authoritarian father, and suffered a personality crisis throughout his childhood. By the time he was studying fine art in Madrid, Dalí was dressing like a Victorian artist and shouldered a strained relationship with his father. After several disputes and the death of his mother Felipa Domènech in 1921, he visited his father and handed him a condom filled with his own semen, declaring: "Here. I owe you nothing anymore." 

Considering Dalí's provocative attitude and mantra: “What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it,” it's unsurprising that the artist was expelled from the Madrid School of Fine Arts. Thankfully, he continued to create and exhibit his work in both Madrid and Barcelona, before moving to Paris and presenting his first solo exhibition in the early 1930s. 

Noel Fielding as Alice Cooper and David Suchet as Salvador Dali in Sky’s Urban Myths, 2018

You Can't Put A Price On Shock-Factor

Nowadays, we are still enthralled by his dreamlike imagery of melting clocks, distorted figures, and barren landscapes. Tapping into the subconscious, Dalí's oeuvre embraced the Surrealist canon of exploring the mind to unlock the mysteries of human existence. Dalí produced around 1,500 mesmerising paintings during his prolific career. These pieces are just as relevant and celebrated today as they were when the artist was alive. In May, his Rhinocéros painting sold for $1.74m, and was the headline sale at Christie's Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper auction in New York. Meanwhile, the world’s largest immersive exhibition: Dalí Cybernetics has been a roaring success and was extended to September. 

Finally, global exhibitions regaling the Surrealist art movement's centenary, are overflowing with Dalí artworks. There's Fantastic Visions: 100 Years of Surrealism, organized by Shanghai’s Museum of Art Pudong with the National Galleries of Scotland (through August 31). As well as Forbidden Territories: 100 Years of Surreal Landscapes, at Hepworth Wakefield (November 23 tot April 27, 2025), The Universe of Salvador Dalí, at Bucharest's ARCUB – Gabroveni Inn, and the touring exhibition Surrealism; migrating from Paris' Pompidou Centre to Madrid, Hamburg and Philadelphia throughout the year. 

Cooper has traced some of the inspiration behind his shock-performances to a childhood fascination with Dalí's paintings. “Dalí was our hero,” he told AnOther, recalling the obsession he shared with schoolmate and future Alice Cooper band bass player Dennis Dunaway. “Before The Beatles came along, he was the only thing we had. We would look at his paintings and talk about them for hours. His paintings had a lot of humour in them too. So when we formed our own band it was only natural that we took some of those images – like the crutch – and used them in our performances.”

Alice Cooper and Salvador Dalí

Dalí's Hologram & Alice Cooper's Brain

Before he was a member of The Hollywood Vampires (with Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Hendriksen), Cooper's original band disbanded in 1975, and the music artist pursued a solo career. Around the same time, he attended the unveiling of a holographic image of himself conjured up by Dalí. Called First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper’s Brain, it was the world’s first living hologram. The pair enlisted the South African artist Selwyn Lissack to help create the image using tungsten halogen lights, mercury arc lamps and a 2mW laser. 

The six-month endeavour resulted in a three-dimensional 'multiplex' which appeared animated from different angles. Naturally, Dalí directed the filmshoot for the hologram with an eccentric flair. He instructed Cooper to take his shirt off, wear 4 million dollars worth of diamond jewellery, and sit cross-legged on a rotating dais. As Lissack began filming the star, Cooper was asked to sing into, and take bites out of, a Venus de Milo-shaped statuette. It got a whole lot weirder on the second day of shooting.

Cooper arrived on set to find that Dalí had been hard at work creating The Alice Brain (now a lost masterpiece). A ceramic sculpture of a human brain, it had a chocolate éclair painted with ants spelling out the words ‘Dalí’ and ‘Alice’ sliding down the back. "That’s great, when we’re done can I have it?” recalled Cooper. “He said: ‘Of course not, it’s worth millions!’ I just laughed. He had a great sense of humour but his genius was that you never knew when he was being funny and when he wasn’t.” 

Photograph by Al Razutis of First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper’s Brain by Salvador Dalí, 1973

For Dalí, the hologram satisfied his need to explore new ideas, mediums, three-dimensional objects and optical illusions. Today, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, Spain has laid claim to the First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper’s Brain. The visual remains an influential piece of art. Fragments of it can be glimpsed in Lady Gaga’s collaboration with Jeff Koons on her Artpop album cover and Takashi Murakami’s anime-inspired work with Kanye West. “He was the most bizarre character I’ve ever met,” Cooper has said of Dalí, who died of heart failure in 1989, aged 84. “And yet after a while you felt very close to him. Working with him was one of the greatest moments of my life.”