ANTONI PICHOT SOLER (Figueras, Girona, 1934-2015)."Untitled" 1986.Oil on canvas.Signed and dated in the lower left corner.Size: 30 x 30 cm; 31,5 x 31,5 cm (frame).Nephew of the painter Ramón Pichot, he lived with his family in San Sebastián from 1946 to 1964. There he began his training with the drawing teacher Juan Núñez Fernández, who had also been Dalí's teacher in Figueras years before. In the 1950s he began his career within an expressionist realism, making himself known through various exhibitions in San Sebastián, Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and Lisbon. In 1964 he settled permanently in the family home in Cadaqués. During this period his work underwent a decisive change, as Pichot turned his attention to the study of objects in his environment. This led him to use the stones of Cadaqués, from which he created anamorphic, anthropomorphic and allegorical visions, with which he connected with an undercurrent of Western painting ranging from certain masters of Italian Mannerism to Surrealism. It was also during these years that he began his relationship with Salvador Dalí, with whom he would become close friends. The great surrealist master was to become his protector from then on, and in 1972 he suggested that he set up a permanent exhibition of his work at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueras, which was inaugurated two years later. In 1975, in collaboration with Salvador Dalí, he created the four "grotesque monsters" for the Theatre-Museum's inner courtyard. A great deal of communication and aesthetic complicity was established between Pichot and Dalí. Thus, for example, in 1958 Pichot worked on the exhibition "The Battle of Constantí", which he presented in Barcelona. The theme of the battle was inspired by a conversation with Dalí, who explained to him that the rocks on the beach of Sa Conca in Cadaqués were already the site of multiple battles. Pichot is currently the director of the Dalí Theatre-Museum, as well as life patron and second vice-president of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation. In 2004 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts.