"My moustache is… very pointed, very aggressive." Playful and provocative, Salvador Dalí's moustache was more than mere facial hair but a bold artistic statement. In an exclusive BBC interview the Surrealist artist shared the secret behind the most famous moustache in the world.
In 1955, Spanish artist Salvador Dalí – who was born this week 120 years ago – sat down with veteran broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge on the BBC's Panorama, and spoke about the most potent symbol of his artistic identity – his moustache.
Muggeridge conceded that he should really be asking the famed Surrealist about the bizarre dreamlike images that made his name, but the sight of Dalí's flamboyantly lustrous whiskers proved irresistible to him.
What followed, for a BBC programme known for its investigative current affairs documentaries, was a fittingly surreal interview.
"The first question that I want to put to you – it really ought to be about modern art but I can't help it – there is some delicious frivolity in you that makes me ask it – how did you manage to produce those magnificent moustaches?" said Muggeridge.
"In the beginning of this moustache, I used one very natural product," replied Dalí. "Dates, you know the fruit? In the last moment of dinner, I not clean my finger and I put a little in my moustache and it remains for all afternoon very efficiently.
"But now I use one real product, very good, [found] in the Place Vendôme, Hungarian wax Pinaud [a French brand that has been going since 1810]. It's a very well-known wax already. Proust, Marcel Proust [the French novelist], uses the same."
"Yes, but his was a little pointed one, wasn't it," replied Muggeridge, warming to the subject. "It didn't have a splendid upturn like yours."
"He used this wax but he used it in another manner or another mode in one depressing… way. A little depressing and melancholic. My moustache contrarily is very gay, very pointed, very aggressive."
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Muggeridge ploughed on, pressing the artist for more details on his gravity-defying facial hair,........