The Average Bureaucrat is a loyal reproduction of the original artwork of the same title created by Salvador Dali in 1930. Akin to his contemporaries ‘The Surrealists’ Salvador Dali found Bureaucrats and indeed bureaucracy repugnant. Even so, it seems no coincidence that this composition was created in 1930 shortly after his father (Don Salvador) had disinherited and denounced him: And unquestionably, being a Notary his father could most certainly be regarded as a bureaucrat. Hence most critics feel this rather gross human being who seems to be asleep or dead upon the shores of the blackest sea is in fact a portrayal of the artist’s father. The hermit crabs living in his mind adding credence to the idea Dali is depicting someone he (at least) finds objectionable.

In the late summer of 1929 Dali met who would become his future wife Gala – A Russian immigrant ten years older than he who was actually married to fellow surrealist and poet Paul Eluard. This was a Romance refuted by his father: His alliance with the Surrealists viewed as a corruption of his son’s morals. Even so, although strained his father did not denounce Salvador until he read a newspaper article which reported Dali had exhibited a drawing in Paris and inscribed “Sometimes, I spit for fun on my mother's portrait”. Dali refused to apologize and was banished from his home in Cadaquès. Less than one year later he created The Average Bureaucrat – As they say, a picture paints a thousand words.