Salvador de Aulestia, printmaker, painter, sculptor and writer, was born in Barcelona, Spain on 13 November 1915. He showed early signs of artistic expression and was enrolled at Las Reales Escuelas Pias, a religious formative school that encouraged the study of art. In 1931, he entered the seminary but  a chance meeting with the artist Garcia Lorca in 1935 reignited his desire to pursue art. Ee remained at the seminary but continued to draw.

In 1936, with the start of the Spanish Civil War, the seminary was closed and Aulestia enlisted on behalf of the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party (known as the PSOE, Partido Obrero Espanol).  He was briefly imprisoned and, upon his release, returned to Barcelona and enrolled at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios. Aulestia began to exhibit in Italy and the U.S. In 1963, after international success, he published the Apotelesmatical Art Manifesto, the first of several books.

In the 1960s, Salvador de Aulestia created El Sideroploide, a steel sculpture measuring 213 feet long and 55-3/4 feet high that originally adorned the rompeolas in the harbor of Barcelona. It took three years to complete using a team of steel workers who recycled parts of ships, junk, and other abandoned metal and was an homage to sailors and seamen. It has been restored and now resides on the quay of the golondrinas.

De Aulestia moved to Milan, Italy in 1972, where he continued to work and exhibit. His works are included in the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Dusseldorf Kunst Akademie, and the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

Salvador de Aulestia died in Milan, Italy on 1 June 1994.