DALÍ IN SPANISH COLLECTIONS
October, 9 2001 – January, 6 2002
Salvador Dalí (Figueras, 1904 – 1989) is undoubtedly the Spanish avant-garde artist who is most appreciated by the public, due to the fact that his work is characterized by a realistic imagination that is easily recognizable, and manifests itself in enormously attractive compositions that combine unusual and disparate elements. Dalí became a member of the Surrealist group in Paris at the end of the 1920s and made a substantial contribution to this movement both from a theoretical and a practical viewpoint. This dual contribution can be summed up, on the one hand, by the formulation of his “paranoiac-critical” method and, on the other, by his elaboration of a realistic pictorial proposal that reveals to what extent our daily view of life is charged with an enormous potential of irrationality.
The exhibition Dalí in Spanish Collections is curated by Professor Francisco Calvo Serraller and has been made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of Telefónica S.A. and Iberpistas S.A. Although Dalí also did innumerable graphic works, drawings and sculptures, our selection concentrates on his paintings, which make up the most representative part of his output. The thirty-four paintings in the exhibition, executed between 1919 and 1982, constitute a journey through the different creative periods of the painter and, at the same time, offer an anthological view of his entire work. In its entirety, it encompasses his first contact with the Impressionists and Cubist avant-garde, his approach to Surrealism and the creation of his own original image within that movement, his interest in scientific discoveries and optical resources, and his last period in which he returns to a study of the great masters of the past. The works have come from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Fundación Gala Salvador Dalí, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, the Fundación Federico García Lorca and the Colección Masaveu, in addition to thirteen important private collections containing significant works by the painter. The curator of the exhibition, Francisco Calvo Serraller, Catedrático de Historia del Arte at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and well-known art critic, has written an illuminating text for the catalogue, which also contains reproductions of the works in the exhibition, together with their corresponding documentation and a succinct chronology of the painter’s life and works. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, a corresponding lecture series, entitled Dalí: real and surreal (see current events), will be offered by some of the most important Spanish specialists in the life and works of Dalí. This series will study, from very diverse perspectives, the work and personality of a creator who, in addition to his pictorial creation, forged a figure that has become, in its own right, one of the icons of modernity.
Sponsored by Telefónica, S.A and Iberpistas, S.A