Salvador Dalì: Disruption and Devotion. Dalì’s engagement with art of the past – Museum of Fine Arts Boston | until 01.12.2024

The whimsical and iconoclastic artist Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) is famous for his bizarre paintings, his eccentric behaviour and his unparalleled technical skill. But the famous surrealist was also deeply rooted in tradition. He revered his artistic predecessors, including Dürer, Raphael, El Greco, Vermeer and, above all, Velázquez. The first exhibition of Dalí’s work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), on view through Sunday, 1 December 2024, explores this ongoing engagement with European art of the past. Dalí: Disruption and Devotion features nearly 30 paintings and works on paper on loan from the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, as well as books and prints from a private collection and works from the MFA’s European collection that inspired him. The unique juxtapositions, presented both in pairs and in small thematic groups, offer a new perspective on one of the most famous artists of the 20th century.

Image above: Salvador Dalí, The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, 1952–54 -Oil on canvas. Collection of the Dalí Museum. Gift of A. Reynolds and Eleanor Morse. © 2024 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Artists Rights Society.

‘Dalí saw the world with different eyes. In his art, he created fantastical visions that reflect his peculiar pranks and over-the-top personality. But he was also a serious artist with astonishing technical skills, and his deep connections with artists of past centuries reveal an unexpected side of Dalí that will be a revelation to today’s audiences,’ said Julia Welch, Assistant Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe.

Dalí spent his youth in the small Spanish town of Figueres, north of Barcelona near the Catalan coast. His artistic talent was recognised early on and at the age of 18 he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. On a trip to Paris in 1929, Dalí was introduced to the Surrealist group by another Catalan artist, Joan Miró. According to the leader of the group, André Breton, Surrealism wanted to ‘dissolve the hitherto contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality’. The unconscious was initially explored in literature, but the movement soon extended to the visual arts, with Dalí being a highly visible member of the circle.

‘The surrealist movement, which was launched by André Breton in 1924, is 100 years old. The MFA’s exhibition, which draws on outstanding loans from the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, offers a timely opportunity to revisit the most famous Surrealist in light of the historical artists he deeply admired,’ said Frederick Ilchman, Chair and Mrs Russell W. Baker Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe.

Dalí: Disruption and Devotion presents a broad spectrum of Dalí’s best-known works, both in terms of subject matter, chronology and scope. Highlights include:

• The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-54), a reworking of Dalí’s most famous painting, which he had painted two decades earlier and which shows his preoccupation with the elasticity of time
• The 10-foot-high Ecumenical Council (1960), which incorporates art historical references, religious themes, elements from earlier works and a hyper-realistic self-portrait in the bottom left corner
• Velázquez Painting the Infanta Marguerita with the Lights and Shadows of His Own Glory (1958), paired with Velázquez’s Infanta Maria Theresa (1653) to emphasise Dalí’s deep reverence for the 17th century Spanish painter.
• Morphological Echo (1936) and Nature Morte Vivante (Still Life in Rapid Movement) (1956), examples of how Dalí distorted and reinterpreted 17th century Dutch and Flemish still lifes
• Four of Dalí’s reinterpretations of Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos (1799), one of the most important series of prints in European art, with detailed embellishments and revised captions juxtaposed with Goya’s original etchings
• Sainte Hélène à Port Lligat (1956), which shows Dalí’s wife and muse Gala in the guise of St Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. This painting is combined with El Greco’s Saint Dominic in Prayer (c. 1605) to show both artists meditating on solitude and the power of spiritual experiences.

WHEN?

Exhibition period: Saturday, 06 July to Sunday, 01 December 2024

WHERE?

Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
02115 Boston, Massachusetts