VIENNA.- Salvador Dalí and Sigmund Freud. The artist's Surrealist imagery reflects an intensive engagement with psychoanalysis. But did they actually know one another? The story is as complex as its protagonists: Dalí discovered Freud's writings in the 1920s and was spellbound, even obsessed! Under their sway, he developed a pictorial language that is still unique today. Freud, however, was very skeptical of Surrealism. In Vienna, Dalí tried to meet his idol – to no avail. Their first and only meeting took place in London in the summer of 1938. Still, Dalí's memories of Vienna form an intriguing backdrop for the exhibition at the Lower Belvedere.

Stella Rollig, artistic director of the museum, says, "Exhibitions are about telling stories, and this one is about two individuals who have impacted the intellectual landscape of the 20th- century. Art and intellect, insight and passion: a story of devotion, rejection, and inspiration. Salvador Dalí's obsession with Sigmund Freud was a driving force behind his creativity – and this exhibition is the first to present Dalí's work in this context."

Vienna, 25 April 1937: Salvador Dalí checks into the Krantz-Ambassador Hotel. More than ever, he hopes to meet Sigmund Freud. Aiming to convince him of his “paranoid critical method,” he hopes to earn recognition for a creative approach based on psychoanalytic theory, which he considers his most significant contribution to Surrealism. However, he fails to meet the father of psychoanalysis. Salvador Dalí wanders around Vienna, mentally rehearsing the long-awaited conversation with Freud. In passing, the artist finds inspiration in the city and its art. Detailed accounts of these events are provided by Dalí in an eccentric autobiography published in 1942. The actual meeting would not occur until later: on 19 July 1938 in London, at the initiative his patron Edward James and Stefan Zweig, Salvador Dalí finally meets with Sigmund Freud.

The exhibition covers, in chronological order, the period from Dalí's discovery of Freud's writings to their personal meeting. How did Dalí's exploration of psychoanalysis influence his creative process? How does the juxtaposition of Freudian concepts with elements from his personal universe manifest in Dalí's work?

Curator Jaime Brihuega explains: "For Dalí, reading Freud opened up a whole new world. Through Freud's theories, he gained an understanding of his fantasies, fears, desires, and frustrations. This experience also encouraged him to transform them into images that have become part of our art-historical heritage."

The exhibition in the newly opened Lower Belvedere begins with a consideration of Dalí's domestic sphere and the complex dynamics of his family as reflected in his artwork. It then moves to Madrid in the 1920s, where Dalí discovered fertile ground for open dialogue and interdisciplinary exchange between the artistic avant-garde and academia at the Residencia de Estudiantes. In was in this stimulating environment that he first encountered Freud's writings, which had been translated into Spanish by 1922. Reading The Interpretation of Dreams became one of the defining moments of his life.

Dalí came into contact with Surrealism in 1925 while still in Madrid. With this bounty of influences, the artist established his personal iconography by the end of the 1920s and developed the basic concepts of his Surrealist visual language. Meanwhile, Freud's theories increasingly permeated his art. Works in the exhibition pertaining to this subject include references to dreams, guilt, or sexual obsessions. Dalí met his future wife, Gala, in 1929. He moved to Paris with her, joining the Surrealist group centered around André Breton. Along with Luis Buñuel he produced two films, Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Âge d'Or (1930).

In paintings such as Paranonïa (c. 1935) and Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937), Dalí employed double images: depending on which motif the viewer focuses on, they depict different things. An irrational moment determines the visual impression. Viewers see what they want to see or even what they think they see. This "paranoiac-critical method" is also analyzed in detail in the show.

A collection of paintings, drawings, Surrealist objects, photographs, films, books, journals, letters, and other documents illustrates Dalí's attraction to Freud as well as the inspiration it provided. The exhibition explores Dalí's youth and his Freudian period, illuminating his development as an artist whose oeuvre forms part of the collective canon of 20th-century art and whose work has been widely popularized.

On view are some 100 works, including highlights such as the paintings Neo-Cubist Academy (1926), The Lugubrious Game (1929), and Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937).