BOSTON, MASS.- The outlandish and iconoclastic artist Salvador Dalí (19041989) is famous for his bizarre imagery, eccentric behavior and unparalleled technical skill. The renowned Surrealist was also, however, deeply rooted in tradition. He revered his artistic predecessorsamong them Dürer, Raphael, El Greco, Vermeer and above all Velázquez. Opening this summer, the first-ever exhibition of work by Dalí at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) examines this sustained engagement with European art of the past. Dalí: Disruption and Devotion presents 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, which are shown alongside works from the MFAs European collection made by artists who inspired him. The unique juxtapositions, presented in both pairings and small thematic groupings, offer a new take on one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century.
Dalí spent his youth in the small Spanish town of Figueres, north of Barcelona near the Catalan coast. His artistic talent was noticed early on, and at 18, he enrolled at Madrids San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. On a trip to Paris in 1929, Dalí connected with the Surrealist group through another Catalan artist, Joan Miró. In the words of the groups leader, André Breton, Surrealism aimed to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality. The unconscious mind was first explored in literature, but the movement soon expanded to the visual arts, with Dalí a highly visible member of the circle.
The Surrealist movement, announced by André Breton in 1924, is 100 years old. The MFAs exhibition, using superb loans from the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, offers a timely opportunity to reconsider the most famous Surrealist in terms 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 showcases a broad range of Dalís best-known works, in terms of subject matter, chronology and scale. Highlights include:
The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (195254), a reworking of Dalís single most famous picture, painted two decades earlier, which shows his preoccupation with the elasticity of time
The 10-foot-tall Ecumenical Council (1960), which includes art historical references, religious themes, elements from earlier works and a hyper-realistic self-portrait in the lower left corner
Velázquez Painting the Infanta Marguerita with the Lights and Shadows of His Own Glory (1958), paired with Velázquezs Infanta Maria Theresa (1653) to demonstrate Dalís deep reverence for the 17th-century Spanish painter
Morphological Echo (1936) and Nature Morte Vivante (Still Life-Fast Moving) (1956), examples of how Dalí distorted and riffed upon 17th-century Dutch and Flemish still lifes
Four of Dalís reinterpretations of Francisco Goyas Los Caprichos (1799), one of the greatest print series of European art, which include detailed embellishments and revised captions, shown facing Goyas original etchings
Sainte Hélène à Port Lligat (1956), presenting Dalís wife and muse Gala in the guise of Roman Emperor Constantines mother Saint Helena, which is paired with El Grecos Saint Dominic in Prayer (about 1605) to show both artists meditating on solitude and the power of spiritual experience