About the exhibition

Dalí, The Endless Enigma

Exhibition Curated Themes

Salvador Dalí , Figure at a Window , 1925 , oil on canvas , 105 x 74,5 cm , Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid , Photo: M.C.Esteban/Iberfoto / Bridgeman Images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Cadaqués

Cadaqués was a constant source of inspiration that influenced Dalí’s paintings. After views of the village, a large fresco emerges based on the artist’s early artworks. These works bring together two of Dalí’s favourite subjects: his sister Anna Maria and the coastline of Cadaqués.

Dalí invited the members of the Surrealist group to Cadaqués. The fishing port attracted major figures such as Max Ernst, Paul Eluard, René Magritte, and André Breton. Dalí met the artists after being suspended from the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1923. He subsequently joined the Surrealist group, which rejected logic and reason in their compositions.

He met Gala (who, at the time, was Elena Eluard, Paul’s wife) in the Summer of 1929. Henceforth, they would always be together and Gala became Dalí’s muse until the end of her life.

Salvador Dalí , Back drop for the ballet Labyrinth , c. 1941 , painting on canvas , 8,8 x 13 m , Théâtre-Musée Dalí, Figueres , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

The Theatre-Museum

Dalí’s visual imagery was formed by the landscapes of his childhood as well as the European avantgarde artists and the theatre. His love for art and theatre grew in the 1930s. Exiled in the United States, between 1940 and 1948, Dalí took part in various projects such as the creation of costumes, theatre sets, opera and film scenarios.

In October 1941, Dalí began working with the Russian choreographer Léonide Massine on Labyrinthe, a ballet based on the myth of Theseus, accompanied by Schubert’s music. He wrote the booklet and designed the costumes and sets.

Inaugurated in 1974, the Dalí Theatre-Museum, considered to be one of the artist’s last works, was built over the vestiges of the former municipal theatre in Figueres.

Salvador Dalí , Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus , c. 1934 , oil on wood , 31,75 x 39,4 cm , The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg (Florida) , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Metaphysical Surrealism

In 1930, Dalí presented his ‘Paranoiac-Critical Method’ in a theoretical essay entitled L’Âne pourri (‘The Stinking Ass’). Paranoia became his favourite approach. This method rendered the invisible manifest via a delirium of interpretation or the use of an optical illusion in his works.

Obsessed by this famous piece (Jean-François Millet’s Angelus, 1857–1859), Dalí created a new composition, inspired by his ‘Paranoiac- Critical Method’.

The scene is linked to the Angelus prayer, a Biblical event in which two peasants are represented in a field. For Dalí, deeply affected by the death of his brother Salvador three years before his birth, the Angelus is a contemplative scene. To him, the two figures in the picture have in fact just buried their child. In his version executed in 1934, Dalí represented the two figures and depicted them in a mystical context.

Salvador Dalí , The Temptation of Saint Anthony , 1946 , oil on canvas , 89,5 x 119,5 cm , Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels , Photo: © Akg-images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Evocations

Painted in the United States at the end of the Second World War, Gala in Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate One Second Before Awakening (1944) represents Gala levitating and asleep on a rock. The bee flying around her provokes Gala’s dream: everything is in a state of suspension and time has come to a stop.

Dalí’s Temptation of Saint Anthony attests to a technical mastery that is reminiscent of the great classical masters and a fantastical world featuring Surrealist animals. St Anthony is represented naked in a desert, in a vulnerable position, brandishing a cross. The animals—a huge horse, and a line of elephants with very long and tapering legs—represent the carnal or material temptations that have to be resisted. The picture brings together Dalí’s favourite themes: desire, dreams, fear, impulses, and mysticism.

Salvador Dalí , The Space Elephant , 1961 , yellow gold, emeralds, rubies, diamonds, aquamarine, rough crystal material, clock with Omega mechanism , 68 x 35,5 x 21 cm , Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Jewellery

Painter, architect, and sculptor, Dalí designed high-class jewellery with his series of jewels created in New York in Carlos Alemany’s workshops.

Between 1941 and 1970, while working on his paintings, he designed this jewellery with finesse and precision. He also selected the materials used to make them (gold, precious stones, and pearls) according to their colour, value, and symbolic connotations. Each example is unique and has a Surrealist name (Œil du temps, Cœur royal, etc.).

The ensemble, with its plant and animal motifs, symbols, hearts and eyes, shows that Dalí was an artist with unlimited talent, capable of expressing himself through various techniques and supports.

Salvador Dalí , Face of Mae West (Usable as Surrealist Apartment) , c. 1974 , installation , 50,2 x 76 x 58,7 mt , The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala- Salvador Dalí, Figueres ; ADAGP 2023

Mae West

Mae West (1893–1980) was a Hollywood actress and a sex symbol from the 1920s to the 1940s. Based on one of her photograph, Dalí created a Surrealist apartment: each part of her face was a part of the decor, furniture, motifs, and decorations. The objects were adapted from their everyday use to create an ideal image. The eyes became paintings, the nose a fireplace, and the lips a red couch.

The colours used are a reference to the theatre and to Mae West’s profession, and a symbol of the mise en scène and reinterpretation of reality. In 1974, Dalí recreated the picture in three dimensions, with the help of the architect Oscar Tusquets.

Salvador Dalí , Project for The House of Dr Edwards , c. 1945 , oil on panel , 88,8 x 113,1 cm , The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation , © Salvador Dalí , Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Cinema and photography

Dalí was an artist obsessed with images and a highly publicised figure. He co-wrote with Luis Buñuel the scenario of the film An Andalusian Dog (1929), based on their dreams (a hand covered in ants and a knife cutting an eye). Both artists created the scenario by rejecting all rational images and ideas. The sequences of the film transgress any narrative and traditional approach.

Dalí also collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on The House of Dr Edwards in 1945. He created a dreamlike scene in which pianos, eyes, and scissors floated in the air.

The Inventor of all kinds of images, Dalí met photographers such as Man Ray, Brassaï, Cecil Beaton, and Philippe Halsman. In 1950, he become friends with Robert Descharnes, who worked with him for forty years. The photographer created the preparatory photos for his works and compiled the photographic and sound archives of the life of Dalí.

Salvador Dalí , The Persistence of Memory , 1931 , oil on canvas , 24,10 x 33 cm , The Museum of Modern Art, New York (anonymous donation, 1934) , Photo : © Bridgeman Images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

The first Surrealism

Surrealism enabled Dalí to express his inner conflicts: experimenting with various Surrealist techniques involving images emerging from the unconscious, such as automatism.

In 1931, during a period of poverty and instability in Spain, Dalí painted his most famous piece: The Persistence of Memory, which is now better known as ‘Soft Watches’. In his autobiography The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, he explained that he was inspired by a runny Camembert cheese, that made him think of time passing by. The picture features the rocks of Portlligat and deformed pocket watches indicating different times. One of them is covered with ants, a symbol linked to death. The painting invites the viewers to liberate themselves from material constraints.

Salvador Dalí , Slave Market with the Apparition of the Invisible Bust of Voltaire , 1940 , oil on canvas , 46,2 x 65,2 cm , The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg (Florida) , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Doubles images

The Cap Creus’ rocky landscape introduces works that played on double images and simulacrum, the visible and the invisible, optical effects, and metamorphosis. A master in the art of deforming reality, Dalí was obsessed with the double image. In both paintings Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937) and Slave Market with the Apparition of the Invisible Bust of Voltaire (1940), he experimented with the reflection of objects and visual perception. Using video effects, the digital exhibition enables viewers to see the various levels of interpretation of these works.

Endless Enigma, created in 1938, is often considered as a picture-manifesto. Several elements are visible: a mandolin, a salad bowl with pears, two figs on a table, a mythological beast, the face of the great cyclops, a greyhound, a reclining philosopher, the beach at Cap Creus, and a boat. The canvas, with its many images, conveys a series of endless meanings.

Salvador Dalí , Galatea of the Spheres , 1952 , oil on canvas , 65 x 54 cm , Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Atomisation

War became a part of Dalí’s oeuvre when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, triggering fresh sources of inspiration. From the outset, Dalí was fascinated by sciences and the theory of relativity and astronomy. The atomic bomb made him interested in the atomic structure of matter. As the heir to the great Renaissance masters, Dalí reinterpreted sacred figures.

Galatea of the Spheres (1952) is one of the most representative works from the mystical-nuclear period. Gala’s face, composed of spheres, is fragmented, highlighting Dalí’s fascination with the theories of atomic disintegration.

Salvador Dalí , Atomic Leda , 1947-1949 , huile sur toile , 61 x 46 cm , The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Christ and Gala

In the 1940s, Dalí turned to the Renaissance, classicism, and religious painting. Galarina (1945) attested to this return to the old masters: ‘I entitled it “Galarina” because Gala is for me what Fornarina was for Raphael.’

In Atomic Leda (1947–1949), he depicted Gala in a mythical episode: that of Leda seduced by Zeus transformed into a swan. In this work, with its levitating elements, the focus is on the laws of physics and gravity.

A great admirer of Leonardo da Vinci, Dalí painted The Sacrament of the Last Supper in 1955, inspired by the original work and measures 168.3 by 270 cm.

Dalí (1904-1989)

May 11, 1904

Dalí is born at Figueres.

1920

He studies at the Fine Arts Academy in Madrid.

1922

In Madrid, he continues his studies at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts Special School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving. Here, he becomes friends with important future intellectual and artistic figures, such as Luis Buñuel, Federico García Lorca, Pedro Garfias, Eugenio Montes, and Pepín Bello, amongst others.

1926

He is expelled from the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He travels to Paris for the first time. Here, he meets Picasso. Miró visits him at Cadaqués. Federico García Lorca publishes his Ode to Salvador Dalí.

1929

In Paris, he co-directs An Andalusian Dog with Luis Bunuel. He meets André Breton. He joins the Surrealist group and meets Gala Éluard. This period is marked by Freudian psychoanalysis and the creation of his first double images.

1930

He develops the ‘Paranoiac-Critical Method’ via the publication of ‘L’Âne pourri’ (‘The Stinking Ass’) in the magazine Le Surréalisme au Service de la Révolution. Dalí and Gala move to Port Lligat.

1939

He creates the costumes and sets for the ballet Bacchanale, which is performed in New York. This is followed by the ballet Labyrinthe. Breton announces Dalí’s expulsion form the Surrealist group.

1940

Upon the incursion of the German troops, Dalí and Gala go to the United States. He begins to take an interest in jewellery making.

1970

He announces the establishment of the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, which is inaugurated in 1974.

23 janvier 1989

Dalí dies in Figueres, at the age of eighty-four.

listen to the playlist of the exhibition

Work of the month

Piéta, 1958

So, was Dalí a religious painter? Yes, he was. As of the 1940s, he painted hundreds of Christs, Madonnas, saints, and angels in his canvases. However, this religious work has remained largely unknown. In the collective imagination the Spanish painter is associated with his soft watches and newsworthy antics or countless commercial collaborations earned him the mocking nickmane of Avida Dollars given by André Breton - an anagram formed from the letters of his name. With his gift for repartee, Dalí said: ‘Since he has called me Avida Dollars, gold has begun to rain down on my head, like a divine, monotonous diarrhoea’.

Salvador Dalí, Pietà, 1958, oil on canvas, 115 x 123 cm, Collection Pérez Simón, Mexique; © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023 – Photo © Christie’s Images/Bridgeman Images

Key works

Une seconde avant l'éveil du rêve causé par le vol d’une abeille autour d’une pomme-grenade

Salvador Dalí , vers 1944 , huile sur bois , 51 x 41 cm , Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid , Photo : Brigdeman Images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Visage de Mae West pouvant être utilisé comme appartement

Salvador Dalí , vers 1974 , Installation , 50,2 x 76 x 58,7 m , Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

La tentation de Saint-Antoine

Salvador Dalí , 1946 , huile sur toile , 89,5 x 119,5 cm , Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles , Photo: akg-images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Pietà

Salvador Dalí , 1958 , huile sur toile , 115 x 123 cm , Collection Pérez Simón, Mexique , Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

La persistance de la mémoire

Salvador Dalí , 1931 , huile sur toile , 24,10 x 33 cm , The Museum of Modern Art, New York (Donation anonyme 1934) , Photo : Bridgeman Images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Ma femme, nue, regardant son propre corps devenir escalier, trois vertèbres d’une colonne, ciel et architecture

Salvador Dalí , 1945 , huile sur bois , 61 x 52 cm , collection privée , Photo : Bridgeman Images , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Réminiscence archéologique de "l’Angélus" de Millet

Salvador Dalí , vers 1934 , huile sur bois , 31,75 x 39,4 cm , The Dali Museum, St. Petersburg (Floride) , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

Charrette fantôme

Salvador Dalí , 1933 , huile sur toile , 19 x 24,1 cm , Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres , © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, ADAGP 2023

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Discover also the exhibitions "Chagall, Paris – New York" in the Atelier des Lumières (Paris) et au Hall des Lumières (New York), "From Vermeer to Van Gogh, the Dutch Masters" in Carrières des Lumières (Les Baux-de-Provence) and "Klimt, Gold in Motion" in Phoenix des Lumières (Dortmund).

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