Salvador Dali is coming to India in a first ever exhibition

Think the foundations of Acadmecism, Impressionism, Futurism, and Cubism with a hint of Freud. Add to it a healthy dose of a 20-something-year-old's fresh take on Surrealism. Pepper it with some interest in fashion and a passion for politics, sensation, and controversy (remember the painting SacredHeart, which featured the words “Sometimes I Spit with Pleasure on the Portrait of My Mother”?), and you have Salvador Dali, one of the most celebrated 20th-century painters of all.

Over his expansive career in the arts, Dali has spread his "paranoid-critical” method across mediums. He has created illustrations, lithographs, set designs and costumes, sculptures, etchings, watercolours, and tapestries, drawings, endless canvases, even an animated short film for Disney! And while you could travel around the world in an effort to trace even his best works—we’re not talking the later works that art critic Robert Hughes described in The Guardian Dalí’s as “kitschy repetition of old motifs or vulgarly pompous piety on a Cinemascope scale.”—in a first of its time exhibition, us Indians will have the rare opportunity to see a showcase of over 200 original works by the artist here in Bruno Art Gallery, New Delhi.

The exhibition will include series like ‘The Songs of Maldoror’, prints that explore Dali’s envisioning of childhood traumas and subconscious fears; ‘Secret Poems by Apollinaire’, etchings inspired Georges Brassens' songs and Apollinaire's poems; ‘Faust’, fantastical etchings based on Goethe's masterpiece; and ‘Don Juan’, exemplifying the complexities of love, sex, and death. 

The one month showcase is brought together by the Pierre Argillet Collection in what is a testament to the long-standing collaboration between Dalí and his publisher and friend, Pierre Argillet. It has earlier been exhibited around the world, including the Musée Boymans in Rotterdam, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and the Dalí Museum in Figueras, Spain.

Title: Dali Comes To India - A Rare Showcase of Surrealism 
Exhibition Dates: 15th November - 13th December, 2024 
Venue: Bruno Art Gallery, Savitri Cinema Complex, Greater Kailash 2, New Delhi-110048
Timings: 12pm-6pm 

Feature Image: Bruno Art Group