Dalí: An Artist, a Genius

This retrospective arises out of the collaboration between Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí and the Vittoriano and provides a human and artistic overview of Dalí. The exhibition is divided into three sections, as well as an introduction to the artist and the man through photographs of the painter taken by the Russian-American photographer Philippe Halsman, in addition to videos in which we can hear the artist speaking and see some of his performances. The Halsman photographs are on exhibition for the first time in Rome.

The first of the three sections examines the strong influence the great artists of the Italian Baroque and Renaissance had on Dalí's creation. Those artists include Leonardo da Vinci, Rafael, Bramante, Palladio, Michelangelo, Piero della Francesca, Bernini, etc. The second section shows works as significant as Impressions of Africa, The Surrealist Piano, Millet's Architectonic "Angelus", Soft Self-Portrait with Grilled Bacon and The Spectre of Sex Appeal. And finally, the third section shows for the first time the mark that Italy left on Dalí from the many journeys he undertook to that country. There are projects with Luchino Visconti, contributions to magazines, and his relations with personalities such as Federico Fellini.

The exhibition Dalí: An Artist, a Genius is curated by Montse Aguer, Director of the Dalí Foundation's Centre for Dalinian Studies, and by Lea Mattarella, lecturer in Contemporary Art History at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts, under the coordination of Alessandro Nicosia, head of Comunicare Organizzando.

The works that can be seen in Dalí: An Artist, a Genius mainly come from the Dalí Foundation, but also from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museum Boijmansvan Beuningen of Rotterdam, the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, the Haggerty Museum of Art (Wisconsin, USA) and the Walt Disney Animation Studios (Los Angeles, USA). The Dalí Foundation has loaned 103 oil paintings, water colours and drawings, as well as around a hundred photographs, magazines, catalogues, posters and other documents.