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Dalí the graphic Artist
A display of the painter's different facets as a graphic artist: from book covers to posters or typographic experiments.
The Gala Dalí Castle Museum-House in Púbol will re-open its doors this year with an exhibition that will allow visitors to get a glimpse of a little-known facet of Salvador Dalí: that of the graphic artist. Dalí's designs reveal his unique, highly personal imprint, far removed from the fashionable, and always linked to his iconography and evolving in step with the rest of his work, particularly his paintings.
His images and graphics are consistent with the intensity of the contents, and often search for geological or natural forms and shapes. In Dalí's role as a graphic artist, one also perceives his absolute creative independence, which sets aside market-dictated rules and guidelines and achieves the utmost freedom of expression and interpretation. That said, in certain specific cases, as in The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, he does show a great interest in typographic composition.
The exhibition shows works from all his periods, ranging from one of his first book covers, designed for the book Per la música, by Léon-Paul Fargue (1921), and translated by a friend of his, Jaume Maurici, to the poster for Babaouo - c'est un film surréaliste, which dates from 1932; the hitherto unknown project ¡Cretins!, which was completed around 1945, where Dalí once again plays with dual images; or covers for magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.
Visitors can see some of the originals as they were conceived by Salvador Dalí and compare them to their respective mechanical reproductions, which in some cases have little to do with the original conception and design.
Finally, samples of some of his typographical preoccupations will be on display, like the initials designed for the book The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, or his calligraphy for Tractat d'escriptura catastrofeiforme (Treatise of Catastropheiform Writing), based on mathematician René Thom's "theory of catastrophes".
Gala-Dalí Castle Museum-House, Púbol
19 March - 1 November 2003
Exhibition organised by the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, sponsored by "la Caixa", as part of the Design Year 2003 events. Curated by Montse Aguer, director of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation's Dalí Study Centre.
Throughout the entire year, as part of the centennial celebration of Foment de les Arts Decoratives (Promotion of the Decorative Arts, FAD), an extensive programme of activities will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia and the rest of Spain, in an initiative organised by FAD and promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Council.
Exhibitions in various museums and galleries, street festivals, scholarships and competitions, publications, virtual exhibitions, conferences and professional seminars are some of the proposals that have been specially designed to bring creativity and design within everybody's grasp.
