Cadaqués, 12 June 2015
Cadaqués Town Council, Museu de Cadaqués and the Fundació Gala‐Salvador Dalí announced that the temporary exhibition Dalí. Pitxot. Cadaqués. About painting was unveiled at Cadaqués Municipal Museum. The official opening was attended by Joan Figueras, Mayor of Cadaqués, and Montse Aguer, Director of the Dalí Foundation's Centre for Dalinian Studies and curator of the exhibition. The display will be open to the public from 12 June (afternoon) until 20 September.
Concept and content
This exhibition is an homage to the long friendship and collaboration between Salvador Dalí and Antoni Pitxot. It also pays homage to art and painting, and to a landscape: that of Cadaqués. This unique mineral landscape both inspired and conditioned these two men.
Salvador Dalí's drawings for the book 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship draw us into the poetic language and thoughts of Antoni Pitxot, who was capable of abstracting and finding the essence of shapes and establishing a break with the logical order of the physical eye. In this way, a local landscape, that of Cadaqués, becomes universal, allegorical, and reflects the interior landscape of man.
This selection of works by Antoni Pitxot -on loan from the Dalle Molle collection- is being exhibited for the very first time in Spain. The pieces are oil paintings, produced using a technique similar to that of Renaissance artists, from whom Pitxot learnt the recipes, the secrets, which he discussed and shared with Salvador Dalí. The creative process behind the work of Antoni Pitxot is unique: firstly he created figures, sculptural ensembles or compositions with stones gathered from his surroundings which he would then transfer onto canvas. Nature becomes art. The colours of his work, the texture, the mystery are all vital components of the creations of Antoni Pitxot. His work provokes an interesting dialogue between creator and viewer. Mystery, magic and, above all, the expression of "the sumptuousness of mineral silks and velvets", in the words of Salvador Dalí, are transmitted to us through this unique and paradoxical work.
The exhibition consists of 68 pieces:
- 30 works by Salvador Dalí: 13 from the Dalí Foundation and 17 from two private collections
- 37 paintings by Antoni Pitxot from the Dalle Molle collection
- 1 piece from a private collection in Cadaqués
- 19 photographs
It is divided into seven thematic areas: "Cellist", "Self-portraits", "Mineral landscapes", "Female forms", "Mythologies and allegories", "50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship", and "Dalí Theatre‐Museum".
It is sponsored by AMSA, Abertis Foundation and Girona Provincial Council, and is supported by the Costa Brava Girona Tourism Board. The opening hours of the Cadaqués Municipal Museum are: until 24 June: Monday to Saturday 10.00 ‐ 13.00 and 16.00 ‐ 19.00; closed on Sundays. From 24 June: Monday to Saturday 10.00 ‐ 20.00 and Sundays 11.00 ‐ 15.00.
