Barcelona, 26 January 2005
Montse Aguer, Dalí Year Commissioner and Director of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation’s Centre for Dalinian Studies today presented at CaixaForum the balance of Dalí Year 2004, in an event chaired by Josep Vilarasau, President of the “la Caixa” Foundation, and Ramon Boixadós, Chairman of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation. Although the Dalí Year will not actually be ending until May next, the Foundation representatives wanted to undertake an assessment of the centenary-related activities carried out over the course of 2004, the year that featured the main achievements of this commemoration. CaixaForum was chosen for presenting this balance because it had been the exhibition centre that had hosted the first of the centenary’s two great exhibitions: Dalí. Mass Culture.
Montse Aguer started by undertaking a qualitative evaluation, pointing out that all the objectives the organisers had laid down for this centenary had been achieved. She mentioned the following:
- a) bringing Salvador Dalí the man and the work together under all their aspects
- b) bringing a rigorous approach to the study
- c) the fact that it had been an all-embracing and informative event
- d) placing Dalí within the context of a period that had been the fruit of a cultural and intellectual tradition, while at the same time presenting Dalí as a discoverer of new forms of expression and fundamental contributor to the history of art
- e) the fact that no particular thesis had been favoured, thereby permitting the emergence of various lines of research and a broadening of knowledge about the artist and the oeuvre
- f) the coordination between domestic and international institutions, organisations and companies that had lent the project material shape in the form of exhibitions, congresses, recovery of scenarios, issuing of publications, documentaries, etc., and had boosted to the utmost extent the attractiveness of museums housing works by Dalí
- g) having the Foundation as coordinating body for the initiatives, promoting Dalí’s association with his Empordà roots.
She went on to outline visitor figures for the Dalí museums and the various exhibitions, as well as the number of publications and documentaries made: although an increase in visitors to the Dalí museums had not of itself been an objective for the Dalí Foundation, centenaries did nevertheless produce such effects for their organisers.
The total number of visitors to the Dalí museums during 2004 had been 1,398,180, a figure that meant an increase of 21.19% over 2003. The breakdown was as follows: Dalí Theatre-Museum (including the Dalí Theatre-Museum by Night and the Dalí·Joies area) received 1,169,532 visitors, 19.41% more than during the previous year; the Gala Dalí Castle House-Museum in Púbol: 127,008 visitors, 60.62% up on the previous year; the Salvador Dalí House-Museum in Portlligat: 101,640 visitors, 6.75% more than in 2003. Visitors to the Dalí Foundation websites (the general site, the centenary site and the catalogue raisonné site): the sites had received 1,738,000 visits, a figure that meant a 58.38% increase over 2003, while 20% of visitors to the general website had also entered the catalogue raisonné site.
Visitors to the temporary exhibitions
More than a million people visited the temporary exhibitions over the course of 2004, and that did not count the visitors to the exhibitions The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí at the Dalí Theatre-Museum nor the Quixote exhibition at Púbol Castle, figures for which have been provided above.
Dalí. Mass Culture. CaixaForum, Barcelona. This exhibition received 300,899 visitors over its 94 opening days, making it the centenary’s most visited exhibition. The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid received 225,000 visitors. The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (Florida, United States) received some 60,000 visitors. From 5 March 2005 the exhibition can be seen at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam (Holland).
Dalí. Palazzo Grassi, Venice (Italy). From 10 September 2004 to 16 January 2005. This received 235,784 visitors. From 16 February it can also be seen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Pennsylvania, United States).
Dalí in the Empordà, as Seen by Empordà Photographers. Held at the Museu de l’Empordà in Figueres, it had 5,526 visitors. This exhibition could also be seen at the Museo Vostell Malpartida in Cáceres, at Palau Robert in Barcelona, at the Centre d’Arts Palau Altea, at the Sala de Cultura de Sant Domènec in La Seu d’Urgell, at the Museu del Suro, at Museu de Gavà, at the Antiga Estació in Rubí and at the L’Amistat exhibitions gallery in Cadaqués, while during 2005 it may still be seen at the Casal Municipal in Torredembarra and at the Centre Cultural in Mollerussa.
Dalí. Elective Affinities. Palau Moja, Barcelona. This received 23,000 visitors.
Don Quixote de la Mancha Illustrated by Salvador Dalí. Gala Dalí Castle in Púbol. From 13 March to 31 December 2004.
Dalí and Gaudí: the Revolution of the Feeling of Originality
La Pedrera, Barcelona. Received 65,660 visitors.
Dalí’s Land. Museu de l’Empordà in Figueres. Received 14,680 visitors.
Dalí and Optical Illusions. Museu del Cinema, Girona. Received 10,962 visitors.
Unknown Dalí. Museu de Cadaqués. Received 11,704 visitors.
The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí. Dalí Theatre-Museum, Figueres. From 26 July to 31 December 2004. This exhibition has been extended for a further period.
The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation also loaned works to a further nine temporary exhibitions:
The Yellow Manifesto at the Miró Foundation in Barcelona
Dalí: a storybook life at the Biblioteca Nacional de Catalunya
Christmases according to Dalí, 1958-1976 at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid), in Valladolid, at the IVAM (Valencia) and finally in Vigo.
Dalí Centenary: the American Collection at the Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg (Florida, United States)
Dalinian Trails at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid.
Dalí Centenary also at the MNCARS.
Rafael Barradas, 1914-1929 at Centre Cultural Metropolità Tecla Sala (Barcelona)
Salvador Dalí - Federico García Lorca. The Persistence of Memory at the Museu d’Història de Catalunya (Barcelona)
Surrealist Planells at Casa Saladrigas in Blanes, at Museu d’Art de Girona and at the Obra Social Caja Madrid social projects centre (Barcelona).
Publications
Since the centenary was inaugurated on 6 October 2003 some 170 publications have been issued, including essays, exhibition catalogues, children’s books and audiovisual materials. The Foundation collaborated in a very direct way in over twenty publications, from their conception through to making and distributing them. For the Dalí Foundation, the most important centenary editorial projects were the first volume of the catalogue raisonné of Salvador Dalí’s oeuvre, which can be consulted on-line, and publication of the Complete Works, three of whose eight volumes were published over the course of 2004 in a co-publication project with the Destino publishing house. In terms of in-house publications, we might note the two exhibitions on Don Quixote and The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí. In addition to the Complete Works, joint publications included the book Private Dalí published by Círculo de Lectores, while the Foundation worked alongside Planeta de Agostini, S.A. to produce de-luxe editions of the Don Quixote and the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. Support was also lent to cinema and television documentaries, as was the case of Media Pro 3.14 in making the documentary Dimensió Dalí; for Catalonia’s TV3 television channel as producer of the documentary Cinema Dalí, directed by Josep Rovira; Talent Televisión in producing the documentary Dalimatógrafo; Canal Paradís in the making of the cooking series Dalí a la carta, and finally the Castell de Peralada Festival in research work to recreate Dalí-related performances to form part of the eighteenth edition of the Festival, with Dalí Dance, El sombrero de tres picos and El Café de Chinitas. Other publications, coordinated with the Centre for Dalinian Studies and the Educational Service of the Dalí Foundation included the DVD Dalí by Dalí and the two CD-ROMs Dalí’s Games and Dalí or the Fly’s Dream, published jointly with Barcelona Multimedia, the stories Descobreix el joc de Dalí (Discover the Dalí Game), by A. Riverol and M. J. Brignardelli and published by Destino in Catalan and Spanish, and Lucía in Search of the Lioness’s Tracks, published by Serres S.L. in Catalan, Spanish, French and English. The total number of schoolchildren attended to by the Educational Service over the course of 2004 was 55,470, representing an increase of 89% in relation to 2003.
Press
The press department, with the assistance of the special team hired for the centenary, coordinated 59 reports at the Dalí museums and organised 147 interviews granted to media reporters from some 25 different countries.
New acquisitions
Four new works were acquired in 2004, as well as some additions to the document collection (see the Acquisitions section).
In drawing the event to a conclusion, the Dalí Foundation expressed special thanks for the support received from the centenary sponsors and collaborating entities. The members of the Promoting Council included Grup Peralada, Grupo Planeta, IBERIA, Abertis, ENDESA and Industrias TITAN. Collaborating Organisations included Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió, RTVE, Hotel Empordà, Transports Padrosa, Fichet Sistemas y Servicios, Fundación Herberto Gut de Prosegur, Al-Pi, AENA, Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, the Ministry of Culture, the Government of Catalonia, KRTU, Girona Provincial Council and Figueres and Cadaqués town councils.
