Artlog

Dalí: Painting and Film June 29–September 15, 2008

This exhibition brings together more than 100 works by Salvador Dal√ɬ≠ (1904√Ǭ∑89) including major paintings, photographs, drawings, and films to explore the central role of cinema in his work as both an inspiration and an outlet for experimentation. Film was a passion for Dal√ɬ≠ and cinematic vision became a model for his own work. The exhibition will display collaborations between Dal√ɬ≠ and legendary filmmakers including Luis Bu√ɬ±uel, Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, and the Marx Brothers alongside his paintings to show the way ideas, iconography, and pictorial strategies are shared and transformed across mediums. The exhibition will include some of the most provocative works of the early twentieth century including Un Chien Andalou, a film made with Bu√ɬ±uel, which features the almost unwatchable sequence of an eye being slit by a razor; L’Age d’Or, another collaboration with Bu√ɬ±uel and one of the landmarks of surrealist film; as well as such important paintings as The First Days of Spring and Illumined Pleasures. The exhibition will also consider Dal√ɬ≠ as a consumer of popular culture, he loved the bizarre slapstick humor of Hollywood comedians, such as Harry Langdon, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton, and saw such mass entertainment as an antidote for what he perceived as the pretensions of high culture.

The exhibition will extend into MoMA’s theaters, where examples of the popular and avant-garde motion pictures Dal√ɬ≠ treasured, those that he made, and the films created by his fellow surrealists, will be screened. The exhibition will also be on view at Tate Modern, London, England (June 1√¢‚Ǩ‚ÄúSeptember 7, 2007); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California (October 14, 2007√¢‚Ǩ‚ÄúJanuary 6, 2008); and the Salvador Dal√ɬ≠ Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida (February 1√¢‚Ǩ‚ÄúJune 1, 2008).