Salvador Dalí built a reputation on the strange and unexpected.
But a new exhibit at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg asks visitors to look beyond his surrealist imagery and see the artist as something else — a student of his European predecessors.
"Dalí: Disruption + Devotion," which opened Saturday, brings his work into conversation with artists whose paintings and techniques shaped his own.
Co-organized by the museum and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibit brings together paintings, drawings and prints from both institutions’ collections. It runs through April 18.
The exhibit spans five centuries of art. Visitors will see Dalí’s work alongside that of artists like El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Orazio Gentileschi and Francisco Goya.
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Comparisons of the work range from shared subject matter to more subtle similarities, while the title reflects what curators see as a defining tension in Dalí’s work.
Jennifer Cohen is the Dalí Museum’s director of curatorial affairs and a co-curator of the exhibit.
“Dalí, I think, as a disruptor, that is kind of the artist that you would expect to see,” Cohen said. “And so almost counterintuitively, the devotion is more surprising.”
Cohen said visitors familiar with Dalí’s surrealist work may be struck by how closely some of his paintings connect to earlier art.
The exhibit puts those connections into view, allowing visitors to compare the works side-by-side.
“When these things come off the checklist, out of the book, and into the gallery in real life, really seeing that how similar these are, I think is really going to surprise people,” Cohen said.
One of the central comparisons pairs Velázquez's portrait of a young royal with Dalí’s own interpretation of the Infanata Margarita.
Frederick Ilchman, the chair and curator of paintings and art of Europe at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and co-curator of the showing, said Dalí’s version shows how he could borrow from an earlier artist while bringing his own ideas to the subject.
Ilchman explained Velázquez’s workshop first established the portrait’s main elements before he added fine details to bring specific features to life.
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It's a technique Dalí echoed through tiny, energetic marks inspired by his post-World War II fascination.
“Here, it's Velázquez's tightening up the painting, so as to complete it,” he said. “And here, Dali is making comments on the new discoveries in physics.”
Ilchman described Dalí’s work as both technically refined and visually unexpected.
Photo © David Deranian, 2021
In some cases, Dalí made direct references to earlier paintings. In others, the influence appears in details like a color palette, a gesture or the position of a figure’s hand or head.
The comparisons continue through several themes, including fantasy and nightmare, portraiture, still life, religion and the passage of time.
For Ilchman, the connections reveal an artist who was constantly looking backward even as he tried to make something new.
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“Dali doesn't make art in a vacuum,” he said. “He's thinking about the past and his own place of the tradition, but he's also recalling again and again what he's done or things he would like to get to in the future.”
"Dalí: Disruption + Devotion" also includes an interactive experience created by students at Ringling College of Art and Design.
Visitors can scan QR codes in the galleries and respond to prompts about faith and provocation. Their responses will become part of an evolving projection.
Note: the Dali Museum is a financial supporter of WUSF.
