Salvador Dalí Exhibition At The Georgia Museum of Art

Written by Calvin Kendall Thursday, 07 April 2011 01:04

Athens, Georgia - In 1957, the Italian Government commissioned Salvador Dalí to illustrate Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Dalí’s 100 watercolors were to be reproduced as wood engravings and released as a limited edition print suite in honor of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth. When the project was announced to the public, Italians were outraged that a Spaniard had been chosen to honor the anniversary of Dante’s birth and the commission was rescinded. Dalí, confident that a publisher could be found, continued to work on the project. In order to translate Dalí’s watercolors into printed plates, two artists hand-carved 3,500 blocks, a process that lasted five years. On exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art from 10 April through 19 June.

French Publishers Editions les Heures Claires and Editions Joseph Horet jointly produced the “Divine Comedy” Print Suite in 1964. Dalí considered this project to be one of the most important of his career. Organized by the Las Cruces Museum of Art in New Mexico, this exhibition contains all one hundred prints from Salvador Dalí’s “Divine Comedy” Suite and is part of a ten-city national tour developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services.

In conjunction with the exhibition “Dalí Illustrates Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy,’” organized by the Las Cruces Museum of Art, Las Cruces, N.M., Lynn Boland, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, will provide a brief history of the Surrealist movement and its underlying theories along with an overview of Dalís art. Boland will also explore the turbulent relationship Dalí had with other Surrealists, which colored his later career.

The Georgia Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Georgia, in Athens, is both an academic museum and, since 1982, the official art museum of the state of Georgia. The permanent collection consists of American paintings, primarily 19th- and 20th-century; American, European and Asian works on paper; the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection of Italian Renaissance paintings; and growing collections of southern decorative arts and Asian art.

---

Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~