A MUST SEE AT THE DALI MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG
When
Salvador Dalí & Luis Buñuel’s film Un chien Andalou premiered in
the City of Light, Paris was an avant-garde hothouse rife with artistic
conflict and friendly rivalry. Midnight in Paris: Surrealism at the
Crossroads, 1929 immerses visitors in this particularly rich and vital
creative era by examining the works, friendships and clashes of Jean Arp, André
Breton, Luis Buñuel, Alexander Calder, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dali, Max
Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Francis Picabia, Man Ray,
Yves Tanguy and others.
Through a
host of 20th-century works from the renowned Centre Pompidou in Paris, Midnight
in Paris, 1929 brings to life the personal relationships and the
intellectual passions that threatened to tear apart the newly formed artistic
movement called Surrealism. Just as this art form began to penetrate Western
culture, from literature to fashion to advertising, disagreements erupted among
its famous practitioners. Are dreams or spontaneous emotions more central
to image-making? Should painting take precedence, or are more technical
approaches and media more effective tools? Perhaps most importantly, how can
Surrealism embody the concerns and values of a new class of activist artists
shaped by the profound destruction of the first World War?
“As the
preeminent movement of its era, Surrealism reached an innovative turning point
in 1929, a crisis of consciousness that has had a sweeping impact on visual art
ever since,” said Dr. Hank Hine, Executive Director of The Dalí Museum. “The
Dalí Museum, with its outstanding legacy, collection and international
partnerships, looks forward to affording our visitors this rare window into one
of the most critical epochs in cultural history.”
Organized by
the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and The Dalí Museum, Midnight in Paris, 1929, in
its first and only appearance in North America, is curated by Dr. William
Jeffett, Chief Curator of Special Exhibitions at The Dalí Museum, and Didier
Ottinger, Deputy Director of the Musée national d’art moderne at the Centre
Pompidou. The Dalí Museum’s unique installation was adapted from a selection of
works organized by Dr. Ottinger and previously exhibited at the Palazzo Blu in
Pisa and the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest.
The
exhibition is designed for visitors to stroll through the streets of Paris,
with a focus on the paintings, photographs, sculptures and personalities of
iconic Surrealist artists. The exhibition will also feature archival film and
documents from the movement, as well as several rarely loaned Salvador Dalí
works, including one of his earliest double-image paintings.
