Mexico City's Soumaya Museum has opened a new exhibition, "Dalí – Obsessions" featuring sculptures, paintings and drawings that reflect Dalí’s passion for surrealism and interest in psychoanalysis.
The museum, located in Plaza Loreto in Mexico City, opened the exhibition in mid- May to mark International Museum Day ( May 18th). The museum celebrates International Museum Day with this exhibition. Alfonso Miranda Marquez, director of Soumaya, says it’s about the “obsessions of the one of the greatest exponents of surrealism”.
The exhibition features Dalí artworks from the museum's collection, mainly bronze sculpture and graphics.
According to curator Monica Lopez Velarde, "We thought a theme that could outline the exhibition is that of Salvador Dalí's obsessions. The obsessions that reoccur mostly frequently in his works,"
Among the works included in the exhibition are the bronze museum sized sculptures, "Space Venus " Triumphant Angel ", "Profile of Time " and “Dance of Time."
"Dalí is one of the most representative exponents of surrealism, using Freud's psychoanalysis," Lopez Velarde commented , adding that "he worked with the Venus de Milo making it surrealistic….he put hidden desires in boxes."
"Dalí had an important relationship with Mexico; there is the idea that Mexico is a country of dreams, contrasts, anxieties and passions and Dalí plays with these relationships," said Miranda Marquez.
"Study of Desert Trilogy" is exhibited for the first time in Mexico. The drawing is a work of art that captures his creative workshop in New York, displayed together with paintings dedicated to the advertising of “Desert Flower Perfume”.
Miranda Marquez informs us that in this exhibition, the visitor has the chance to scan the artworks from a mobile device to listen to an audioguide that explains each of the elements shown in the exhibition.
A wall mural entitled "Dreams" has been creqted and was unveiled on May 18th. The mural was created by a group of young pepole, from ‘Juventud Luz y Esperanza’ ( a private institution of the city of Mexico dedicated to the treatment of addicts.) The centre is part of a program of social responsibility run by the Fundacion Carlos Slim, ‘ La Guardia de los Ninos’ which serves victims of violence though art.
The Soumaya was designed by Mexican architect Fernando Romero, and is private museum housing over 60,000 artworks. Including sculpture from pre -Hispanic Mesoamerica and more modern masters of the 20th century. The museum is named after Soumaya Domit, the wife of the owner Carlos Slim, who died in 1999.
