“Everybody wants to know the secret of my success. It is the «paranoiac-critical method» that I invented thirty years ago, and that I have subsequently practised with success, though I do not yet know what it consists of. In a general way, it is the most rigorous systematisation of the most delirious phenomena and materials, thus rendering my most obsessively dangerous ideas tangibly creative. This method functions only on condition that it possesses a soft motor of divine origin, a living nucleus, a Gala – and there is only one Gala”.
This is how Dalí explained what still today remains a mystery, around which all his vast artistic production revolves. An enigma that is born out of the subconscious and becomes the leitmotif of the “Salvador Dalí – Enigma” exhibition to be unveiled by the Dalí Universe in the city of Prague this week.
Around one hundred authentic Salvador Dalí works, including sculptures of various sizes, illustrations, glassworks and furniture, gold works and jewel sculptures, will be exhibited in the spaces of the gallery located in Opletalova street, which overlooks Wenceslas square, the long avenue in Prague located in the New Town.
In conjunction with the “Salvador Dalí – Enigma” exhibition, the Dalí Universe exhibits the monumental size sculpture “Unicorn”, conceived by Salvador Dalí in 1977.
The bronze monumental sculpture, which is 4 metres high, has been installed in the square facing Arkády Pankrác, one of the most prestigious shopping malls in Prague. We are certain that the high quality modern architectural design of the urban space opposite the shopping mall, as well as the presence of the open-air ice-skating rink and the porticoes, will offer a splendid backdrop for exhibiting this fantastic sculpture.
In this artwork, Dalì wanted to illustrate his sentimental relationship with his beloved Gala, his “living nucleus” and “soft motor of divine origin”, the woman who fuelled the magic and myth of Dalí, endowing the Catalan artist with the instruments necessary for preparing his “paranoiac-critical method” and “aesthetic enigmas”.
“She brought me the rare book on magic that was to nourish my magic” said Dalí, “the historic document irrefutably proving my thesis as it was in the process of elaboration, the paranoiac image that my subconscious wished for, the photograph of an unknown painting destined to reveal a new esthetic enigma”.
“Enigmas that characterise all of Dalinian production” asserts the President of the Dalí Universe, Beniamino Levi, “with the prerogative of showing innumerable meanings, sometimes even discordant ones that, at the exhibition “Salvador Dalí – Enigma”, the observer is invited to discover, through a museum itinerary which fluctuates between the monsters of the subconscious and dreamlike fantasies, balanced by the great strength of modern psychology. Precisely the latter will be the key and the instrument to measure the Dalinian Enigmas”.
The exhibition “Salvador Dalí – Enigma” will be officially opened on Tuesday 10 December at 7 pm and will be preceded by the press conference, scheduled for 3 pm of the same day. The exhibition will be open to the public from Thursday, December 12th.
Beniamino Levi, President of the Dalí Universe, and Alex Doppia, Managing Director of the Dalí Universe and Dalí Paris will attend the official opening.
