“Painting is my least important aspect. The thing that really counts is the almost imperialist structure of my genius. Painting is only an infinitesimal part of that genius”. Salvador Dalí
“Salvador Dalí - A journey in the imagination of a genius” in Hungary.
The Dalí Universe is proud to collaborate with HADRAN in Hungary for the exhibition “Salvador Dalí - A journey in the imagination of a genius - The limitless/boundless Dalí” opening this Thursday, the 23rd of March 2023.
The Dalí Universe Collection will be on display for the first time in Hungary and will remain open to the public until the end of June 2023.
Salvador Dalí was not only a painter, he was a multifaceted artist in the truest sense of the word. Iconic figure of the surrealist movement, Dalí explored various artistic expressions ranging from painting, sculpture, literature, cinema, decorative art, furniture, jewellery and advertising.
The exhibition will be at the Komplex Event building located in Budapest, Király u. 26 Street, and will present over 150 artworks, including bronze sculptures, surrealistic furniture, prints, gold objects and jewelled sculptures that will show the variety of means of expression that the Catalan artist chose to represent his favourite surrealist icons.
Salvador Dalí´s museum sized sculpture “Space Venus” will form a special display at the exhibition illustrating to the public three of Dalí’s favourite motifs: the clock, the ants and the egg.
These symbols show Dalí's extraordinary ability to elaborate the emotions experienced since his childhood in order to transfer them into bidimensional and sculptural art. Dalí stated: “My work is a reflection, one of the innumerable reflections of what I accomplish, write, think”.
The glass paste sculptures created in collaboration with the famed French Cristallerie Daum amaze for their colours and shapes. The gold objects, yet another medium used in his creative production, are inspired by jewellery from the court of Louis XIV, mimicking also his golden coins.
The exhibition will present an almost unknown Dalí illustrator. Graphics vary from those emphasising fantasy, dreams and a distorted, more amusing alternative to reality like in “After 50 years of Surrealism” (1974), to more classical themes of literature such as “Much Ado about Shakespeare” (1968). Even the techniques he used are very various, including a broad spectrum of lithographs and etchings.
Dalí designed furniture, in specific the famous “Mae West’s Lips Sofa” reminds us that Salvador Dalí was in fact a multi-faceted artist who took inspiration from people, artworks and objects around him and proposed new ways of seeing and interpreting things.
The exhibited artworks form part of a prestigious collection of Dalí artworks, assembled by Beniamino Levi, President of the Dalí Universe, an avid Dalí collector who worked with the artist from the 1960s.
Beniamino Levi was fascinated by Dalí’s ability to utilise different media, he dedicated his entire life to collecting Dalí artworks, focusing mainly on three-dimensional creations. He commissioned Dalí to create a series of bronzes based on the artist's most famous iconographic images.
In fact today’s Dalí Universe artwork Collection is a result of years of endeavour by Beniamino Levi, who began collecting Dalí when he opened his gallery in Milan in 1956.
Beniamino Levi comments: “For me, it is an honour and a privilege to see part of the Dalí Universe Collection displayed for the first time in Hungary”.
The visitors to the “Salvador Dalí - A journey in the imagination of a genius” exhibition will be invited within the Komplex Event spaces to celebrate the genius of Surrealism, the artist who said: “Painting is my least important aspect. The thing that really counts is the almost imperialist structure of my genius. Painting is only an infinitesimal part of that genius”.
