Opening Day: Where Ideas Come From: Dalí’s Drawings

Explore this new special exhibition at The Dalí Museum from May 27, 2023 – October 22, 2023.

This exhibition brings together approximately 100 rarely seen works on paper from The Dalí Museum’s permanent collection. Spanning the entire length of Dalí’s creative life, from 1916 through 1974, the exhibition provides insight into the artist’s creative process as seen over a variety of media, including pencil, pen, charcoal, watercolor, gouache, and more. Included in the exhibition are two new surrealist acquisitions by The Dalí Museum — the ballet-related portrait of King Ludwig for Bacchanale and the frontispiece The Disappearing Face as well as many recently conserved works on view for the first time in over three decades, which are rarely displayed due to their delicate nature.

Organized chronologically from 1916 to 1974, the works in the exhibition are delineated into four distinct periods of the artist’s life: Early Period, Surrealism, Nuclear Mysticism, Classicism and Religion; and Late Period. Within these sections, various thematic groupings will feature studies for major oil paintings, portraits, experimental drawing techniques and commercial projects, including film.

The exhibition is organized by The Dalí and curated by Peter Tush, Senior Curator of Education at The Dalí Museum.