Art & Thought Program – Guided Tour at SMU Meadows Museum Exhibition “Dali: Poetics of the Small”

Tour Led by Nancy Cohen Israel

November 1, 2019

Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929–1936

September 9-January 6, 2019 (extended run)

Thursday, November 1, 2018

7:00 pm

Nancy Israel will lead a TJAA tour through the exhibit

DALI: Poetics of the Small and Aliyah: A Moment in Jewish History

Exhibits at the Meadows Museum

Read more about the exhibit

This fall, the Meadows Museum, SMU, will present a major exhibition of works by Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), exploring an overlooked or lesser-known aspect of the artist’s oeuvre. With Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929–1936, the Meadows is organizing the first in-depth exploration of the artist’s small-scale paintings—some measuring just over a foot, and others as small as 3 by 2 inches. A major part of the artist’s output during the early part of his Surrealist period (1929–1936), these small works reflect Dalí’s precise style of painting. Organized by the Meadows as part of its mission to present Spanish art in America, Dalí: Poetics of the Small will be on view at the Meadows Museum—the only venue for this exhibition—from September 9 through December 9, 2018.

Also at the Meadows this fall, Dalí’s Aliyah: A Moment in Jewish History will feature a rare, complete set of the lithographs created by the artist to celebrate 1968 as the 20th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. These works reveal a different aspect of Dalí’s artistic practice, with images that are large in scale and painted in a loose, expressionistic style that is the opposite of the precise technique displayed in the small- scale Surrealist works. Dalí’s Aliyah: A Moment in Jewish History will be on view at the Meadows Museum from September 9, 2018, through January 13, 2019.

Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929–1936 is co-curated by Rogláand Shelley DeMaria, Meadows Museum Curatorial Assistant. The exhibition catalogue includes full-color reproductions of the works and is illustrated with over 140 additional comparative, historical, and technical images. The accompanying texts present new art historical and technical research, including: an essay addressing the influence of Vermeer’s paintings on Dalí’s own style by Mark Roglán, Meadows Museum Director; an essay by Shelley DeMaria exploring Dalí’s contemporaneous influences such as photography and collage; an essay presenting the results of the technical study of several works by Claire Barry, Kimbell Art Museum Director of Conservation, and Peter Van de Moortel, Assistant Paintings Conservator at the Kimbell Art Museum; and, also by DeMaria, object entries for each work tracing the artist’s iconography throughout the eight-year period under examination.