Need a break from reality and an opportunity to enter a world of dreams and distortion? Visitors can take in winding displays of mixed paintings, prints and influential works by Salvador Dalí at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, or MFA, free with general admission. Curated by Frederick Ilchman, “Dalí: Disruption and Devotion” is a collection of nearly 30 of Dalí’s works on loan from the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla. It features shadowy, ambient displays of Dalí’s works paired with the MFA’s European collection to contrast Dalí’s transient, controversial artistic evolution.
Each painting hangs above a winding path through the exhibition room, weaving Dalí’s stylistic experimentation into the examination of his works. The walls contain holes, allowing for views into other rooms. Each wall has a bold and earthy tone, representing each stage of Dalí’s career.
“The angular setup is well done,” visitor Sydney Villegas said when asked how the physical layout influenced her experience. “It really adds to the general disorientation and distortion you feel.”
From textual illuminations of the Bible and Don Quixote supplemented with his early surrealist works, the full scope of Dalí’s masterful technical skill lends itself to the exhibit.
Still life is a genre of painting that depicts human-made and natural objects often in simplistic explorations. Dalí’s “Morphological Echo,” or subverted still life, was placed next to “Still Life with Stoneware Jug, Wine Glass, Herring, and Bread” by Dutch painter Pieter Claesz, a pairing that gave MFA visitor Seamus Monahan “a deeper perspective.”
“It all seems very random at first, and when you look closer, you can see the patterns and those inspirations,” Monahan said.
Some of these inspirations included the influential Spanish romantic painter Francisco Goya and the written psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. The engravings of Goya can be found near the exhibit’s entrance, paired with descriptions of Dalí’s admiration and nationalistic pride in the early stages of his artworks. Dalí worked in Spain during the surrealist movement throughout the 20th century and was influenced by the global, political and cultural shifts of the time, such as those that occurred during World War II.
Surrealism was “not a movement,” Dalí said, but “a latent state of mind perceivable through the powers of dream and nightmare.” A key example of this perspective is “The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory.” Found at the exhibit’s entrance, the painting, which is a recreation of his earlier work, “The Persistence of Memory,” features melting watches against a barren landscape to represent the fluidity of time.
Another focal point of the exhibit is Dalí’s exploration of Catholicism and his role as a self-described “nuclear mystic.” According to “Dalí: Outlandish and Reverential,” a film available for viewing towards the back of the exhibit, Dalí’s fascination with the atomic bomb began after the mass destruction caused by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Symbolism from this age can be found in his most prominent paintings, such as “The Ecumenical Council,” an imposing, intricate painting featuring the Holy Trinity and a self-portrait. The figure of Christ, seemingly disintegrating into floating particles, is constructed by Dalí’s intricate brushstrokes to exist without a physical form.
Dalí’s later works often integrated religious and scientific imagery, regardless of the physical medium. These works included numerous prints and sculptures in addition to paintings.
“For me, it’s a conflict,” said Karl Machata, an MFA visitor. “Just reflecting on how he’s saying time is fluid … I kind of just considered him as outrageous, and I kind of ignored his history.”
The exhibit’s title, “Disruption and Devotion,” reflects his contradictory embrace of religion and modern science and the gradual stylistic evolution of the surreal and subconscious.
Visitors can experience “Dalí: Disruption and Devotion” until Dec. 1.
