A prolific and influential artist, Salvador Dalí is celebrated for his seminal contributions to surrealism and scorned for his outrageous public persona and blatant commercialism. Prior to the start of WWII, he was expelled from the surrealist group and dubbed “Avida Dollars,” a pun that translates to “eager for dollars,” by the movement’s leader, Andre Breton. From the 1940s until his death in 1989, Dalí embraced science, mathematics, and religion and created visionary interpretations of his inner psyche in a radical variety of drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photography collaborations that are currently on view in the exhibition Dalí: The Late Work, which recently opened at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.
Glorious portrayals of Christ on the cross and depictions of his wife and muse Gala as the Madonna, as well as mental pictures of his brother — who died at age five — as a floating head above a battlefield, are displayed alongside commissioned portraits of patrons and collectors and photographs of Dalí in flamboyant poses by Philippe Halsman. An inspiration to Andy Warhol, who made a film about Dalí visiting the Factory and meeting the rock band The Velvet Underground, and Jeff Koons, who traveled to New York as a teen to meet the artist and later wrote, “Meeting Dalí had a big impact on me. That evening, on the way back home, I thought to myself: ‘I could do this.’ Art could be a way of life.”
Dalí: The Late Work, which is accompanied by a catalogue, remains on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta through January 9.
Click through below for a gallery of images.
