This exhibition presents, as the title explains, drawings of Salvador
Dali (1904-1989) which have never been displayed. The exhibition is a
worldwide novelty, since these Dali originals are shown and published
for the first time. Specifically it is around 20 works on paper, some
of them drawn on both sides, with the result that the number of new
exhibited drawings stands at 25. A spectacular charcoal and pastel on
paper “Portrait of the artist’s father”, c. 1925, stands out from the
rest.
This never previously shown collection of works originates from the Museum of Montserrat, where they were received as testamentary donation from the family Cusí.
The exhibition is complemented by the monumental “Three figures composition. Neocubist Academy”, 1926. This oil also belonged to the family Cusí and was given to the Museum of Montserrat ten years ago. This important painting, equally never seen until its arrival at Montserrat, and until now only was exhibited out of the Museum on the occasion of Dali centenary anthological exhibition in 2004 (Venecia and Philadelphia). Finally, the already known “Study for the Portrait of Maria Carbona” (dedicated to Puig Pujades), 1925, a drawing also part of the Museum of Montserrat’s art collection.
The Montserrat drawings allow travelling round the interesting “Madrid period” of the young Dali, since the oldest work dates from 1922 and the most recent from 1927. This five year period coincides with his essential and turbulent stay in Academia de San Fernando and Residencia de Estudiantes of Madrid. These are the years of his strong friendship with Federico García Lorca, his individual exhibitions at Dalmau Galleries in Barcelona and of his language transformation from postimpressionism to resulting in surrealism, through the new century realism and the Picasso’s cubism.
This exhibition shows again how during this period Dali handles simultaneously subjects which took him from the academic to the avant-garde styles, from portrait to allegory and landscape; at the same time that the contrasts and experiences of the Figueres, Cadaques, Madrid and Barcelona ambiences follow one another in his work. All of that is reflected in this exhibition, with the additional interest of proving how many of these new drawings ended as studies or first sketches for some of the best known paintings of the period. For this reason the visitor can be a privileged witness of the evolution and creation process of a great art master of the 20th century.
This never previously shown collection of works originates from the Museum of Montserrat, where they were received as testamentary donation from the family Cusí.
The exhibition is complemented by the monumental “Three figures composition. Neocubist Academy”, 1926. This oil also belonged to the family Cusí and was given to the Museum of Montserrat ten years ago. This important painting, equally never seen until its arrival at Montserrat, and until now only was exhibited out of the Museum on the occasion of Dali centenary anthological exhibition in 2004 (Venecia and Philadelphia). Finally, the already known “Study for the Portrait of Maria Carbona” (dedicated to Puig Pujades), 1925, a drawing also part of the Museum of Montserrat’s art collection.
The Montserrat drawings allow travelling round the interesting “Madrid period” of the young Dali, since the oldest work dates from 1922 and the most recent from 1927. This five year period coincides with his essential and turbulent stay in Academia de San Fernando and Residencia de Estudiantes of Madrid. These are the years of his strong friendship with Federico García Lorca, his individual exhibitions at Dalmau Galleries in Barcelona and of his language transformation from postimpressionism to resulting in surrealism, through the new century realism and the Picasso’s cubism.
This exhibition shows again how during this period Dali handles simultaneously subjects which took him from the academic to the avant-garde styles, from portrait to allegory and landscape; at the same time that the contrasts and experiences of the Figueres, Cadaques, Madrid and Barcelona ambiences follow one another in his work. All of that is reflected in this exhibition, with the additional interest of proving how many of these new drawings ended as studies or first sketches for some of the best known paintings of the period. For this reason the visitor can be a privileged witness of the evolution and creation process of a great art master of the 20th century.