Tribute to Imagination: Salvador Dali Crystal Sculpture Exhibition

About Exhibition

“Every morning when I wake up I experience an exquisite joy – the joy of being Salvador Dalí – and I ask myself in rapture, ‘What wonderful things this Salvador Dalí is going to accomplish today?’” This is a quote by Salvador Dalí in his book, Diary of a Genius.

Dali was a the master of Surrealism of the 20th century. He was born on May 11, 1904 in the small agricultural town of Figueres, Spain. Salvador Dali died on January 23, 1989 in Figueres from heart failure with respiratory complications.

Dali loved painting as a child and was highly sensitive to the unusual and novel things around him. In 1919, at the age of 15, Dali’s work was displayed at the Figueres’ Municipal Theatre for the first time and was taken seriously by critics. In 1921 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in San Fernando, Madrid, but was expelled after a dispute over the school’s traditional teaching that did not satisfy his desire for learning. Two years later in 1923, the young Dali attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Yet, Dali criticised his lecturers and was suspended from the academy on the charge of inciting a student rebellion against school authorities.

In early 1926, his first trip to Paris, where he met Picasso, Morandi, Chirico and other masters. The following year, Dali held his first solo exhibition in Paris. He also joined the surrealists. The Persistence of Memory, with soft or melting watches, rotting donkey and swarming ants is one of the best-known surrealist works. Dali’s works explore the themes between birth and death, dream and reality, past and future. His works exude a kind of mysterious, horrific, grotesque and absurd artistic conception. His works also emphasise on the “absolute reality” by reuniting the world of dream and everyday rational world. Dali want to twist our usual ideas about what is ‘normal’ and ‘accepted.’

As an artist, Salvador Dali was not limited to a particular style or media. The body of his work, from early impressionist paintings through his transitional surrealist works, and into his classical period, reveals a constantly growing and evolving artist.

Dali worked in all media, leaving behind a wealth of oils, watercolors, drawings, graphics, and sculptures, films, photographs, performance pieces, jewels and objects of all descriptions. In 1967, Dali was fascinated with the 3000-year-old ancient method and technique of glass making process called Pate de Verre which transforms elements from soft to hard and from opaque to transparent. This transformed Dali’s imagination into reality. He created his first crystal work entitled Bouquet.

This exhibition entitled “Tribute to Imagination: Salvador Dali Crystal Sculpture Exhibition” was held in Wisma Kebudayaan SGM (WKSGM) in May 2011, featured 25 of Dali’s crystal works including The Melting Clock and Venus de Milo with Drawers. Each creation, executed based on the subjects in his own works, was then softened, distended and underwent transmutation, becoming a dream-like artwork.