The Instituto Tomie Ohtake, responsible for the organization of the greatest Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) retrospective held in the country (CCBB - Rio de Janeiro, 2014), now brings the exhibition to its headquarters. However, Salvador Dalí in São Paulo presents new features in relation to its season in Rio de Janeiro: besides the works already shown in Rio, the Paulista exhibition will have 5 new œuvres from the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation and 2 from the Reina Sofia Museum, institutions which own 90% of the works on exhibition. The included works substitute some of those from the Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida (USA).

Among the seven works of this master of surrealism that will be exclusively on show at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake is the valuable small oil painting on wood “The Specter of Sex-Appeal” (1934). Having the size of half a sheet of paper, the small painting is credited with showing how Dalí molded his fear of sexuality in a concrete manner. “Nude” (1924), which belonged to Federico Garcia Lorca, “A man with a head full of clouds”(1936), of an intense symbolic character, with an explicit reference to René Magritte and “The surrealist piano” (1937), result of his collaboration with the Marx Brothers, are also among the works included.

A special catalogue accompanies the Institute’s exhibition and addresses the totality of works exhibited – 218, as well as critical reviews by renowned writers and specialists, such as Eliane Robert Moraes, Paulo Miyada, Veronica Stigger.

The retrospective, with curatorship of Montse Aguer, director of the Dalí Center of Studies of the Gala-Dalí Foundation, was organized so as to invite the public to dive into a dream-like, symbolic and imaginary universe. The collection of art work is formed by 24 paintings, 135 drawings and engravings, 40 documents, 15 photographs and four films. The spectator will be in contact with Dali’s production from the 1920’s to his last works, giving the visitor a clear perception of his evolution, not only technical, but also showing the influences he suffered, thematic resources, ideological references and symbolisms.

It will be possible to view canvases from the years of his formation as a painter – besides the “Nude”, already mentioned, “Portrait of my father and the house of Es Llaner”, 1920; “Portrait of my sister”, 1925; and “Cubist Self-Portrait”, 1926. These paintings, besides showing Dali’s initial research, also show his vast and stimulating production of portraits, which, through different interpretations and approaches, accompany the metamorphosis of a work marked by a questioning of reality.

The surrealist phase, which gave world-wide fame to the Catalan, will be shown in canvases that present his paranoiac-critical method of representation, with very significant works, such as “The Sentiment of Speed”, (1931), “Imperial Monument to the Child-Woman” (1929), “ Landscape with Figure and Drapes” (1935) and “Average Pagan Landscape” (1937).

The public can also confer Dalí’s contribution to the seventh art. The films “An Andalusian Dog” (1929) and “The Golden Age” (1930), jointly directed by Salvador Dalí and Luís Buñuel, and Alfred Hitchcock’s “When the Heart Speaks” (1945), where the scenes of dreams were drawn by the artist, will be shown in the exhibition space, featuring a little more of the diversity and language adopted by the artist. In addition, two film showings will take place parallel to the show: the São Paulo International Film Festival, in October, which will show the films The Andalusian Dog (1929) and The Golden Age (1930), in their full versions, and the program on Surrealism in the Movies, organized by the Museu da Imagem e do Som (MIS), December 16-21. (program schedule can be consulted on www.mis-sp.org.br closer to the date of the program)

The collection, in turn, presents documents and books from Dalí’s private library, from the archives of the Center of Dalí Studies, which inter-act with the paintings, thus offering the visitor a biographic and artistic journey along the painter’s career. Such is the case of the titles Immaculate Conception (1930), by André Breton and Paul Eluard, and Onan (1934), by Georges Hugnet. These treasures had their title pages signed by Salvador Dalí and portray the bases of surrealism in literature.

The collection also boasts illustrations made for the classics of world literature, such as Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes, and Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Special mention must be made of the drawings which illustrate the book The Songs of Maldoror (1869), by Isidore Lucien Ducasse (better known as Count of Lautréamont), an author of important reference for young surrealists. In these drawings, for example, it is possible to recognize the many recurring figures of Dalí’s work, such as sharp objects, crutches, mutilated bodies, etc. Eliane Robert Moraes, in a text which accompanies the exhibition catalogue, says that these artists, moved by a growing post-war rebellion, “saw in the poetic violence of Ducasse an alternative to their aesthetic and existential dilemmas”.

“We want to show not only the surrealist Dalí, but also the Dalí who is ahead of his times, who is daring, who defends the artist’s liberty of imagination in his own creation. At the same time, the exhibition travels through the artistic and personal trajectory of Salvador Dalí”, explains Montse Aguer, the exhibition curator. And she concludes that “After the visit, everyone will understand his importance as an artist, not only in surrealism, but in the history of art. This implies an important link to contemporary art, for all that Dalí comes from a profound comprehension and respect for tradition”.

In order to bring the collection to Brazil, Instituto Tomie Ohtake participated in a long negotiation with the museums involved. “It took five years of many endeavors and consultations with the proprietors of the large Dalí collections to bring to Brazil the artist’s works, for the first time with paintings, and with more emphasis on the surrealist phase”, says Ricardo Ohtake, the institution’s president.

According to Ohtake, the Institute has distinguished itself by organizing multiple and independent programming, thanks to the support of companies that believe in the power of culture and art in the shaping of the country. He states that “These are partnerships that we build with each project”.

In São Paulo Salvador Dalí have the sponsorship of Arteris, IRB Brasil RE and Vivo, co-sponsorship of Atento and Banco do Brasil and the support of BrasilCap, BrasilPrev, the Correios Grupo Segurador BB Mapfre and Prosegur.