"Surrealist" Salvador Dali comes "home" to Hartford with a new exhibition, "Salvador Dali's Optical Illusions," which opened today at the Wadsworth Atheneum and runs through March 26, 2000.
The Wadsworth Atheneum, one of America's oldest public art museums, was, in 1931, the first museum in America to present an exhibition of Surrealist art. A year later, the museum was the first to purchase a work by Salvador Dali. And, it was at this Hartford landmark that Dali first uttered his famous motto, "The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad," in 1934.
It only seems fitting, then, that the Wadsworth Atheneum is the site of the first major exhibit to explore Dali's trompe l'oeil or illusionistic work. The exhibit features 70 of Dali's works created between 1926 and 1982. Many of these double- and triple-layered images are some of the most imaginative, provocative and dream-inspired pictures of his career. Featured works in the exhibit include The Invisible Man, Impressions of Africa, and Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach.
The exhibition is sponsored by United Technologies Corporation.
The Wadsworth Atheneum is located at 600 Main Street in Hartford, Connecticut. The museum has extended its hours for the show's run and will be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. The museum is closed on Mondays. Timed admission tickets are available on the half-hour and may be purchased by calling toll free: 877 600-MAIN. Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for students and adults over 60, and $10 for children ages 6 to 17. Children under age 6 are admitted free.
Following its run in Hartford, "Salvador Dali's Optical Illusions" will travel to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view from April 20 through June 18, and then to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, where it will be open from July 23 through October 1.
Before you go... Preview the show by ordering the 208-page "Dali's Optical Illusions" book authored by recently deposed Wadsworth Atheneum director Peter Sutton et. al., edited by Dawn Ades, that serves as the catalog for the exhibition.
Or, want to get a feel for Dali's work before you visit the museum? The Salvador Dali Gallery has a rotating collection of works by Dali available for viewing online. And here's something neat! The site's gift shop even sells Dali Collectors cards!
While you're visiting downtown Hartford...
Dine right at the Wadsworth Atheneum's own Museum Cafe, chow on Cajun food at Black-Eyed Sally's--one of my favorite downtown eating establishments--or check my Dining Links for further culinary inspiration.
Staying Overnight? I've got links to Hartford-area accommodations to help you find a landing place.
