An exhibition of prints by surrealist artist Salvador Dali opens Friday at the New Britain Museum of American Art.
One of the most celebrated and wildly eccentric artists of all time, Dali’s dream-like works explore the infinite possibilities of the human mind.
The exhibition is arranged in three sections.
Museum director Min Jung Kim said first you see a tribute to art history and Dali’s unique take on biblical, literary, and historical themes.
It includes "some wonderful work such as Memories of Surrealism, and these fantastic illustrations that Dali did for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland," Kim said.
Next is the artist’s interpretations of key scientific discoveries of the 20th century, which includes "Einstein’s notion of space, time, cracking the DNA code, and perhaps most significantly, the advances of nuclear physics, as Dali was so struck by the atomic bomb and from it he was fascinated by atomic theory and quantum physics," Kim said.
Finally, the exhibit includes the artist’s personal meditation and reflection on his own life.
Dali’s first showing in the United States in 1931 was as part of a group exhibition of surrealist artists at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.
"Salvador Dali: Cycle of Life in Print" can be seen in the new expanded wing of the New Britain Museum of American Art through the end of June.