Salvador Dali exhibition available online

ISTANBUL

Istanbul’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) continues to open its rich content from past exhibitions on its digital channels. Now the museum presents the exhibition “A Surrealist: Salvador Dali,” which was held between Sept. 20, 2008 and Feb. 1, 2009, online.

The largest Salvador Dali exhibition organized outside Spain displayed 269 works by the Catalan artist shedding light on his life and artistic journey and was visited by 252,000 people.

The online exhibition, prepared with DigitalSSM archive sources and can be accessed via the SSM website, social media accounts and YouTube channel, includes manuscripts, photos and various documents in addition to the works created by Dali with his unique sense of art.

Within the scope of the online exhibition, enriched with a new talk with Montse Aguer Teixidor, the director of the Gala - Salvador Dali Foundation and curator of Istanbul exhibition, the Dali conference series, previously held at SSM, was reopened.

In the conferences, also attended by writer Ferit Edgü and art critic, academic and writer Hasan Bülent Kahraman, the life story of Dali, his versatile artistic production and influence are discussed.

The online exhibition includes a selection of Dali, which constitutes a turning point in 20th century art, starting from the childhood years to his last creative days. The works performed by the artist under the influence of different artistic movements at the beginning of the century, the works belonging to the years of surrealism and the process during which he returned to classism at the end of his life, are presented with informative texts.

From the exhibition catalog, the articles examining the position, iconography and originality of Dali in 20th century art history are also available within the scope of the online exhibition.

Montse Aguer Teixidor, in her article titled “Salvador Dali: A Retrospective” in the catalog, provides a detailed view of the artist’s life and artistic development, starting from his childhood. Writer Edgü, in his article titled “Surrealism and Dali,” examines the tidal relationship of Dali with the surrealist group and his contribution to this movement.

An illustrated children’s book prepared for the exhibition in Istanbul, “I am Dali,” is also shared as part of the online exhibition. The book, which can be downloaded from the museum’s website, is also accessible with an audio version read by writer Yekta Kopan.

The other online exhibition presented by the museum, “Picasso in Istanbul,” which was visited by 65,000 people in a week, is still accessible on SSM’s website and YouTube channel, too.