Dali/Duchamp

Exhibition Website

Feb 10 2018 - May 27 2018

Salvador Dali Museum

St. Petersburg, FL

This special exhibition invites you to examine the relationship between Salvador Dali and the father of conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp. The first exhibit dedicated to their friendship and its influence on the work of both artists, Dali/Duchamp explores the common ground, both personal and aesthetic, shared by these two modern icons.

On the surface, these two great 20th-century artists could hardly be more dissimilar, but Dali and Duchamp maintained a lasting bond of friendship and mutual admiration throughout their careers. What fueled this seemingly unlikely friendship was deeper than their shared artistic interests – among them eroticism, language, optics and games. More fundamentally, the two men were united by a combination of humor and skepticism, which led both, in different ways, to challenge conventional views of art and life.

This original exhibition brings together around 60 works, including some of Dali’s most inspired and technically accomplished paintings and sculptures, and Duchamp’s ground breaking assemblages and ready-mades. But it will also showcase the less familiar: photographs by Dali, paintings by Duchamp, correspondence and collaborations between the two artists. Presented as a conversation taking place through art, this focused exploration offers fresh ways of looking at two figures, radically revising their familiar places in art history. Through the lens of their intriguing friendship, visitors will gain a new perspective on two equally inventive, intelligent and irreverent minds.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.


Whether you go or not, the exhibition catalogue, Dalí/Duchamp, takes a detailed look at the little-explored relationship between two of the 20th century’s most famous artists.Throughout this volume, expert contributors explore themes common to both artists, chief among them eroticism and identity, and both men’s engagement with science, optics, religion and myth. Each section of the book is sumptuously illustrated with key pieces from both artists’ bodies of work and features previously unpublished photographs, letters and ephemera that testify to the enduring warmth of their friendship. Dalí/Duchamp offers a fresh understanding of the work of two seminal artists of the 20th century.

Select Dalí/Duchamp to learn more or to purchase this book.

  • International
  • 20th Century
  • Salvador Dalí
  • Marcel Duchamp

Exhibition Venues & Dates