Dalí: Poetics of the Small

Dalí: Poetics of the Small is the first exhibition on the artist to focus in-depth on his small-format works. While Dalí’s early Surrealist paintings are known around the world and are among the defining works of the movement, their small scale is often overlooked. 

Nearly two dozen paintings, drawn from prominent national and international public and private collections, will be on view, revealing Dalí’s predilection for the small and providing insight into the artist’s possible inspirations, including the influences of photography and collage and his love for the precise technique in works by 17th-century Dutch Masters such as Johannes Vermeer. 

While examples of small-format paintings are present throughout Dalí’s career, the eight years under examination—1929 to 1936, arguably the apex of Dalí’s artistic career—witnessed sustained attention to this format; nearly half of the approximately 200 known paintings completed by the artist during this time measure 13 inches or smaller. This exhibition, which brings together a representative selection of small-format paintings from this period, considers the potential sources of inspiration for these minute masterpieces.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.    

Image: Salvador Dalí, The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (Phenomenologic Theory of Furniture-Nutrition), c. 1934 Oil on wood panel 7 1/8 x 5 ½ in. (18.1 x 13.97 cm) The Salvador Dalí Museum, Florida