Salvador Dalí: The Image Disappears

Bringing together more than 30 paintings, drawings and photos – as well as books and ephemera – this exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago (18 February–12 June) explores two apparently contradictory tendencies in Dalí’s works: the desire to make the hand of the artist disappear and an interest in visibility and self-promotion. Several of the works, such as A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano (1936) and Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra (1936), include representations of the desert; others imagine apparitions, hiding spaces or acts of disguise. Major works from the museum’s collections such as Inventions of the Monsters (1937) and Venus de Milo with Drawers (1936) are on show alongside significant loans from around the world. Find out more on the Art Institute of Chicago’s website.

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Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach (1938), Salvador Dalí. Photo: Allen Phillips/Wadsworth Atheneum; © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2022

Mae West’s Face Which May Be Used as a Surrealist Apartment (1934–35), Salvador Dalí. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2022

Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Arms the Skin of an Orchestra (1936), Salvador Dalí. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2022