Tours at Two: Salvador Dali: Les Chants De Maldoror

Join our curator for a family-friendly tour of Salvador Dali: Les Chants De Maldoror!

Between 1933 and 1934, Salvador Dalí created 44 illustrations for Les Chants de Maldoror, a fantastical 1869 text written by Isidore Ducasse, better known by his pen name, the Comte de Lautréamont. Lautréamont’s book had nearly vanished into obscurity when it was rediscovered in the 1920s by the French Surrealists, who championed its rebellious spirit and bizarre prose—elements Dalí complemented with an arsenal of personal visions drawn from his creative subconscious. Celebrating the 2024 Centennial Anniversary of the founding of the Surrealist movement, and in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts—which recently acquired the complete set of etchings that the artist made for the original 1934 edition—this exhibition, held in the United Company and Legard Galleries, presents Dalí’s astonishing Maldoror prints with researched didactic materials by Washington & Lee University students, as well as Surrealist catalogs and ephemera from the collection of Dr. Elliott King, Associate Professor of Art History at W&L.

The exhibition is co-curated by Dr. King, and Dr. Michael R. Taylor, Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Art and Education at the VMFA.

Salvador Dali: Les Chants De Maldoror is a Virginia Museum of Fine Art original exhibition and is part of the museum’s McGlothlin Exhibition Series. This exhibition is sponsored by Johnston Memorial Hospital.

Open to the public. RSVP by emailing cnN2cCB8IHdrbXVzZXVtICEgb3Jn.

You may also like the following events from William King Museum of Art:

• Next month, 13th September, 11:00 am, Alternative Darkroom Techniques in Abingdon
• This October, 11th October, 11:00 am, Medium Format Photography in Abingdon

Also check out other Arts events in Abingdon, Exhibitions in Abingdon, Fine Arts events in Abingdon.