The Royal Academy of Arts is to present an exhibition exploring the aesthetic, philosophical and personal links between them.
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) and Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) are two artists who are usually seen as complete opposites, but this exhibition aims to reveal their similarities in terms of shared attitudes to art and life that are manifested in their respective oeuvres on many levels.
The exhibition will feature over eighty paintings, sculptures, ‘readymades’, photographs, drawings, films and archival material to explore the connections between these very different creative and intelligent minds.
Dalí / Duchamp will be organised into three main sections focusing on specific points of contact between the artists and capturing the energy and spirit of their friendship and artistic exchange.
The first section, Identities will focus on Duchamp and Dalí as personalities and artistic identities, with highlights including Duchamp’s The King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes, 1912 and Dalí’s The First Days of Spring, 1929. Meanwhile, the middle section The Body and the Object brings together works by both artists that focus on the theme of eroticism, treated in both figurative and abstracted paintings, drawings and sculptures. Works in this section will include Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, 1913/1964 and Dalí’s Lobster Telephone, 1938.
Finally, the third and final section will concentrate on Experimenting with Reality which will reveal how Dalí and Duchamp responded to new ideas about time and space, energy, matter and gravity, quantum theory and atomic physics. It will feature works such as Dalí’s major work Christ of Saint John of the Cross, c. 1951 and Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915.
Dalí / Duchamp will be on display at the Royal Academy of Arts from the 7th October until the 3rd January 2018. For more information visit: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/dali-duchamp