The Errant Æsthete

“I’m in Hollywood, where I’ve made contact with the three American Surrealists,

Harpo Marx, Disney and Cecil B. DeMille.”

— Salvador Dali, 1937

Throughout his life and career, renowned surrealist Salvador Dalí maintained a deep connection with film as an artistic medium. He collaborated with movie greats such as Luis Buñuel, Alfred Hitchcock, and Walt Disney, and created works influenced by Cecil B. De Mille and the Marx Brothers.

Dalí: Painting & Film, currently exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through January 6, aims to illustrate the cinematic influences and elements that are present in Dalí’s work as well as the contribution he made to cinema. The exhibition brings together a variety of key pieces from Dalí’s oeuvre, incorporating painting, film, photography, sculpture, and texts. OF NOTE: Dalí created the dream sequence for Alfred Hitchock’s Spellbound (1945). Link to Spellbound clip. See Dali’s 1951 painting “Exploding Raphaelesque Head” featured on EA 10/22/07.