Vienna exhibition explores Dalí's 'obsession' with Freud

Vienna's Belvedere Museum is host to a new exhibition – 'Dalí-Freud. An Obsession' – which explores the Catalan surrealist genius Salvador Dalí's admiration for the Austrian father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.

The exhibition features loans from the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation based in the painter's hometown of Figueres, as well as the Dalí Museum in Florida, the Freud Museum in London and the Thyssen Museum in Madrid.

Curated by Jaime Brihuega, the exhibition includes around 100 works and documents, including standout paintings such as Neo-Cubist Academy, Swans Reflecting Elephants, Gradiva Finds the Anthropomorphic Ruins, The Lugubrious Game, Paranonia and Solitude.

The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation has shared its expertise and knowledge, and lent several documents and three works: Anthropomorphic Bread, Portrait of Sigmund Freud and a preparatory sketch for Metamorphosis of Narcissus.

The painter, from a very young age, was fascinated by the theories of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, a clear reference point for the surrealists. After several unsuccessful attempts Dalí was finally able to meet Freud in London in July 1938, thanks to mediation from the writer Stefan Zweig and Dalí patron Edward James.

Freud's influence on Dalí was hugely significant during the artist's surrealist period and continued throughout his career. It is the subject of a special section on the first floor of the Dalí Theater-Museum in Figueres.

The exhibition in Vienna runs from January 28 to May 29, 2022.