d’Arenberg to host major Salvador Dalí exhibition

Chester Osborn, chief winemaker at d’Arenberg is to host a major exhibition of Surrealist Salvador Dalí’s bronze sculptures at his creative space, The Cube, in McLaren Vale.

Dalí was fascinated with the concept of time and the power it held over mankind

Taking place from 9 March to 31 May, the exhibition will include 23 bronze sculptures and graphic artworks created by the eccentric Spanish Surrealist artist, including sculptures of his famous melting watches.

Dalí, who died in 1989, believed that time was more powerful than man and a controlling force in our daily lives.

He described his iconic soft watches as, “nothing else than the tender, extravagant, solitary, paranoiac-critical Camembert of time and space”.

Dalí’s Space Elephant scuplture will be on display

Valued at over AU$6 million, the sculptures have been exhibited in major cities around the world, and are on loan from the Dalí Universe in Switzerland.

The bronzes were made using a process known as the ‘lost-wax technique’, which allows anything that can be modeled in wax to be accurately converted into metal.

Among the Dalí sculptures on display will be Dance of Time II, based on his melting clock motif, conceived in 1979 and first cast in 1984.

Another sculpture to feature in the show will be Dalí’s Space Elephant – a bronze elephant with giraffe legs carrying an obelisk, which appears in his 1946 work, The Temptation of St. Anthony.

The show will also include paintings by Australian artist Charles Billich, whose works hang in the Vatican, White House and the United Nations headquarters.

Born Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech in Catalonia in 1904, Dalí is regarded as one of the most important artists of the 20^th century alongside Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol.

Best known for his Surrealist paintings of melting watches, Dalí’s expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, jewellery and photography.

The flamboyant polymath collaborated with film director Alfred Hitchcock on a dream sequence in his 1945 psychoanalytic thriller Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck.

One of the leaders of Surrealism, which leant heavily on the studies of Sigmund Freud, Dalí became inextricably linked with the artistic movement.

As will his Dance of Time II sculpture

His 1931 painting, Persistence of Memory, is considered one of the most important Surrealist images ever created.

“Dalí would have been inspired and enchanted by the d’Arenberg estate. He loved seeing his artistic creations displayed at unusual, surreal locations, and the d’Arenberg Cube is precisely that,” said James Sanders, international project manager of The Dalí Universe.

“This unique and inspiring space provides the perfect backdrop for an exhibition of important Dalí sculptures and graphic artworks

“In the wake of Salvador Dalí came a generation of fine Australian Surrealist artists such as Brett Whiteley, James Gleeson and Charles Billich.

“Dalí has had a strong and lasting legacy in this country. We hope that many Australian art lovers and members of the public will come and enjoy this exhibition,” he added.

In 2017, db reported that Dalí’s 1970s paean to wine, The Wines of Gala, had been rebound and refreshed by publisher Taschen into a glossy coffee table book.

d’Arenberg’s chief winemaker, Chester Osborn, is an avid art collector. Earlier this year he opened up to db about his own artistic endeavours.