JOIN USAn art gallery in the city is exhibiting the works of two of the most iconic artists of our times. Vadehra Art Gallery in Defence Colony is showcasing ‘Picasso & Dali: Etchings - Photographs - Drawings,’ a collection of works by none less than the masters of European Modernism – Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
Pablo Picasso (1881 to 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, print maker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.
Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
Salvador Dali (1904 to 1989), on the other hand, was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, in the Catalonia region of Spain. Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work.
His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.
The exhibition consists of 14 works of Pablo Picasso that are executed in several styles ranging from neo-classical to cubist and reveal his versatility. These include his variations on works by masters before him, such as Trois Baigneuses III (Three Bathers III) that pays tribute to Paul Cezanne’s work by the same title; and humorous works such as Vieux peintre avec une adolescente (Older Painter and seated nude wearing a brassiere).
Another important work is Figures/Personnages, which marks the start of Picasso’s famous Blue Period.
The works of Salvador Dali seem to pay tribute to an important movement in Modern European theatre – Theatre of the Absurd. Theatre of the Absurd was closely associated to the other ‘isms’ that Dali was occupied with at the time – Surrealism, Dadaism and Existentialism.
In the works that are part of this exhibition we see Dali’s muted and rather poignant take on it.nArt connoisseurs must not miss this one!