Dalí-Freud exhibition transforms obsessions into art

Vienna, Jan 27 (EFE).- Flaccid penises, large breasts, vagina-shaped mouths, masturbation and fetishism – a new exhibition at Vienna’s Belvedere museum showcases a collection of Salvador Dalí’s work from his discovery of Sigmund Freud’s writings to his meeting with the pioneering psychoanalyst.

Dalí met Freud in his only in-person encounter in 1938 in London, shortly after the latter had fled Vienna.

Freud became the young artist’s idol after reading the psychoanalyst’s Interpretation of Dreams, which became one of Dalí’s most significant discoveries.

The ‘Dalí-Freud, An Obsession’ exhibition displays over 100 pieces including paintings, surrealist objects, photographs, films, books, journals and letters that reflect Freud’s influence on the Spanish artist’s work.

Through Freud’s writing, Dalí found the key to hidden fears, desires, and obsessions, allowing him to turn these into art.

“Dalí believed he found a theoretical justification for everything he felt. Freud legitimized his personality and opened the door to new productions,” curator of the exhibition, ​​Jaime Brihuega, said.

The show also explores the artist’s family background and how his psychoanalytic discoveries about his complex adolescence shaped his art.

Although Dalí’s fascination with Freud was not mutual, who thought surrealism was “a thing of the imagination,” the psychoanalyst influenced Dalí’s artistic career until the very end. EFE

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