Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire

Dalí in private and in public Salvador Dalí Audio Guide

The exhibition will be drawn from the two largest collections of Salvador Dalí in the world, the Fundació Gala- Salvador Dalí in Figueres, Spain and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Florida. Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire will explore the brilliance of Dalí through chronological sections with visitors first encountering the artist as an accomplished young Impressionist painter with what is widely considered to be his first masterpiece, Self-Portrait with Raphaelesque Neck.

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Introduction Duration: 3:04 min

Dr Gerard Vaughan, Director of the National Gallery of Victoria provides an introduction to the Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire exhibition.

1. Dali's Childhood Duration: 4:15 min

SBS world news presenter, Anton Enus discusses Dalí’s childhood and family life in Figueres.

2. Madrid Duration: 4:03 min

A look into Dalí’s education and the initial meeting of Luis Buñuel and Federico García Lorca.

3. Dali and Buñuel Duration: 4:29 min

Dalí and Buñuel collaborate to create the first surrealist movie Un Chien andalou, an Andalusian dog.

4. Meeting Gala Duration: 4:21 min

The fateful meeting of Gala in 1929 and the subsequent repercussions in Dalí’s family life.

5. Gala as Muse Duration: 4:02 min

Here we find out more about the mysterious Gala that Dalí regarded as not only his muse, but also his collaborator.

6. Paris and Surrealism Duration: 5:36 min

Dalí meets André Breton in Paris and joins the surrealist movement.

7. Melbourne Duration: 5:04 min

The showing of one of Dalí’s works, Memory of the Child-Woman in the 1939 great exhibition of modern art, during an era where Dalí’s reputation as a significant artist preceded the arrival of his work.

8. New York Duration: 4:12 min

It had become evident that his fame rested as much on his antics as his art. Is it really true that Dali was nearly decapitated in 1939?

9. War Duration: 4:34 min

Dalí’s politics and life through a time of civil war in Spain and his narrow escape to France.

10. America Duration: 5:13 min

The circumstances of the Second World War forced him and Gala into exile in 1940, they fled to America where Dalí had become famous.

11. Freud Duration: 5:01 min

Dali finally meets Sigmund Freud and is profoundly inspired by his psychoanalytic theories.

12. Renaissance Duration: 3:47 min

Dalí’s return to the values of the High Renaissance.

13. Dali and Hollywood Duration: 5:45 min

Dalí loved the idea of Hollywood, with its razzle-dazzle and celebrity and, of course, its potential to reach vast international audiences.

14. Dali and Ballet Duration: 3:47 min

We learn about the design of Dalí’s extraordinary costumes for the Ballets Russes and the events that surround the opening of Léonide Massine’s Bachannale in New York.

15. Dali Jewels Duration: 3:15 min

Here we explore Dali’s introduction to the Parisian fashion world through the creation of his spectacular jewels.

16. Nuclear Mysticism Duration: 4:43 min

Salvador Dali, Nuclear Mysticism and the explosion of the first Atomic Bomb.

17. Optical Experiments Duration: 5:32 min

Dali explores the science of optics and meets Alice Cooper to create the first hologram.

18. Dali and Halsman Duration: 2:51 min

Halsman was the perfect partner for realising Dalí’s ever complex ideas in the medium of photography.

19. Late Dali Duration: 4:22 min

Dali’s late years, the passing of his beloved Gala and the death of the worlds most recognisable artist.