World culture: “Salvador Dali. 100 color woodcuts” Exhibition from German private collections in Omsk

From 20 July to 14 October 2012, the Ministry of Culture of Omsk Region, the M. A. Vrubel Regional Museum of Fine Arts, «Gallery-Trade» company are holding the exhibition "Salvador Dali. 100 color woodcuts. The famous illustrations of the master to the "Divine Comedy" by Dante from private collections in Germany."

In 1951 the Italian government preparing for the celebration of the 700th birthday anniversary of Dante, ordered to Salvador Dali a series of illustrations for a new edition of "The Divine Comedy." Initially, there were watercolor works, showing the arrangement of hell, the torments of sinners, paradise - one work for every thousand lines of "The Divine Comedy." Dali worked on them during the period from 1951 to 1960. Further, the project was taken up by the French publisher Joseph Forey, for whom Dali had created nearly five thousand prints, doubling the series of watercolors, from April 1959 to November 1963. The artist produced about 3,500 wooden boards, which, by the end of the works, were destroyed to avoid copying in future. The etchings are the result of 55 months’ work in two Parisian workshops.

To date, the location of most of the watercolors by Salvador Dali is unknown. All 100 woodcuts selected from private German collections specifically for exhibitions in Russian museums. Omsk is the fifth city to host the collection of engravings by Salvador Dali. The exhibition has already been held in Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Shadrinsk, Tyumen. In Omsk, it will run until mid-October and then travel to Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Perm.