“Painting is only one of the means of expression of my total genius, which exists when I write, when I live, when in some way or other I manifest my magic. That’s my genius!”
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí wasn’t simply a painter. He was a visionary, a total artist with no borders or definitions. He transformed every medium, whether painting, sculpture, design or writing, into an extension of his boundless genius. And this, he believed, was the very essence of his genius.
Starting Friday, May 30, 2025, the genius of Dalí will be unveiled in Vienna through an exhibition dedicated to the Master of Surrealism and titled “Salvador Dalí: a journey into the imagination of a genius”.
The exhibition will showcase more than 150 works, including lithographs, engravings, drawings, bronze sculptures, glass works, and surrealist furniture, all from the Dalí Universe Collection.
At first glance, Vienna and Salvador Dalí might seem worlds apart; one shaped by imperial grandeur and classical refinement, the other by dreamlike visions and radical surrealism. Yet it’s exactly in this contrast that a compelling and symbolic connection emerges, making Vienna the perfect host for this immersive tribute to Dalí’s imagination.
One of the strongest links between Dalí and Vienna is Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, born and based in the Austrian capital. Dalí was fascinated, almost obsessed, with Freud’s theories about the unconscious, dreams, and repressed desire. These themes became the raw material of Dalí’s art, and visitors will rediscover them throughout the exhibition.
Dalí had a deep desire to meet his intellectual idol and even travelled to Vienna in April 1937 hoping for an introduction, but the meeting never took place. “During the Surrealist period, I wanted to create an image of the inner world, the marvellous world of my father Freud”, declared Salvador Dalí.
This exhibition will highlight the “Freudian Dalí,” the “Limitless Dalí” who constructed a personal universe filled with symbols, transformations, and metaphors. His mind was a surrealist labyrinth; where time melts, reality bends, and every form is reimagined.
More than 150 works will be on display in this unique, must-see exhibition, hosted inside Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle, a large multi-functional venue in the district of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus.
The exhibition provides a fascinating look at Dalí’s prolific nature and his mastery of different materials. Bronze sculptures, gold objects, surreal furniture, hand-signed graphics, and delicate glass pieces show how his creativity broke free from the limits of traditional art.
Each artwork is a manifesto of Dalí’s vision; his philosophy, his reflections on the world, and his inner obsessions. Through art, he explored fear, desire, memory, and identity, turning even the most personal elements into surreal creations.
From sculptures like Homage to Terpsichore and Mannequin Javanais, to his literary interpretations of Shakespeare and the Marquis de Sade, each piece reveals the depth of Dalí’s thinking, merging mythology, psychoanalysis, and irony.
Dalí’s art is both spiritual and provocative, philosophical and sensual. Works like St. George and the Dragon or Surrealist Angel reveal a mind open to faith and mystery, a constant dialogue between the subconscious, myth, and creation.
The theme of time, one of Dalí’s lifelong obsessions, is strongly represented in sculptures like Profile of Time and Woman of Time. His iconic melting watches, first seen in The Persistence of Memory (1931), have come to symbolize a fluid, dreamlike perception of time, free from mechanical constraints.
The exhibition “Salvador Dalí: A Journey into the Imagination of a Genius” is exactly that: a journey into the artist’s imagination and his marvellous, limitless universe. With his eccentric persona, paranoid gaze, and unmistakable moustache, Salvador Dalí was not only a Master of Surrealism but one of the first artists to turn himself into a living work of art. He remains endlessly fascinating, a true icon of 20th-century art.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the monumental sculpture Surrealist Piano will also be on display. Nearly five meters tall, this stunning work presents the image of a grand piano transformed into a surreal, dancing object.
This stunning bronze sculpture was chosen specifically for the Vienna exhibition, as it perfectly embodies the boundless imagination of a genius who knew no limits, making it an ideal symbol for this celebration of Dalí in the Austrian capital.
The exhibition “Salvador Dalí: A Journey into the Imagination of a Genius” will open to the public on this coming Friday, May 30, 2025.