iMuseo Thyssen-BornemiszaPaseo del Prado
The Freudian Universe of Dali
Explores Salvador Dalis fascination with Sigmund Freud and their 1938 meeting, and how psychoanalysis shaped Dalis surrealist visual language.
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One loan here is a theatre curtain: Tristan Fou, painted by Dalí in 1944 and 8.76 by 14.76 metres. The show also has something far smaller, ink drawings Freud made in 1878 of a lamprey's spinal cord, two decades before he wrote about dreams.
Six chronological sections follow Dalí's career through Freud. The turning point is 19 July 1938, when Stefan Zweig took Dalí to meet the exiled Freud in London, and Freud, by Dalí's account, called him "a fanatic". Then you reach the portrait Dalí drew of Freud afterwards: Dalí said Freud's cranium was a snail, Zweig saw a skull, and there is no record Freud ever saw it.
Qué! called it "a friendly, very well-lit way in" for newcomers and warned that the wall texts "aren't decoration". The museum estimates 75 minutes in the level 0 rooms. Entry is €14, €10 reduced, free for under-18s and for everyone on Saturdays 21:00 to 23:00. The museum warns its themes around sexuality may unsettle some visitors.
Look for
Tristan Fou, the stage curtain
Look for a whole theatre curtain Dalí painted in 1944 in tempera, pastel and oil, almost 9 metres high and nearly 15 wide, hung in the museum's entrance hall.
Dalí's portrait of Freud
The ink drawing Dalí made after their 1938 London meeting, lent by the Freud Museum; Dalí saw a snail in Freud's skull, Zweig saw death.
Freud's lamprey drawings
Freud the neuroscientist, before psychoanalysis: his 1878 ink drawings of the spinal ganglia and spinal cord of a lamprey.
Hyper-xiological Sky
A small 1960 Dalí canvas with a nail and teeth fixed into the oil paint.
Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee
Gala lies asleep and perfectly still while a threat closes in on her, a dream the c. 1944 painting's title blames on a bee circling a pomegranate.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Going Solo
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
About 75 min
Skip if
You want to look, not read: a critic says the wall texts here carry the show.
With kids
Under-18s go free, but the museum warns that the show's themes around sexuality may unsettle some visitors.
Also at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
On now nearby
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Image credits
7
- The Freudian Universe of Dali© Salvador Dalí, Fundación Gala-Salvador Dalí, VEGAP, Madrid
- De los que hicieron México su hogar: una ofrenda a la memoria del exilioCourtesy of Casa de América
- Museo Thyssen-BornemiszaLuis García (Zaqarbal), CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museo NavalFernando, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museo del PradoEmilio J. Rodríguez Posada (Emijrp), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Casa de AméricaCarlos Delgado (Kadellar), CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museo Nacional de Artes DecorativasLuis García (Zaqarbal), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0