Salvador Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven Wows at Arkansas’ Bradbury Art Museum
Photo credit: Travis Clayton. Courtesy of Arkansas State University.
Thirty years after his passing, Salvador Dalí is still thrilling audiences all over the world.
The Park West Foundation’s traveling museum exhibition, “Salvador Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven,” is currently on display at the Bradbury Art Museum in Jonesboro, Arkansas. From all reports, museum guests are fascinated by this fresh new look at Dali’s career.
“When prolific artists from history are shown in a contemporary context, new life is given to those works, and I think our audience has picked up on that energy,” says Haley Voges, Education Coordinator at the Bradbury Art Museum.
Photo credit: Travis Clayton. Courtesy of Arkansas State University.
“Stairway to Heaven” will be on display at the Bradbury until April 11. It will next be moving on to the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 3.
The exhibition first opened at Louisiana’s Hilliard University Art Museum where it broke museum attendance records.
“Salvador Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven” showcases two of Dalí’s most technically impressive illustrative projects—his full artwork for published editions of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” and Comte de Lautréamont’s “Les Chants de Maldoror.” The artwork is on loan from Park West Museum.
“Les Prevaricators” (The Dishonest, 1959-1963), Salvador Dalí. From “Divine Comedy: Inferno 22.”
While best known for his Surrealist paintings, Dalí was also a prolific book illustrator, famously bringing to life literary works ranging from “Alice in Wonderland” to The Bible.
Photo credit: Travis Clayton. Courtesy of Arkansas State University.
But few of his publishing projects are as quintessentially Dalí as his work on “The Divine Comedy” and “Les Chants de Maldoror.” David S. Rubin, curator of the exhibition, says, “Dalí explores subjects that were significant to him personally and, in both works, he self-identifies with the central characters, Maldoror and Dante.”
Les Christensen, Director of the Bradbury, recently wrote an article for the Jonesboro Sun titled “Dalí: Two Paths to Choose From,” where she breaks down how “Stairway to Heaven” illustrates Dalí’s spiritual growth as an artist. (You can read the full article here—article courtesy of Jonesboro Sun.)
Patrons at the Bradbury have been “both vocally and visually enthusiastic about Dali’s Stairway to Heaven,” says Voges. “Common expressions of excitement center around a thrill to gain insight into the life of a well-known artist such as Dali and a gratefulness to be able to experience his work directly.”
Photo courtesy of Arkansas State University.
Jackie Brightwell, the Assistant Director of the Bradbury, notes that the exhibition “has encouraged meaningful contemplation that aligns with Bradbury Art Museum’s mission to offer visitors an enlightening and educational artistic experience.”
Photo credit: Travis Clayton. Courtesy of Arkansas State University.
How to Find Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven
“Salvador Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven” will be touring the United States through 2021. The exhibition schedule is as follows:
- Oglethorpe University Museum of Art (Atlanta, Georgia): May 3, 2019 – August 31, 2019
- The University of Texas at San Antonio Main Art Gallery (San Antonio, Texas): October 16, 2019 – November 15, 2019
- Plains Art Museum (Fargo, North Dakota): December 19, 2019 – May 20, 2020
- Fort Wayne Museum of Art (Fort Wayne, Indiana): June 13, 2020 – August 16, 2020
- Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art (Shawnee, Oklahoma): September 11, 2020 – November 1, 2020
- Biggs Museum of American Art (Dover, Delaware): December 4, 2020 – February 28, 2021
For more information on the Park West Foundation and its museum exhibitions, click here.
