The National Gallery of Victoria yesterday closed its doors on the second most attended Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition. Over 330,000 people attended the Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire exhibition by the time the NGV closed the doors on Sunday 4 October.
Salvador Dalí : Liquid Desire was the sixth exhibition in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series at the NGV and the second most popular, after The Impressionists in 2004, attended by 371,000.
Salvador Dalí, Spanish 1904–89, worked in United States 1940–48, Memory of the child-woman 1932, oil on canvas, 99.1 x 120.0 cm, The Salvador Dalí Museum, St Petersburg, Florida, Worldwide Rights: © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, VISCOPY, 2009. In the USA: © Salvador Dalí Museum Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, 2009.
Dr Gerard Vaughan, NGV Director, said it was a remarkable achievement for all involved.
“We have been delighted by the public’s response to this exhibition. Our first-ever 24 hour opening has been a huge success, with almost 15,000 people coming to see the show between 5pm Saturday and 5 pm Sunday. It shows that cosmopolitan Melburnians value art enough to stay out all night rather than miss the exhibition. It has been wonderful to see the Gallery packed with visitors from Melbourne, regional Victoria, interstate and overseas,” Dr Vaughan said.
Almost 43,000 people enjoyed the extensive art after dark program of DJs and live music performances, and the education programs have been a record success with over 17,000 participants.
Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire was the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of Salvador Dalí ever to be staged in Australia and was exclusive to the National Gallery of Victoria.
Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire was organised by the National Gallery of Victoria with the Fundació Gala‐Salvador Dalí, Figueres, Spain and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Florida.
Next year’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition comes to the NGV from Germany’s Städel museum. European Masters: Städel Collection 19th – 20th Centuries will bring together over 100 works from 70 artists including Degas, Picasso and Munch and will be the first time this collection of works will be shown outside Europe.
www.ngv.vic.gov.au
