Park West Foundation is pleased to partner with the burgeoning Monthaven Arts and Center to present Stairway to Heaven, an exhibition featuring famed Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí’s illustrations for Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The unequaled images are the result of Dalí’s years-long preoccupation with the Italian writer’s legendary poem. The exhibition, featuring Dalí’s mesmerizing images, offers visitors a unique opportunity to engage with the artist’s stunning visualizations, up close and personally.
Stairway to Heaven opens to the public on Saturday, August 24, 2024 and will be on view through Sunday, October 13, 2024 at Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center,1017 Antebellum Circle, Hendersonville, TN 37075. The exhibition is open, Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The $10 admission fee includes a complimentary Dalí exhibition poster. Veterans and students, 18 years of age and under, are admitted free.
Monthaven Executive Director Cheryl Strichik characterized the exhibit as, “A meeting of the surreal and the sacred, where the ordinary is transformed into the extraordinary.”
This exhibition invites museum visitors to cross the threshold of the captivating world of Dalí, a visionary whose work surpassed the boundaries of conventionality quite early in his career. As one of the most captivating, challenging, and confounding artists of the 20th century, Dalí stands alone. While many remember him for such indescribable works as his landmark painting, The Persistence of Memory (1931) —-the canvas with the melting clock faces—-others know him more for his outlandish publicity stunts, such as walking an anteater on a leash through the streets of Paris.
With his outrageous reputation, Dalí’s unanticipated turn toward spirituality at 45 years old appeared to be just another of his theater-of-the-absurd performances. Many were hard-pressed to reconcile his bohemian ways with a man suddenly seen leaning into Catholicism. Equally unexpected was Dalí’s decision to filter vague Biblical concepts through his surrealistic lens. However surprising the idea, when Dalí embarked on the multi-year project to produce wood engravings from his watercolors, his attention to detail was unwavering. Having created more than 100 watercolors reflective of Dante’s narrative about inferno, purgatory and paradise, Dalí’s single minded dedication drove the mammoth endeavor to fruition. Despite a production process that stretched endlessly onward, his French publisher remained steadfast. Dalí personally approved each of the more than 3,000 woodblocks carved by the two master engravers as they held the keys to the artistic excellence he imagined. A painstakingly slow, highly collaborative process, engraving, when done with care and precision, can shine like no other art form. As a medium for expressing Dalí’s vision, engraving worked particularly well— as it magically imbued Dante’s words with the full force of life. Strichik says she recommends that visitors see these diminutive gems in person, as Dalí’s divine Dante interpretation is widely regarded as the most accomplished ever created.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit monthavenarts.org or call (615) 822-0789.
For more information on Park West Foundation, please visit parkwestfoundation.org. Keep up with Park West Gallery on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube at @ParkWestGallery.
