Havana, July 21 (IANS/EFE): A selection of works by Salvador Dali (1904-1989) will be shown in Cuba for the first time in the "Memories of Surrealism" exhibition to open at the National Museum of Fine Arts here July 24.
The Universal Art building of the 100-year-old institution will show 95 works by Dali, the icon of international surrealism, whose work as a painter is well known in Cuba, but not his etchings, such as will be seen here, Efe quoted the National Museum's specialist Maximo Gomez Noda as saying.
The works belong to the series "Fantastic Journey" (1965), "Dali Interprets Currier and Ives" (1971), "The Twelve Tribes of Israel" (1973), "The Divine Comedy" (1960), "The Songs of Maldoror (1934), and "Memories of Surrealism" (1971), the latter providing the name for the exhibition.
The curator of the exhibition, New York expert Alex Rosenberg, says in the catalogue that the mishaps and difficulties these works went through over the years reminded him that the series "The Twelve Tribes of Israel" was finished in record time by Dali, who said it took him 30 years to create it and "just five days to execute it from all I had learned".