“My three trips to Vienna were like three drops of water. In each of them I did exactly the same things: in the morning I went to see Vermeer’s “Allegory of Painting” in the Czernin Collection and in the afternoon I did NOT go to visit Freud because every time they told me that he was out of town for health reasons “.
This is how Salvador Dalì complained in 1942, recalling his attempts to approach the father of psychoanalysis, whose works he had read with passion since the mid-1920s, considering them “one of the capital discoveries” of his life: “During the evenings in Vienna I had long imaginary conversations with Freud. He also came to me once and stayed all night clinging to the curtains in my room at the Hotel Sacher ».
Face to face with Sigmund Freud
The coveted face-to-face with Sigmund Freud took place much later, shortly after the 82-year-old scientist arrived in London, thanks to the mediation of Stefan Zweig, who said he was convinced of the genius of the 34-year-old artist and pleaded the cause: “For years he nurtured the desire to meet you. He claims that he owes him more to you than to anyone else for his art. “
During the meeting held at Freud’s house on July 19, 1938, Dali tried in vain to present his “paranoid-critical method”, exemplifying it with the painting “The metamorphosis of Narcissus”, which he had brought with him. The outcome was not really encouraging for Dalì, but that evening Freud wrote a note to Zweig: «I have to thank you. Until now I tended to think that the Surrealists, who apparently chose me as their patron saint, were completely insane. But that young Spaniard with the eyes of a candid fanatic and with his undeniable mastery led me to think that it would be interesting to analyze the creation of a painting of that type ».
Dalí-Freud, “a“ complex ”relationship on show in Vienna
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At the Belvedere in Vienna
The undeniable influence that the psychoanalyst had on the artist is at the center of the exhibition open at the Belvedere in Vienna until 29 May with the title “Dalì-Freud. An obsession ”: Over one hundred works that clearly highlight the Surrealist’s deep interest in the theories of the unconscious. First of all, paintings, including “Rimorso. Sphinx in the sand “and” Woman sleeping in a landscape “of 1931,” Me at 10 years old “of 1933,” Paranoia “of 1935 or” Swans reflecting elephants “of 1937. Among the documents stand out those on his friendship with Federico Garcia Lorca, testified by the manuscript of the “Ode to Dalì” that the poet wrote in 1926, while the collaboration with Luis Buñuel is themed among other things with excerpts from “Un chien andalou” and “L’Age d’or”. And there is no shortage of several iconic objects created over time by Dalì, first and foremost the lobster phone of 1938.