From the Wall Street Journal by Richard Woodward:"Dalí: Painting and Film," at the Museum of Modern Art through Sept. 15, asks us to take seriously again the creator of melted watches, lobster telephones, and other surrealist icons. The glib provocateur with his madman schtick and eye on our wallet, the self-promoter we thought had outlived his relevance, is presented here as our contemporary.
Playing down his many unlikable personal traits -- the weakness for dictators (Hitler as well as Franco) and the greed that has led to his freely licensed images becoming synonymous with kitsch -- the organizers from the Tate Modern and the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation (along with Jodi Hauptman from MoMA's drawings department and Anne Morra in film) don't airbrush Dalí's once scandalous art. Instead, they try to find a younger, updated context for his restless productivity.
If the curators are to be believed, Dalí was not an insufferable snob who spent his final years in a Spanish castle with his monstrous wife, Gala. No, he was a populist who ignored high-low distinctions, a media manipulator who foresaw and then embraced the age of Warhol.To read the rest of the article click HERE.
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