Exhibitions

SALVADOR DALÍ AND THE DIVINE COMEDY, PART II: PURGATORY

Reece Museum (ETSU) / 363 Stout Dr., Johnson City, TN April 5, 2017 - June 30, 2017

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí and the Divine Comedy, Part II: Purgatory, April 5-June 30, 2017, is the second in a three-year Reece Museum celebration of Dalí’s series based on Dante Alighieri’s long narrative poem masterpiece. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 15, from 3-5 p.m., with guest of honor Dr. Frank Barham, ETSU alumnus and donor of the Dalí prints. A lecture presented by Dr. Josh Reid, assistant professor in the Department of Literature and Language at ETSU, entitled “From Flesh to Spirit: Dalí's Visual Transmutation of Dante's ‘Purgatorio’,” will be presented on Tuesday, April 18 from 4-5 p.m.

“Purgatory,” the second section (or canticle) of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century poem, is an allegorical telling of the climb Dante makes up Mount Purgatory. The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the seven deadly sins. As “Purgatory” begins, Dante is still guided by the Roman poet Virgil until Beatrice replaces him for the last four subsections (or cantos). Within the 33 cantos Dante discusses the nature of human sin along with moral and political issues of the Catholic Church. As in the first and third sections, Dalí illustrates this section in his surrealistic style, blending the sensual and the sinister to frightening effect.