Dalí’s Dream of Venus

Ingrid Schaffner
Senior Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art
University of Pennsylvania

Wednesday • February 23, 2005 • 5:00 pm
Room 17 Logan Hall, 249 South 36th Street

Created for the 1939 World’s Fair, Dalí’s bizarre pavilion, Dream of Venus, was for most visitors or “victims of reality,” a first introduction to the
Surrealist Movement.

It featured an underwater living room, "Living Liquid Ladies," and Venus's "Ardent Couch," among other attractions. Revisit Dalí's dream, vividly photographed by Eric Schaal during the construction of the funhouse by Dalí himself, with ICA Senior Curator Ingrid Schaffner, the author of Salvador Dalí’s Dream of Venus.

Curator and writer Ingrid Schaffner has been working in contemporary art since the mid-1980s and has developed an exceptional body of work around three themes: surrealism, collecting, and photography. Among her many projects, "Deep Storage" was a major international survey of 50 contemporary artists which represented issues and images of collecting, storage, and archiving. Other exhibitions include "Pictures, Patents, Monkeys, More ... on collecting," "Richard Tuttle, In Parts, 1998-2001," and 'The Photogenic: Photography Through its Metaphor." She has numerous publications on 20th century art, art reviews in Artforum, and catalog essays.

Philadelphia is Dalídelphia in 2005! Don't miss Salvador Dali at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the only American venue that will host this major centennial retrospective exhibition devoted to Dali.

PMA's exhibition will run from February 16–May 15, 2005 and is timed to coincide with the celebration of the 2004 centenary of the artist's birth.