Spring exhibitions at the Meadows Museum extended

Dallas (SMU) — The Meadows Museum at SMU has extended the run of two of its spring exhibitions: Salvador Dalí: An Early Surrealist Masterpiece will be on display through August 7, while Process and Innovation: Carlotta Corpron and Janet Turner will be on display through August 21.

Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904-1989), L’homme poisson, 1930. Oil on canvas. Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum Purchase with funds from The Meadows Foundation; Holly and Doug Deason; Mrs. Eugene McDermott; Linda P. and William A. Custard; and Gwen and Richard Irwin, MM.2014.11. Photo by Brad Flowers. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2016.

L’homme poisson, an oil-on-canvas painting from 1930, is the focus of the ongoing exhibition Salvador Dalí: An Early Surrealist Masterpiece. The exhibition also presents infrared and x-ray images of L’homme poisson, which were part of an extensive study of the painting performed by Claire Barry, chief conservator at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. The x-ray and infrared images are beautifully displayed in separate light boxes twice the size of the actual painting in order to enhance the specific details under investigation. Also on view in the exhibition is a selection of prints and illustrated books by Dalí, some on loan from various collections across the SMU campus, which offer further examples of the type of compositional elements the artist is known to have used throughout his career.

“These images offer an alternative way to look at Dalí’s artistic process,” said Meadows Curatorial Assistant Shelley DeMaria. “It does not seem that many of the artist’s canvases have been studied before in this manner, but it is an interesting tool that helps us to better understand how Dalí was composing, changing, and thinking things through on canvas. Although his finished compositions are often precisely executed, we can see that his process was a bit more fluid.”

“We were delighted to collaborate with the Meadows Museum on a project that shed new light on the creative process of Salvador Dalí,” said Claire Barry, director of conservation at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. “The addition of one of Dalí’s most important early paintings to the renowned collection of the Meadows Museum underscores the importance of the visual arts in North Texas.”

Process and Innovation: Carlotta Corpron and Janet Turner highlights the innovative careers of two women who became masters of unorthodox methods in their corresponding media of photography and printmaking. Both Corpron (1901-1988) and Turner (1914-1988) taught art at Texas universities and employed highly experimental methods in their corresponding media of photography and printmaking. Process and Innovation: Carlotta Corpron and Janet Turner draws entirely from holdings within the Dallas area, including the Bywaters Special Collections of SMU and loans from such private owners as Jack and Beverly Wilgus, who have generously promised their vast photographic collection to SMU’s DeGolyer Library. Images by Beverly Wilgus and Barbara Maples, former students of Corpron, will also be on view.

About the Meadows Museum

The Meadows Museum is the leading U.S. institution focused on the study and presentation of the art of Spain. In 1962, Dallas businessman and philanthropist Algur H. Meadows donated his private collection of Spanish paintings, as well as funds to establish a museum, to Southern Methodist University. The museum, which opened to the public in 1965, today is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. The collection includes medieval objects, Renaissance and Baroque sculptures, and major paintings by Golden Age and modern masters. Through the years, The Meadows Foundation has continued to provide generous support for the Meadows Museum and Meadows School of the Arts at SMU.

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