Hello, Dali!

Meadows Museum doubles the fun for Dallas fans of Salvador Dalí

UPDATE: The Meadows Museum’s exhibition "Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929-1936" has been extended through January 6, 2019, the museum has announced.

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Admirers of Spanish artist Salvador Dalí have twice the reason to visit Meadows Museum this fall. The museum on the SMU campus is mounting not one but two exhibitions concurrently that will give insight into different aspects of the artist's work. Both open September 9.

With "Dalí: Poetics of the Small, 1929-1936," Meadows is organizing the first in-depth exploration of the artist’s small-scale paintings — some measuring just over a foot, and others as tiny as 3 by 2 inches. An important part of the artist’s output during the early part of his Surrealist period (1929-1936), these miniature works reflect Dalí’s precise style of painting, the museum says.

Painted at the time in Dali's career when nearly half of the works he produced were cabinet-sized paintings, these jewel-sized pieces have never been studied or exhibited as a cohesive group, the museum says. Plans for the exhibition began after the Meadows acquired Dalí’s small-scale painting The Fish Man (L’homme poisson, 1930) in 2014, and asked the conservation department at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth to conduct technical analysis of the work.

Meadows will be the only venue for this exhibition of about two dozen works, which runs through December 9.

The second exhibition, "Dalí’s Aliyah: A Moment in Jewish History," will display a rare, complete set of the lithographs created by the artist to celebrate 1968 as the 20th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. These works reveal a different aspect of Dalí’s artistic practice, the museum says, with images that are large in scale and painted in a loose, expressionistic style that is the opposite of the precise technique displayed in the small-scale Surrealist works.

Inspired by the historic challenges and post-World War II renewal of the Jewish people, Dalí created a series of 25 mixed-media paintings on paper that loosely trace major moments in Jewish history — both the tragic and the joyous — culminating in the creation of Israel in 1948, the museum says. From the paintings, Shorewood Publishers produced a limited edition of 250 sets of 25 lithographs, with each set accompanied by a letter of introduction from David Ben-Gurion, the founding Prime Minister of Israel.

The title, Aliyah, comes from the Hebrew word “to rise or ascend,” and is commonly used to describe migration to Israel, a process that many Jews see as stepping up to their homeland, Meadows says. This display will be on view through January 13, 2019.

The Dalí exhibitions are an extension of Meadows' mission to study and present the art of Spain.

“Despite Salvador Dalí’s global reputation, there is much still to learn about his artistic development and output,” says Mark Roglán, the Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum, in a release. “In producing so many small-scale paintings, it is clear that the artist saw their size as important, recognizing that within a constrained frame the viewer’s eyes are drawn to details differently.

"By contrast, the large-format lithographs Dalí created for his Aliyah commission demonstrate an understanding of a different set of traditional artist’s skills, using art to capture and present history and the people involved in shaping it.”

Meadows will celebrate the new exhibit at its inaugural Masterpiece Gala on October 13 at the museum.

Salvador Dali, The Accommodations of Desire, 1929.

Photo courtesy of Meadows Museum

Salvador Dali, The Accommodations of Desire, 1929.

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RIP Albert

Colorful and iconoclastic Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth dies at 70

Courtesy

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth, known for his jubilant creativity which he displayed in a wide range of media, died on February 18; he was 70 years old. According to friends, he suffered a heart attack.

Scherbarth's myriad "canvases" ranged from printmaking to furniture to steel and metal working. He was a colorful presence in the Dallas art scene with a shock of thick hair that stood tall, definitive horn-rimmed glasses, and an unfiltered, no-nonsense personal style.

He was also a key figure in The Cedars district: an urban pioneer who settled in the area directly south of downtown Dallas in the early '80s when the neighborhood was a mostly-deserted collection of abandoned warehouses, before it became a major art nexus.

A post by Lee Harvey's, the Cedars District bar, said that "Some people don’t just live in a neighborhood — they leave their mark on it. Albert did exactly that. Through his art, his presence, and his time at our bar, he became part of the story here. We’ll miss him more than we can say. Rest easy Bert."

He was a real character, as well — a stocky physical presence (he played football in high school) who'd fix his stare upon you as if you were a critter to be studied.

One friend said, "I always feel that Albert is going to spring some meta shit on me every time i see him and he rarely disappoints. What a cool cat."

A native of Nebraska, Scherbarth moved to Dallas in 1979 to earn a master's in fine arts at the University of Dallas, Irving. After graduating in 1981, he began teaching in the community college district, including Brookhaven College, Northlake College, University of Texas at Dallas, and the Creative Art Center, as well as at Dallas' Arts Magnet.

Sculpture by Albert Scherbarth which appeared at the State Fair of Texas in 2018.Laura Walters/Facebook

After graduating from art school, he felt the need to do "real" work like his father, and took jobs in construction and woodwork, which helped shape the very physical nature of his art.

He was one of the early and many artists who resided in the Continental Gin Building, where he worked on his designs and commissions, fabricated other artists’ ideas, and helped galleries with installations, crating, and shipping.

Through the years he made furniture, got into fused and cast glass, poured concrete countertops, and painted, including a successful era of doing giant flower paintings. In his latter years, he acquired a welding machine and worked with builders, designers, and architects constructing screens, fences, furniture, and sculptures.

His works around town include a giant wine tree for Fleming Steakhouse in Frisco, and a sculpture named, "Cecil, age 12" up on Henderson Avenue at Capital Street which was was a finalists for the Henderson Art Prize. He also worked on the famed Bowler Hat sculpture in the Cedars.

In an interview with Voyage Dallas, he said, "I’m constantly looking for more meaning and more permanence in the work that I’m doing," and acknowledged that "I’ve been very, very fortunate to get a lot of really great commissions over the years. I’ve sold a lot of work and fallen into great studio situations – large spaces, cheap rent and wonderful landlords. Today, I think my ignorance of all the pitfalls ahead allowed me to storm through life and I have a certain stubbornness, a dogged determination to succeed."

"My grandfathers died before I came of age, my father died, my favorite uncle died so there was not much in the way of male guidance or perspective on how to be a man, so I’ve just kind of made it up on my own, stumbling through, winging it and I’m still alive, amazingly enough."

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