From the Buffalo News:
A darkened bank vault is no place for Salvador Dali's exuberant, surreal art. So art lovers were happy last August when 15 sketches by the celebrated Spanish artist were brought to light by the widow of Dr. Edmund Klein after they had been locked away in downtown safe deposit boxes for more than 30 years.
But they've remained out of the public eye.
Now, after framing at Benjaman's Art Gallery on Elmwood Avenue, the drawings are being readied for their first showing, from June 27 to Aug. 27 in the University at Buffalo's Anderson Gallery, along with four other Dali works owned by Martha Klein - two lithographs, a watercolor and a silver statuette.
All were given to Klein's late husband, a renowned Buffalo dermatologist, in return for his treatment of Dali's skin cancer over nearly a decade, starting in 1972.
Klein, whose patients also included actors John Wayne and Zero Mostel, got along famously with the highly imaginative artist and hesitated to bill him for the visits to his winter residence in a New York City hotel or homes in France and Spain.
So Dali "gave him a drawing each time," Martha Klein recalled in the Williamsville home of her daughter, Rene Rubino, as a team from UB Galleries boxed the collection for the trip to Anderson Gallery on Martha Jackson Place in University Heights.
The largest pieces - the lithographs and watercolor, also gifts from the artist - were hung in the Kleins' home, but there was no room for the drawings, so they went into deposit boxes for safekeeping.
Avoiding exposure to sunlight in a temperature-controlled room for all those years wasn't the worst fate for the delicate drawings - including several angels - executed in Dali books, sketch pads and a photography catalog and dedicated to "mon ami Klein" or "mon Angel le Doctor Klein," said Paul Chimera, a Dali specialist from Amherst and the family's consultant on the collection.
On balance, the vault is "probably a pretty good place for them," Chimera said.
The Klein collection will be exhibited with two Dali paintings owned by UB and four from Niagara University's Castellani Art Museum.
Martha Klein, whose husband died 10 years ago, a decade after Dali, hopes the exhibition will attract a buyer or buyers. Though the family's collection has not been appraised, she is confident it would fetch at least enough to pay for the education of her nine grandchildren.
She would prefer to sell the set intact, she said, because breaking it up "would spoil the story."
The when and where of it all:
[box]Salvador Dali Exhibition Slated for UB's Anderson Gallery, June-August
Release Date: June 18, 2009
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- "Salvador Dali," an exhibition of works by the Spanish surrealist that coincides with the 20th anniversary of his death, will be presented June 27 to Aug. 27 by the University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery.
It will feature 15 original drawings, two lithographs, a poster and a silver sculpture from the Edmund Klein Collection; two paintings from the UB Collection, and a sculpture and several drypoint etchings from the collection of Niagara University's Castellani Art Museum.
The exhibition will take place in the second floor gallery of the Anderson, 1 Martha Jackson Place (off Englewood Avenue between Main Street and Kenmore Avenue).
It will be free of charge and open to the public. Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays, 1-5 p.m. Further information and directions can be obtained from the gallery at (716) 829-3754.
The 15 sketches and the silver sculpture in the Klein Collection belong to the family of the late Edmund Klein, M.D., a world-renowned skin cancer researcher who was a research professor in UB's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and who served as chief of dermatology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
For nearly a decade, beginning in 1972, the year he won the coveted Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for his outstanding contributions to the treatment of skin cancer, Klein treated Dali for skin cancer in New York City, France and on Spain's Costa Brava.
Paul Chimera, a spokesperson for the Klein family and a Dali aficionado, says that over the years, the doctor and the artist became close friends and that Dali paid Klein unconventionally for his medical treatment by executing, personalizing and dedicating to Klein, the original drawings to be shown in the UB exhibit.
"The drawings were sequestered for more than 30 years in a bank vault in downtown Buffalo," says Chimera, resident of Amherst, "and have never before been exhibited."
According to Chimera, the drawings were executed on the frontispieces or other blank pages of certain Dali books, on sketchpads, a photography catalogue and the back of a technical paper written by Klein.
Another piece is included as well: a poster of a Dali watercolor featuring the U.S. Capitol building topped by the Winged Victory of Samothrace, dedicated to Klein from Mary Lasker.
A catalog of the Klein Collection will be available at the exhibition.
Sandra Olsen, director of the UB Galleries, says the exhibition also will feature two Dali paintings from the UB Collection: Portrait of Katharine Cornell (oil and mixed media); and Labyrinth (oil on panel), as well as several works of art on loan from Niagara University's Castellani Art Museum.
The Niagara University holdings include a suite of five drypoint etchings with stencil, including King David, King Solomon, Noah's Ark and Joseph, from the 1975 Dali portfolio, "Our Historical Heritage;" The Curse Overthrown, a 1974 drypoint etching with stencil from the series "After 50 Years of Surrealism," and Crucifixion (not dated), a marble sculpture with gold details and inlaid gemstones.
The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.[/box]
Dali and his wife, Gala, just fascinate me.
wiki on Dali:
wiki on his wife, Gala:
I would enjoy a conversation with either of them.
See some Dali at "virtual Dali":
a few examples of work that likely look familiar to you, snagged from google images:
I totally want visit his home when I go to Spain. I just saw it on an English fashion show and it looks amazing!
I really need to go see this.
That one with the clocks is pretty famous, it is even in a Bugs Bunny Movie I like. I forget what it is called but there is some chase scene in an art gallery and they go into painting and in each painting the characters change based on the painting it is really a great part of the movie artisticly.