Emmanuel Di Donna is presenting a major Salvador Dalí exhibition, "Dalí: The Great Years, 1929–1939," at his Madison Avenue gallery from April 16 to June 13. The show features over two dozen paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the artist's most formative decade, assembled with loans from major institutions like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will be the final exhibition in Di Donna's current space before he launches a new joint venture with Pace and David Schrader.
The exhibition is significant as it is the first major Dalí presentation in New York since MoMA's 2008 show, aiming to refocus attention on the psychologically dense and formally rigorous early work that established his legacy, beyond his popularized imagery. By highlighting Dalí's pioneering cross-disciplinary collaborations with figures like Coco Chanel and his influence on the blurring of art, fashion, and commerce, the show argues for his contemporary relevance. It also underscores the market rarity of his key early works, which remain largely in museum collections, contributing to an uneven auction record for Dalí compared to other Surrealists.