So real but not surreal
The Aliyah Suite shows the abstract side of Salvador Dali
Kristen Pauch-Nolin

Salvador Dali: Aliyah Suite, organized by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, defies expectation. This series of 25 lithographic prints is executed in a manner dramatically uncharacteristic of Dali’s renowned surrealist style.

The distinctly abstract quality of the Aliyah Suite will inevitably surprise and challenge viewers who may have a preconceived idea of what a Dali exhibition will look like. However, the variety, conceptual complexity and technical prowess shown by the work demonstrates the master’s extraordinary ability regardless of artistic approach.

Commissioned in 1966 “to commemorate the independence of the state of Israel in 1948,” the Aliyah Suite saw Dali incorporating elements of a historically appropriate artistic genre to create his complex and poignant images. Many of the lithographs resemble work by abstract expressionist painters such as Arshile Gorky and Joan Miro. Employing the nuances of high modernism, Dali contributes authenticity to the images he created 20 years after the event they memorialize.

The Land of Milk and Honey, 1967, features a splash of fully saturated colour in the centre of the composition. Flanked by gesture renderings of faceless female forms, the piece is dominated by mark, colour and line rather than representational subjects. It’s a celebratory, timeless image that conveys elevated expressions and emotions.

Technically, many of the pieces in this series feature a more subdued palette of colours than is seen in earlier and more recognized Dali pieces such as The Persistence of Memory (1931) or Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish (1938). The Aliyah Suite includes limited warm, rich browns, yellows and oranges, with strategic placement of blue used to create or accentuate focal points.

Crowds of abstracted, neutrally coloured human forms dominate the foreground of Victory a Song of Thanksgiving (1967). Dramatically interrupted by a dominant stroke of intense red, the figurative section comprises roughly half the strongly vertical picture plane. Filling the entire upper section of the piece, billows of loosely drawn white fabric sheeting are emblazoned with the blue Star of David. The makeshift flags function as inspirational and monumental symbols of independence.

The series also includes a number of works that appear as illuminations of significant biblical texts. Presenting portrait-style imagery, the pieces demonstrate the communicative and persuasive ability of images.

For that is thy life and the length of thy days (Deuteronomy 30.20) includes the image of a scholar (presumably Moses) intensely writing text. The abstracted portrait fills the frame, with the fluid colours used in the upper section of the head allowed to freely flow. The figure becomes an integral part of the background, with the hands and feature stylus separated by rendering using a simple line. There is intensity in the piece that beautifully captures the important connection between word and image.

Appropriately described by curator Helen Delacretaz as work that is “at once both tragic and hopeful,” Salvador Dali: Aliyah Suite will satisfy even the most skeptical of patrons. The exhibition’s departure from Dali’s signature style offers a captivating rather than disappointing layer to this impressive collection.