Giacometti—Dalí: Gardens of Dreams

In 1935, Alberto Giacometti was cast out of the Surrealist group for the treasonous act of sculpting the human form – a schism that would lead the Swiss artist to the works for which he is now best known. But only five years before, Giacometti’s symbolic, abstract sculptures had made him a superstar among the Surrealists – with none more starstruck than Salvador Dalí. This exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich, which has travelled from the Fondation Giacometti in Paris, is the first to explore their brief, but formative friendship (14 April–2 July). It focuses on a collaborative project begun by the pair in the early 1930s – a fantastical garden, designed for the Viscount and Viscountess of Noailles but never realised. Surviving drawings suggest that the garden was to have been conceived according to Dalí’s dreamlike visions, populated with Surrealist sculptures by Giacometti – among the highlights of the exhibition are several of Dalí’s original plans for the garden and the reconstruction of Giacometti’s Projet pour une place (1931). Find out more on the Kunsthaus Zürich’s website.

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Pointe à l’œil (c. 1932), Alberto Giacometti. Kunsthaus Zürich. © Succession Alberto Giacometti/2023, ProLitteris, Zurich

Femme à tête des roses (1935), Salvador Dalí. Kunsthaus Zürich. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/2022, ProLitteris, Zurich

Main prise (1932), Alberto Giacometti. Kunsthaus Zürich. © Succession Alberto Giacometti/2023, ProLitteris, Zurich