The Dalí Museum reveals a groundbreaking art-and-garden collaboration
Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904–1989), Catalan Bread, 1932. Oil on canvas, 24.29 cm x 33.02 cm (9 9/16 x 13 in) The Dalí Museum Collection © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2025 USA: © Salvador Dalí Museum Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, 2025.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL.—
Alberto Giacometti & Salvador Dalí: Through & Beyond Surrealism marks the first United States exhibition to present these two visionary artists in direct conversation. The exhibition—co-curated by Dr. William Jeffett, Senior Curator of The Dalí Museum, and Dr. Émilie Bouvard, Director of Collections and Scientific Program at the Fondation Giacometti—offers a rare opportunity to see these two modern masters side by side, revealing their shared exploration of perception and form.
“Dalí and Giacometti each sought to locate the self beyond the self, to sculpt and paint not what was seen, but what was felt and imagined,” said Dr. Hank Hine, Director of The Dalí Museum. “Together, they expanded Surrealism into a space where the boundaries between dream and reality dissolve, inviting us to perceive the world as something endlessly mutable, alive and deeply human.”
Bringing together more than 70 paintings, sculptures and archival materials from both Fondation Giacometti and The Dalí displayed in parallel, Through & Beyond Surrealism invites comparison and connection. The exhibition traces the friendship, collaboration, and kindred experimentation of Salvador Dalí and Alberto Giacometti, who together helped define Surrealism as a visual art. Though markedly different in style—Dalí primarily a painter, Giacometti, a sculptor—their artistic paths intertwined deeply as both artists engaged with psychoanalytic theory, collaborated on designs for a surrealist “dream garden” and pioneered the new medium of the “surrealist object,” a radical reconsideration of form and meaning.
Exhibition Highlights
Evolution of Two Icons: Works from the 1920s through the 1960s trace each artist’s evolution through Surrealism and beyond, featuring key paintings and sculptures that explore desire, perception and the human condition.
Dialogues in Form: Rare drawings, sketchbook pages and models reveal Dalí and Giacometti’s collaborative vision for a “dream garden,” a surreal environment that fused sculpture, landscape and imagination. From Giacometti’s ethereal figures to Dalí’s metamorphic dreamscapes and objects, the exhibition places the two artists’ practices in visual dialogue, highlighting their shared fascination with the boundaries between reality and the subconscious.
Digital Experience – The Endless Garden: A new immersive installation developed in partnership with HYZ Studios invites visitors to co-create a living, digital dream garden inspired by Dalí and Giacometti’s unrealized project. Using mobile devices, guests answer prompts to generate 3D objects that merge into a continuously evolving projected landscape.
Alberto Giacometti & Salvador Dalí: Through & Beyond Surrealism is presented by The Dalí Museum and the Fondation Giacometti, Paris, curated by Dr. Emilie Bouvard, Scientific Director of the Fondation Giacometti, and Dr. William Jeffett, Senior Curator of The Dalí Museum.
