Overview
- The Casa Natal Salvador Dalí in Figueres is exhibiting a folding screen painted by Dalí at about 19 years old, on view through September 13 in the show Un sueño oriental.
- The work entered Spain’s national collection after a 2024 auction purchase by the Ministry of Culture and a deposit at Madrid’s Reina Sofía, which has loaned it for this display.
- Reina Sofía restorers Eugenia Gimeno and Keti Nikolaeva stabilized the screen over four months and documented gouache and tempera pigments, with later acrylic found on the brown frame parts.
- The screen measures 168.8 by 218 cm and shows Chinese-style figures with fans, peacocks, butterflies, dragonflies, and colored lanterns that evoke local festive nights.
- Organizers frame the piece as Dalí’s first step into decorative art, placing it in a Catalan vogue for oriental themes, with rare photos, a restoration video, public talks, and a May 28 catalog launch rounding out the program.