EXHIBITIONS

Dalí: Painting and Film

Writing Dalí: The Artist's Letters, Poetry, and Manifestos

This program showcases a range of Salvador Dalí's provocative and poetic writings, from his opinions on art and popular culture and his well-known explanations of Surrealist practice (including his so-called paranoid-critical method) to unpublished and newly-translated texts. Performers read the artist's poetry, diary entries, musings about New York, letters, interviews, and film scripts, as well as his notorious 1928 Manifest Groc (Yellow Manifesto). Participants include performance artist Laurie Anderson, former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic, Academy Award nominee David Strathairn, Wooster Group founding member Kate Valk, and others.

The education programs accompanying Dalí: Painting and Film are supported in part by The Catalan Center at New York University, an affiliate of the Institut Ramon Llull.

Lucia Pulido's Despecho

Lucia Pulido, a Colombian singer who specializes in a Pan-Latin-American repertoire, will sing classic tangos, waltzes, and boleros. She will also perform "Destino," the Amando Domingues tune that served as the soundtrack to the Dalí/Disney animated film of the same name. "Ms.Pulido holds on to the rawness of the original melodies while giving them a sophisticated new context" (The New York Times). Lucia Pulido, vocals; Sergio Reyes, violin; Sebastian Cruz, guitar; Pedro Giraudo, acoustic bass.

Dalí: Painting and Film

Rachelle Garniez & Sxip Shirey: A Surrealist Tribute to Dalí

Rachelle Garniez is a singer, accordion player, and performer with quirky and lyrical compositions and a mesmerizing stage presence. Sxip Shirey is a storyteller, composer, and sound designer who specializes in using small and unusual instruments such as the Obnoxiophone and the mutant harmonica. Together, they will weave an odd and beautiful sound tapestry that would have delighted Dalí.

Les Primitifs du Futur

This legendary Paris-based group presents a global take on musette, the French accordion music beloved by such Surrealists as André Breton and Robert Desnos. The Primitifs stay true to musette's original spirit, mixing tradition with world influences. In the popular Paris of the 1930s, accordion balls would typically entertain dancers with the world music of its time: fox-trots, mazurkas, polkas, paso-dobles, waltzes, javas, and tangos (all popular rhythms Dalí was known to dance to). Dominique Cravic, vocals, guitar; Fay Lovsky, vocals, Theremin, ukulele, musical saw; Daniel Colin, accordion; Daniel Huck, scat, saxophones; Jean-Michel Davis, xylophone, vibraphone, drums; Claire Elzière, vocals.

Brian Carpenter's Ghost Train Orchestra

Ghost Train Orchestra performs music unearthed from the dusty vaults of a basement record collection, new arrangements of "voodoo music" (read "anti-artistic"), and spirited stomps from the most incredible of the late 1920s Chicago and Harlem jazz bands, plus original music commissioned for cartoon scores and vaudeville shows. Brian Carpenter, trumpet, slide trumpet, harmonica, voice; Briggan Krauss, alto and baritone saxophones; Michael Winograd, clarinet; Petr Cancura, clarinet, tenor saxophone; Curtis Hasselbring, trombone; Karen Waltuch, viola; Philippa Thompson, violin, musical saw; Andrew Stern, banjo; Ron Caswell, tuba; Rob Garcia, drums.

Layali El Andalus

Led by Moroccan master musician Rachid Halihal, this Judeo-Muslim ensemble evokes the spirit of Andalusia's golden age-when Arabic, Jewish, and Christian cultures flourished side by side for seven centuries. The band's repertoire focuses on North African styles—Andalusian, chaabi, and gnawa—but also expands to folk music from the Middle East as well as classical Arabic and Sephardic Jewish music. Dalí, who was known to emphasize his Arabic lineage, would doubtlessly have approved of the juxtaposition. With Rachid Halihal, oud, vocals; Daphna Mor, ney, recorder; Uri Sharlin, accordion; Daniel Freedman, dumbek; David Buchbut, riq, Bruno Bruzzese, violin.

Theater of the Absurd: Dalí and the Surrealists at MoMA

Pamelia Kurstin

Invented in 1919 by Russian scientist Léon Theremin, the theremin is one of the oldest electronic instruments—and the fact that it doesn't need to be touched to produce a sound makes it perhaps the most magical. Pamelia Kurstin is widely considered one of the world's greatest theremin players. On an instrument primarily associated with horror and science fiction soundtracks, she creates lyricism. Her pitch, technique, and taste are equally perfect. She can play microtonal puzzles and walking bass lines; she can make her instrument sound like a violin, a human voice, or an analog synthesizer. Out of what was once a symbol of modernism, she plays music of a very emotional order.

Dalí: Painting and Film

Electric Junkyard Gamelan

Inspired by Indonesian gamelan, this group has invented its own tradition: they play original groove-driven music on improvised instruments and household objects. Haunting melodies and layered, interlocking rhythms are performed on such musical contraptions as the rubarp, sitello, kachapitar, and terraphone. The experience is as visually stimulating as it is aurally exciting. Terry Dame, Julian Hintz, Mary Feaster, Lee Frisari, and Robin Burdulis.

Kamikaze Ground Crew

Begun as a pit band for the flying Karamazov Brothers, this crew creates the ultimate mixture of high- and lowbrow—artistic music played with an anti-artistic bent. In addition to their own compositions, they perform brass arrangements of pieces by Erik Satie, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Kurt Weill, as well as traditional New Orleans tunes. "By turns an oom-pah-pah circus band, an earnest pit orchestra, and a bluesy jazz septet...the Kamikaze Ground Crew juggles styles as easily as the Karamazovs juggle cutlery" (The New York Times). Gina Leishma, saxophones, bass clarinet, accordion, vocals; Doug Wieselman, clarinets, saxophones, guitar; Steven Bernstein, trumpet and slide trumpet; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Peter Apfelbaum, tenor saxophone, Art Baron, trombone, Kenny Wollesen, drums.

John Marcus & Friends

John Marcus, violinist for the acclaimed Enso String quartet, is a Julliard graduate who has performed extensively in Germany and the U.S. He will present a program of classical quartets, trios, and duos—from Bach to Ravel and Webern. John Marcus, violin; Colin Jacobsen, violin; Christina Courtin, viola; Eric Jacobsen, cello.

Dalí and New York

Salvador Dalí first arrived in New York in 1934 and immediately became a flamboyant part of the city's life and art scene. Engaging with the artists and celebrities who helped create the spirit of the city at the time, Dalí pursued his interests in art and commerce, the urban streets, and friendships with members of polite society and those in the rebellious underground. This program brings together scholars and filmmakers who address the impact of Dalí's diverse activities on his work and on the New York artistic community. Participants include Callie Angell, Adjunct Curator, The Andy Warhol Film Project, The Whitney Museum of American Art, who discusses the relationship between Dalí and Andy Warhol; filmmaker Jack Bond, who presents clips of his own film, Dalí in New York, and reflections on his friendship with the artist; Jonas Mekas, filmmaker and Director, Anthology Film Archives, who shares the films he made of Dalí; and Ingrid Schaffner, Senior Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, who explores Dalí and the 1939 World's Fair. Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, and co-organizer of the exhibition Dalí: Painting and Film, moderates a discussion.

Dalí: Painting and Film