For this Halloween-themed lecture, Peter Tush, Curator of Education, will explore the spectral domain of Dalí’s art. Throughout the early 1930s, Dalí developed a body of symbols associated with death – cypress trees, skulls, ancient burial stones, even the image of his dead cousin Carolineta.

He also produced a number of paintings that circle around theme of ghosts and apparition, including the Ghost of Vermeer and Shades of Night Descending.

Related to these works, Dalí posed for a series of ghostly photographs wrapped in sheets. The talk will draw on Dalí’s 1934 essay, “New Colors of Spectral Sex Appeal,” to situate this unique but rarely discussed uncanny dimension of Dalí’s Surrealism.