Elliott King Presents Paper at Conference at The Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice The W&L professor of art history attends conference exploring and celebrating Surrealism in Italy.

Lily Caldwell
October 28, 2024

Elliott King, professor of art history at Washington and Lee University, recently presented his paper “Dalí’s Italian Campaign: Mysticism, Hiparxiologi, and the Divina Commedia” at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy, on Oct. 17-18.

The paper was presented at the conference “Italy is More Surrealist than the Pope” and delved into Italy’s role in international Surrealism from the 1920s through post-World War II. The conference featured the works and perspectives of internationally renowned scholars who have furthered the discussion of the surrealist movement and its relationship with Italy.

King’s paper focuses on Spanish artist Salvador Dalí and his illustrations for Dante’s “Divina Commedia.” The paper outlines Dalí’s depiction of the progression through the three realms of the “Divina Commedia” and examines how Dalí utilizes artistic styles reminiscent of his past works which adds an autobiographical layer to the illustrations. King further asserts that Dalí’s narrative was knowingly influenced by the Catalan philosopher Francesc Pujols, who he was in close contact with while making the illustrations, as he appears to draw allusions to Pujols’ philosophical system.

“It was a tremendous honor to have my paper selected for this prestigious conference, which brought together esteemed colleagues from Italy, the U.K., Sweden, France and Abu Dhabi to speak about various aspects of surrealism,” said King. “I learned a tremendous amount about surrealism’s connections to Italy and particularly enjoyed visiting the exhibit, ‘Surrealism in Italy,’ at the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Parma.”

King will present his paper again for the conference of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism held in Paris on Oct. 28-30.

King is a Dalí scholar and has been a member of the W&L faculty since 2012. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in art history from the University of Denver, a Master of Arts in history of art from the Courtauld Institute of Art (U.K.) and a Ph.D. in art history and theory from the University of Essex (U.K.).

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