Free Admission to Dali Exhibit at Museum of Art for NMSU and DACC on Homecoming Weekend October 19, 2007

In honor of Homecoming Weekend at New Mexico State University on Friday, Oct. 19, Saturday, Oct. 20 and Sunday, Oct. 21, the Dali illustrates Dantes Divine Comedy exhibition at the Las Cruces Museum of Art will be free of charge for New Mexico State and Dona Ana Community College students, faculty, staff, and alumni association members with current ID.


Dali, famous for such works as The Persistence of Memory with unforgettable melting clocks, said he had dreamed of illustrating Dantes masterpiece. He worked for nine years on the original watercolor renditions for the project he considered one of the most important of his career and an artistic testament. The entire print suite, loaned to the museum by a local collector, illustrates the 100 cantos, or verses, of Dantes allegorical journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. To create prints from the original paintings, two artisans worked for three years to carve 3,500 wood blocks, as each individual image required approximately 35 separate blocks to capture its detail and color. The suite on loan to the Museum was published in 1964 by the firm of Les Heures Claires, Paris.


Exhibition hours for the Dali Illustrates Dantes Divine Comedy at the Las Cruces Museum of Art are Tuesday through Thursday, 10 am 5 pm; Sunday, 1 5 pm; closed Monday. Admission is $5 for adults; 18 and under free. The NMSU/DACC free admission weekend is a special event sponsored by the Foundation for Las Cruces Museums.


The Las Cruces Museum of Art is located at 491 North Main Street on the north end of the Downtown Mall. For more information about the exhibit and related free lectures, gift shop and musical performances, call 505) 541-2137 or go to the website at museums.las-cruces.org.

Event submitted by Eventful.com on behalf of lcms.