New Dalí Museum exhibit showcases the artist’s ties to the European past

Sainte Hélène à Port Lligat, 1956, Oil on canvas. Collection of The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL (USA); Gift of A. Reynolds amp; Eleanor Morse, 2007.20(© Salvador Dalí. Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí (Artists Rights Society), 2026 / Courtesy of Dali Museum)Salvador Dalí built a reputation on the strange and unexpected.But a new exhibit at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg asks visitors to look beyond his surrealist imagery and see the artist as something else — a student of his European predecessors."Dalí: Disruption + Devotion," which opened Saturday, brings his work into conversation with artists whose paintings and techniques shaped his own.Co-organized by the museum and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibit brings together paintings, drawings and prints from both institutions’ collections. It runs through April 18.The exhibit spans five centuries of art. Visitors will see Dalí’s work alongside that of artists like El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Orazio Gentileschi and Francisco Goya