Yet another side to Salvador Dali.

• Author: Argillet, Christine
• Position: Focus on Art - Essay

SALVADOR DALI (1904-89) and my father Pierre Argillet (1910-2001) enjoyed a collaboration and a friendship that spanned five decades, and produced what some art historians have termed "the finest bodies of the Master's Art."

As I embarked on my journey both to curate and to present my father's collection, I was asked to remark as to the overall message I wished to convey through my presentation. I interpreted this question as the interviewer seeking a definition: could I define that moment, that feeling, that responsibility of being the only direct archive to the collaborative efforts of Daft and Argillet?

My answer: "Dali: The Argillet Collection" is a tribute to the work of my father, a publisher of the Dada and Surrealist group. It reflects a constant endeavor, a very personal archive not only of Dali's etchings and tapestries, but an intimate glimpse into my family's personal photos, films, anecdotes, and memories of life with Dali and his wife Gala. This exhibition is an intimate collaboration of my family with the most fascinating artist of the Surrealist Movement.

My father began as a journalist with a true passion for Surrealism. His relationship with Daft was as sincere as it was passionate. They had long discussions on the art in process and on literary topics that Dali then would illustrate. Dali saw the world as one in which everything was linked. That view is evident in his art; for him, it never was the progression of the idea that all things have a shared link--it was the common denominator, his philosophy, if you will. I observed and came to recognize this world view of Dali's from childhood. I see this theme in all of my family's collection, and we speak of it often.

A number of the works have appeared in some the world's most-prestigious museums, including Musee Boymans (Rotterdam, Netherlands); Musee Pushkin (Moscow, Russia); The Dali Museum (St. Petersburg, Fla.); Kunsthaus Zurich (Switzerland); Staatsgalarie (Stuttgart, Germany); Isetan Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan); Daimaru Art Museum (Osaka, Japan); and Hiroshima (Japan) Prefectural Museum of Art. The collection's permanent home is at the Museum of Surrealism in Melun, France, and the Daft Museum in Figueres, Spain.

My father had conceived a huge admiration for Dali's talent and he simply would make things happen, at that very moment, because Dali was jumping very fast from one idea to another. There was a sense of immediacy linked to the passion of the discovery that...