The Chinese billionaire and patron Adrian Cheng plans to launch a major exhibition in Shanghai of works by Salvador Dalí lent by the Fundación Gala-Salvador Dalí. Cheng’s K11 Art Foundation and the Spanish-based foundation have joined forces to stage Media-Dalí, which is due to open on 5 November (until 15 February 2016).
The exhibition will be held at the chi K11 Art Museum in the basement of the K11 art mall, which is owned by Cheng’s family-run company, New World Development. One of Dalí’s most important works, Napoleon’s Nose (1945), will be shown. “There will also be a parallel group show of emerging and established Chinese artists demonstrating the legacy of Surrealism in China and the influence of Dalí,” says a spokesman for the K11 Art Foundation.
“Arouse awareness”
Juan Sevillano, the managing director of the Fundación Gala-Salvador Dalí, says: “[It] is highly concerned about Dalí’s copyright infringement issues in China. We believe this official exhibition will educate and arouse awareness of the importance of intellectual property rights.”
Cheng is bringing blockbuster shows to China, having organised an exhibition of 40 works by Claude Monet last year at the same venue, which attracted 350,000 visitors. All of the works were loaned by the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris.