Dalí: Disruption + Devotion Panel Discussion

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Join us for a conversation celebrating the opening of Dalí: Disruption + Devotion , co-organized by The Dalí Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Featuring paintings, drawings and prints spanning nearly five centuries, the exhibition brings Dalí’s work into dialogue with the great European artists who came before him, including El Greco, Francisco Goya, Diego Velázquez and more.

Best known as a radical surrealist and provocateur, Dalí was also a devoted student of art history and religion. Throughout his career, he honored the traditions he inherited while reimagining and challenging them through his own distinctive vision.

Exhibition curators Frederick Ilchman and Jennifer Cohen join Peter Tush and moderator Dr. Kimberly Macuare to discuss how the exhibition came together, the ideas behind its pairings and what these connections across centuries reveal about Dalí’s enduring fascination with the traditions he sought to disrupt.

Location: The Dalí Museum’s Will Raymund Theater (registration required; seating first-come, first-served)

This event is free with limited capacity. An event ticket is required for entry.

Gallery access is not included.

Please note: This free lecture has limited seating and often sells out. Seating in the Will Raymund Theater is available on a first-come, first-served basis and a valid registration ticket—printed or on your phone—is required for entry.

Jennifer Cohen is Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Dalí Museum. She holds a PhD in Art History from the University of Chicago, and she was formerly Curator of Provenance and Research at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her exhibitions and publications have focused on Surrealism and its legacies. Some of her favorite projects include Salvador Dalí: The Image Disappears (2023) and c/o Tender Buttons (2021–22) at the Art Institute, and Robert Motherwell and Multiplicity (2023) at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT. Her research has been supported by the Mellon–Council for European Studies, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Dedalus Foundation. Her writing has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail , the Journal of Surrealism and the Americas and numerous exhibition catalogs.

Frederick Ilchman is an art historian specializing in the art of Renaissance Italy. He earned his BA in art history from Princeton University and his MA and PhD from Columbia University. He joined the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), in 2001 as Assistant Curator of Paintings and now serves as the Mrs. Russell W. Baker Curator of Paintings and Chair of the Art of Europe Department, a position he has held since 2013. Ilchman has organized and co-curated numerous acclaimed exhibitions at the MFA and internationally. In 2009, he curated Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice, which also traveled to the Musée du Louvre. He co-curated Goya: Order and Disorder at the MFA in 2014, as well as exhibitions marking the 500th anniversary of the birth of Jacopo Tintoretto, pr