WILLIAM KING MUSEUM
CENTER FOR ART AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
P.O. Box 2256  Abingdon, VA 24212
276-628-5005 (phone)  276-628-3922 (fax)
CONTACT: Katie Carrico, Dir. of Public Relations
415 Academy Dr.  Abingdon, VA 24210  kcarrico@wkmuseum.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dali Illustrates Dante’s Divine Comedy:
From the University of Tennessee’s Ewing Gallery
Abingdon, Virginia (September 18, 2012) – The William King Museum: Center for Art and
Cultural Heritage is pleased to announce its newest exhibition Dali Illustrates Dante’s Divine
Comedy: From the University of Tennessee’s Ewing Gallery. This exhibition is sponsored by
Johnston Memorial Hospital.
Art and literary enthusiasts will have the opportunity to see a literary masterpiece come to
life through the work of the late world-renowned artist Salvador Dali (1904-1989) in Dali Illustrates
Dante’s Divine Comedy. The exhibition represents Dali’s visual interpretation chronicling Dante
Alighieri’s symbolic journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Salvador Dali was one of the
most well known of the surrealist artists who concentrated on depicting the unconscious and
subconscious mind. Dali labored for nine years to produce a series of 100 watercolors as
illustrations to Dante’s classic epic with each print depicting a verse from the poem. The prints on
view were translated from Dalí’s watercolors into printed plates, a process in which two artists
worked for five years hand-carving 3,500 blocks.
The exhibition will be open in the United-Legard Galleries from September 28, 2012 to
February 17, 2013.
The opening reception for this exhibition will be Thursday, October 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. The
reception will include a costume party. Come dressed in your best Dali-inspired outfit and help us
celebrate this exciting opening!
For more information about this and other exhibitions, please visit us on the web at
www.WilliamKingMuseum.org or by phone at 276-628-5005.
William King Museum is located at 415 Academy Drive, off West Main Street or
Russell Road, in Abingdon. The Museum features five exhibition galleries, artist studios,
a museum store and outdoor sculpture garden. Educational programs in the visual arts
are offered year-round for both children and adults, and school audiences are served by
in-house and outreach programs. Accredited by the American Association of Museums,
the William King Museum is a partner of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and a
member of the Virginia Association of Museums and is funded in part by the Virginia
Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
###