This is Dali up close and personal. And you can’t help but feel privileged looking at such a fascinating collection of images of Dali and his wife Gala, all taken by their good friend Lacroix.

Dali is so familiar a name, so familiar a face (indeed that moustache could rival Chaplin’s) - yet these shots remind us of his enduring capacity to surprise.

Each frame reveals something different: Dali at work (using a giant brush to steady his hand for the finely detailed work he prided himself on); Dali somewhat at rest (did he ever rest or is that just myth?); Dali, definitely, at play (his trademark wide-eyed look back at the viewer is evident in many photographs here, and thinly veils a devilish smirk).

By turns these pictures are startling, ridiculous, funny and absorbing.
So Dali remains engrossing long after his passing.

In one shot, a typically tidy composition is offset by deranged content: a screaming Dali holds a screaming baby aloft while a screaming eagle, seemingly, swoops into frame.

Is Dali saviour or executioner? This is classic Dali: white-hot artistry juxtaposed with black humour.

Who else could make a baby in jeopardy appear (absurdly) funny?

The privilege of intimacy:Instituto Cervantes, to 29 April

TIM BIRCH

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