The Hallucinogenic Toreador

Salvador Dalí's 'The Hallucinogenic Toreador' (1969–1970) is a monumental 4 × 3 metre oil painting in which dozens of Venus de Milos line an arcaded space whose negative geometries cohere — when the eye discovers it — into the face of a matador. Layered inside the composition are portraits of Dalí himself, his wife Gala, and his long-dead brother, along with bullfighting flies, Pointillist dots, and a small boy standing below. The most important single work of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, it invites prolonged viewing; many visitors stay an hour to decode its nested hallucinations.

Exhibition Venue

Salvador Dalí Museum

St. Petersburg, United States