ISSUE 4 Spring/Summer 2021

Jean-Sébastien Deshaies-Massarelli is a first year Master’s student in Art History at the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada, QC). He studied Visual Art and New Technology at the Collège de Bois-de-Boulogne (Montreal), and then completed his BA in Art History at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He’s currently working on his dissertation project, the subject of which is Nouvelles recherches sur André Masson et sa réception critique de Nietzsche. This interest in philosophy goes back to his college days when he presented an exhibition on the theme ” Je feins la fin de la philosophie qui a faim ” (2014). This exhibition gathered thirty-one surrealist drawings mixing black humor, anxiety, and philosophical questioning. Since that day, philosophy has always continued to fascinate him.  His interests are varied: passionate about 19th and 20th century art, but also about psychology, which he strongly believes in the power of art as therapy. In 2017, Jean-Sébastien made an important contribution as a researcher for the Dictionnaire historique de la sculpture québécoise au XXe siècle, an initiative of the Magazine Espace Art Actuel, which specializes in promoting contemporary art. Finally, he is a painter, musician, photographer, and writer in his spare time. He will be working this summer as an active guide and educator for the Symposium International d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul in Charlevoix (Quebec).

Mario Gonzalez Lares is a systems analyst, researcher and a scholar of the life and work of Salvador Dalí. He has  assisted with documenting collections for both the Science Museum in Caracas, Venezuela and the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research, IVIC. Since 2015, he has been contributing to the Catalogue Raisonné of Dalí’s work that the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí  in Figueres, Spain manages in collaboration with The Dalí Museum. Separately, he created a record of every Dali exhibition that occurred in his lifetime and is working on acquiring and digitizing each exhibition catalog as a research resource.  In 2019, he conducted research on the trilogy of ballets by Dalí: Bacchanale, Labyrinth and Sacrifice as The Dalí Museum’s first Fellow. Beginning in 2020, he began developing content for the YouTube channel “cosmogoniadali” [Dalí Cosmogony] where he publishes his lectures meant for art students. He is the author of two unpublished books: Dalí’s Tarot and Dalí’s Zodiac. 

Rev. Robert Keffer, OSB is a Benedictine Monk and Catholic Priest at Saint Vincent Arch Abbey in Latrobe, PA. Fr. Robert is an art history and studio arts teacher as well as part of the Human Formation Program at St. Vincent Seminary. Fr. Robert’s theological training includes the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and the Angelicum Pontifical University in Rome, Italy. During his theological studies, Fr. Robert majored in Old Testament Biblical Exegesis and Comparative Religious Symbolism, and these subjects’ connection with the history of Western Art.  Special topics of research include the Tower of Babel and its Depiction in Western painting, The Ark of Noah and its Ecclesiastical Symbolism, and Kingship and the Symbols of Royalty in the Ancient Near East. Originally a Fine Arts Major, Fr. Robert is an independent painter, and dedicated years of private research to Surrealism and Salvador Dali. Fr. Robert is an art lecturer on Salvador Dali, Surrealism and Modern and Contemporary Art. Fr. Robert has twice spoken at The Dalí Museum’s, Coffee With the Curator Series, with “Spiraling Out to the Divine, The Religious Art of Salvador Dali,” and “Moguls, Matrons and Aristocracy, Salvador Dali and the Society Portrait.”   Fr.  Robert also has given lectures on Dali and Haute Cuisine, and Dali and American Pop Culture from the 1930’s through the 1980’s.

Jordan Kriseman graduated from the University of Florida in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art, Magna Cum Laude, and a minor in Sustainability Studies. During her senior year, she wrote an honors thesis examining how Antonin Artaud and Alain Resnais intervened in the debate on art and madness in late 1940s France, specifically in relation to Vincent Van Gogh. She will matriculate to the University of Texas at Austin in Fall 2021 to begin a Master’s degree in Art History. Her current and future research interests include Land Art, time and temporality, and the presence of nature in art.

Frances Pool-Crane, a native of Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College where she is completing her undergraduate degree in English with a German minor. She first started as a volunteer at The Dalí Museum while in high school, and volunteered up until her graduation in 2019. Most recently, she returned to the Museum and served as an Executive Intern during the winter of 2021. Currently, she is working on a transcription project with the Dartmouth English Department, and plans to pursue further research in both English and Art History in her collegiate career.

S. E. Marvin is a graduate student in the Digital Humanities major in the Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Florida State University. Her research interests lie in exploring the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Surrealism specifically as it applies to AI-assisted writing and generative AI. She teaches as an instructor of record for an introductory humanities course at Florida State University. In 2017, she completed an internship in graphic design at The Dali Museum, which encouraged a passion for Surrealism. She received her baccalaureate degree from Florida State University in 2019. She served as a graduate fellow for the Linked Women Pedagogues Project in 2020.

Annette Norwood has been involved with The Dalí Museum for many years, beginning as a volunteer in 1986 and becoming a docent in 1989. She joined the Museum staff in 2006 after earning a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Education with a specialization in Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics. In addition to proofreading Museum materials and providing Spanish/English translations, Annette has contributed to various Museum publications, as well as having been a presenter on topics as varied as Wifredo Lam & Santería, Frida Kahlo & Mexico and Gala Dalí.

Rachel Smiley is the Senior Director of Libraries for the AMDA College for the Performing Arts, overseeing library operations and development for AMDA’s campuses in Los Angeles and New York. With Master’s degrees in Music and Information and Library Science, Rachel has merged these two passions throughout her career working in higher education and performing arts institutions. Her community involvement includes active participation with the Music Library Association and the Theatre Library Association. The research project on Salvador Dali began as part of Rachel’s digital portfolio for Pratt Institute in collaboration with the New York Public Library.