Atlanta High Museum Of Art Reunites ALICE COOPER With His Brain Via SALVADOR DALÍ Exhibition

This week sees the opening of Dalí: The Late Work, the first major exhibition of the artist's work after 1940 at Atlanta's High Museum of Art. The exhibition renews a connection between the 20th century's greatest surrealist artist and Alice Cooper, whose own surrealistic vision changed rock and roll for all time. The exhibition is scheduled to run through the first week of January next year and is focused on Dalí's art and his influence on artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Willem de Kooning. And it has catalyzed a multi-media reunion between the rock legend and his "brain."

One of the exhibition's highlights, among the over one hundred works on display, is the Dalí-conceived piece entitled "First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain" created in April of 1973, which depicts a three-dimensional Alice Cooper who sat for the artist wearing two million dollars worth of jewelry including a tiara and necklace while holding a statuette of Venus De Milo as if it were a microphone. A plaster sculpture of Alice's brain, topped by a chocolate éclair covered in ants, another Dalí oeuvre, was placed behind the cross-legged rock star and the set-up was documented by Dalí using then-cutting-edge hologram technology.

It was in February of that year that Dalí met Alice in New York and the two hit it off quite surreally. According to Alice, Dalí introduced himself with great flourish declaring "I am the great and grand Dalí!" to which the intrepid rocker responded "Hi, I'm Alice Cooper." The hologram's creation caused a sensation and was unveiled at a press conference at which Alice was asked, "What do you think of this?" Alice answered, "I haven't understood one word he's said since I met him." Dalí jumped in immediately, thereafter, exclaiming, "Perfect! Confusion is the greatest form of communication."

At the request of David Brenneman, director of Collections and Exhibitions for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Alice Cooper was recruited to lend his voice and recollections and observations of "the great and glorious Dalí" to the Museum's Dalí audio tour. Through the facilities of his United Stations-syndicated "Nights With Alice Cooper" radio show, Alice recorded his commentary that was sent to the Museum for inclusion in the Dalí exhibition audio tour offered to visitors.

Video clip of "First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain" can be viewed below.