Dali’s Mad Tristan On View in Quebec

Our Geo Quiz has a surreal quality.

We’re searching for a city in Quebec that’s exhibiting a spectacular painting … one that hasn’t been seen in public for more than six decades.

The painting by Salvador Dali is called “Mad Tristan.”

It depicts the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult, both characters from a 12th century Celtic legend.

Their scandalous love story inspired Wagner to write an opera.

Dali’s surreal interpretation is painted on a curtain that served as a stage backdrop for a ballet production.

It features a dandelion where a head should be, ants crawling about, and other surreal touches.

So can you name the city, Quebec’s largest by the way, where “Mad Tristan” is on view?

“Mad Tristan “ is on view at the Place des Arts in Montreal …that’s the answer to our Geo Quiz.

Jennifer Whisper is an art historian who’s had a chance to see the painting.

She says Dali created it in 1944, as a backdrop for a ballet production of New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

The art has now found its way into the hands of circus clown and theatrical director Daniele Finzi Pasca who will use it in his next production, La Verita.

After Montreal, both the art and La Verita’s puppeteers, acrobats, dancers and singers will tour France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.