The endless enigma: Dalí and the magicians of multiple meaning

In this feast of visual trickery, exhibits include a face constructed from fruit by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and seven female nudes arranged to form the shape of a skull by Philippe Halsmann and Salvador Dalí (above, “In voluptate mors”, 1951). Then there is an anonymous oil painting dating back to around 1600 showing the portrait of a pope which, when turned through an angle of 180 degrees, takes on the hideous features of a devil. Works from Africa, China, India and Persia spanning many centuries confirm that non-Europeans, too, enjoy baffling the viewer. For the first time, a single exhibition demonstrates how Max Ernst, Man Ray and Markus Raetz, among others, had just as much fun as previous generations of artists with this kind of deception.