Now that the twentieth century is over it begins to make sense to assess modernism as a whole, and in that context artists like Salvador Dalí become unexpectedly important. For decades he has been an asked-and-answered question, largely on the lead of his expulsion from the Surrealist group in 1939 (when Breton said his work was “little more than crossword puzzles”). He did not help his case by moving so aggressively into marketing, and at the start of the twenty-first century he has the additional stigma of being a favorite among less informed buyers. With the rise of interest in technical skill, kitsch, popular imagery, and (especially since Dave Hickey’s influential work) beauty, Dalí has become ubiquitous. He is featured in mail-order offers and upscale tourist galleries of the kind that also sell cheaper Rembrandt prints, framed reproductions of Norman Rockwell paintings, and smaller works by artists such as Bernard Buffet and Ben Shahn. What is the case in favor of Dalí? This well-produced book is a good opportunity to rethink the question. The occasion for the book was an exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum, which has a long history of association with Dalí (well documented in an essay by...