The Collection

Dalí i Domènech, Salvador

Poetry of America

Date
1943
Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
116 x 79 cm
Location
Dalí Theatre-Museum

Dalí painted this oil painting in the United States, in Monterrey, California, in 1943. The landscape is a mixture of the Empurdá plain and Cap de Creus and of the vast American deserts. The skin shaped as Africa appears in the background, on the tower of time, with the clock marking the time and the athletes —American football players— with the vertical symbolism of the Coca-Cola bottle between them, and the black telephone, encrusted into the bottle, from which comes a huge black stain that falls onto a white cloth that is attached to the athletes. The black stain has been the object of different interpretations, one of which ponders with the idea that it is a representation of the American racial problem. This work, produced during the American period, is advance notice of the new cultural attitudes in the 20th century, especially that of pop art.

© Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2014.

Copyright notice

The copyright on Salvador Dalí's works, included those that are reproduced in this Web page, is held by the Spanish State and has been granted in exclusivity to the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí.

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Any exploitation of Salvador Dalí's works is subject to the prior application and clearance of the relevant licence issued by VEGAP (tel. 91 532 66 32 and 93 201 03 31; www.vegap.es). Copyright infringement will be prosecuted according to Laws.

  • Poetry of America

    Poetry of America