Bust of Woman Devoured by Ants

© Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, VEGAP, Figueres, 2019. National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased with the assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries, 1999
Photograph featuring 'Bust of Woman Devoured by Ants', in article ‘Privately viewed at midnight: Surrealist “Dream-side” objects − perturbed, found, constructed, interpreted', The Sketch, 1 December 1937
© Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, VEGAP, Figueres, 2019. National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased with the assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries, 1999
Roland Penrose with ‘Bust of Woman Devoured by Ants’ by Salvador Dalí at the ‘Surrealist Objects & Poems’ exhibition, London Gallery, 1937

Cat. no. OE 32

Bust of Woman Devoured by Ants

Unique Original Version

Description

Date:
1937
Technique:
Assemblage
Dimensions:
Unknown
Location:
Lost / Ephemeral work

This new version of the Retrospective Bust of a Woman is evidenced in two photographs of the exhibition Surrealist Objects & Poems held at the London Gallery in 1937. In fact, the exhibition catalogue lists the work as Bust of Woman Devoured by Ants, thus reinforcing the identification of a new version of the unique original work, made in 1933. Up until now this version had been identified thanks to a photograph in which Roland Penrose poses with the bust, in which we see a mostly white zootrope and a different inkwell and loaf of bread. Nevertheless, a photograph published in the magazine Sketch on December 1, 1937, and other photographs conserved in the National Galleries of Scotland, clearly show that the zootrope that forms part of the final state of this version features images of a male figure.

Observations

All of the bibliographical references for the photograph of this unique original version with Roland Penrose, and which therefore refer to a previous stage of the definitive work, are marked with an asterisk (*).

Exhibitions

  1. 1937, London, London Gallery, Surrealist Objectes & Poems, 24/11/1937 - 24/12/1937, cat. no. 30

Bibliography

  1. London Gallery LTD, Herbert Read, Surrealist Objects & Poems, The Gallery, [n.d.]., [London], [1937]
  2. "Privately viewed at midnight: Surrealist “Dream-side” objects – perturbed, found, constructed, interpreted.", The Sketch, 01-07/12/1937, London, p. 417, ill.
  3. John Menaugh, "Art Dreamlines Mae West !", Chicago Daily Tribune, 26/06/1938, Chicago, IL, p. 4, ill.
  4. Jock Marshall, "An Australian surrealist explains his art", Daily Telegraph, 04/11/1939, Sydney, p. 7, ill.
  5. John Harcourt, "Surrealist Paintings are a Product of Modern Environment", The Australasian, 12/07/1941, [S.l.], p. 28, ill.
  6. Roland Penrose, 80 años de surrealismo : 1900 - 1981, Polígrafa, Barcelona, 1981, p. 73, ill., indirect image*
  7. The Sources of surrealism, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, Hampshire ; Burlington, VT, 2006, p. 689
  8. Surreal objects : three-dimensional works from Dalí to Man Ray, Hatje Cantz, Schirn Kunsthalle, Ostfildern, Frankfurt, 2011, p. 20, ill., indirect image, detail
  9. Montse Aguer, Jean-Michel Bouhours, Laura Bartolomé, Bust de dona retrospectiu 1933/1976-1977, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2015, pp. 40, 64, ill.*
  10. Montse Aguer, Jean-Michel Bouhours, Laura Bartolomé, Busto de mujer retrospectivo 1933/1976-1977, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2015, pp. 40, 64, ill.*
  11. Montse Aguer, Jean-Michel Bouhours, Laura Bartolomé, Buste de femme rétrospectif 1933/1976-1977, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2015, pp. 40, 64, ill.*
  12. Montse Aguer, Jean-Michel Bouhours, Laura Bartolomé, Retrospective bust of a woman 1933/1976-1977, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2015, pp. 40, 64, ill.*
  13. James King, Roland Penrose : the life of a Surrealist, Edimburgh University Press, Edimburgh, 2016, cover, p. 131, ill., indirect image*
  14. Gek van surrelisme, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2017, p. [13], ill., indirect image*

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