Untitled. Automatic object

© Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, VEGAP, Figueres, 2019 Brassaï © Estate Brassaï-RMN-Grand Palais

Cat. no. OE 12

Untitled. Automatic object

Unique Original Work

Description

Author:
Salvador Dalí i Domènech - Gyula Halász, alias Brassaï
Date:
ca. 1933
Technique:
Photograph and found object or object of automatic origin
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
23,6 x 17,7 cm
The dimensions correspond to the original print run of the photograph
Inscriptions:
Letter from Salvador Dalí to Brassaï on the back
Location:
Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'art moderne - Centre de création industrielle, Paris

Between 1932-1933, Dalí took on the artistic direction of a series of photographs made with Gyula Halász, alias Brassaï (1899-1984), in which certain objects, probably of automatic origin, acquire a new conceptual and artistic dimension, grounded in the essence of the photographic image. Several of these photographs were published anonymously in 1933 in the magazine Minotaure, under the heading ‘Sculptures involontaires’, each with a descriptive title drawing attention to details of the work. A number of these photographs that were not made public at the time constitute further examples of this type of creation. This is the case of this photograph, conserved in the Centre de création industrielle at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, on the back of which there is a handwritten letter from Dalí to Brassaï with specific instructions concerning the creation of certain automatic objects.

Observations

The dimensions and inscriptions correspond to the original drawing of this photograph, which is conserved in the Centre de création industrielle de Paris.

Bibliography

  1. Brassaï, Centre Pompidou, Seuil, Paris, 2000, pp. 134, 317, ill., indirect image
  2. La Subversion des images : surrealisme, photographie, film, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009, pp. 347, 461, ill., indirect image
  3. Didier Ottinger, Dictionnaire de l'objet surréaliste, Gallimard, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2013, pp. [245], 246, [307], ill. (reversed image)
  4. Anna Dezeuze, Julia Kelly, Found sculpture and photography from surrealism to contemporary art, Ashgate, Farnham, UK, Burlington, VT, 2013, pp. 5-9, [13]-18, 30, 99-102

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