Description

Date:

1934

Technique:

Wooden box, sheets of painted glass and light source

Dimensions:

32,3 x 42,5 x 31,1 cm

Location:

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the James Thrall Soby Bequest, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Loula D. Lasker, and William S. Paley Funds

By virtue of its typology, this object can be related to the Babaouo of the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí. Inside the wooden box are eleven paintings on glass by Dalí, placed one behind the other and lit from the back. In the composition of the scenes represented on each pane of glass, a true compendium of Surrealist iconography is revealed reflected in some of the most important pictorial works of this period. In this way Dalí created a painting conceived as a three-dimensional object, with remarkable effects of perspective and depth. In this particular work the link with the Optical Theatre system of animated moving pictures is especially evident, thanks to the proscenium painted on the first frontal pane of glass.

Provenance

1. [Galerie François Petit (André François Petit), Paris]
2. Emilio Terry, Paris
3. Mme. [Emmy] de Martelaere, Paris, ?-1974
4. Perls Galleries, New York, 1974-1981

Exhibitions

1. 1975, New York, Perls Galleries, 30 Major Acquisitions, 08/04/1975 - 17/05/1975, cat. no. 10
2. 1977, New York, Perls Galleries, 40 Years Masterworks, 18/10/1977 - 26/11/1977, cat. no. 14
3. 1979, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Salvador Dalí: rétrospective, 1920-1980, 18/12/1979 - 21/04/1980, cat. no. 160
4. 1980, London, The Tate Gallery, Salvador Dalí, 14/05/1980 - 29/06/1980, cat. no. 81
5. 1984, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Selections from the Permanent Collection: Painting and Sculpture, 06/05/1984 - 14/08/1991
6. 1993, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Selections from Permanent the Collection of Painting and Scultpure, 16/09/1993 - 23/07/1999
7. 2006, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Painting and Sculpture Changes 2006, 16/11/2006 - 14/04/2008
8. 2008, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Dalí & Film, 29/06/2008 - 15/09/2008, no reference

Bibliography

1. Salvador Dalí: rétrospective, 1920-1980, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art moderne, Paris, 1979, p. 223, ill.
2. Salvador Dalí: retrospektive, 1920-1980, Prestel, München, 1980, p. 223, ill.
3. Salvador Dalí, The Tate Gallery, London, 1980, p. 25
4. Salvador Dalí: retrospektive, 1920-1980, Prestel, München, 1980, p. 223, ill.
5. Josep Pla, Salvador Dalí (il.), Obres de museu, DASA, Figueres, 1981, p. 52, ill.
6. Robert Descharnes, Dalí, l'oeuvre et l'homme, Edita, Lausanne, 1984, p. 169, ill.
7. Robert Descharnes, Dalí, sein Werk, sein Leben: die Eroberung, des Irrationalen, Dumont, Köln, 1984, p. 169, ill.
8. Robert Descharnes, Dalí, the work, the man: 1934-1944, Kodansha, [Tòquio], 1984, p. 169, ill.
9. Pierre Ajame, La Double de vie de Salvador Dali, Ramsay, Paris, 1984, p. 94
10. Robert Descharnes, Dalí : la obra y el hombre, Tusquets, Edita, Barcelona, Lausanne, 1984, p. 169, ill.
11. Robert Descharnes, Salvador Dalí : the work, the man, Henry N. Abrams, New York, 1989, p. 169, ill.
12. Robert Descharnes, Gilles Néret, Salvador Dalí, 1904 -1989, Benedikt Taschen, Köln, 1994, p. 224, ill.
13. Robert Descharnes, Gilles Néret, Salvador Dalí, 1904 -1989, Benedikt Taschen, Köln, 1994, p. 753
14. Robert Descharnes, Nicolas Descharnes, Dalí : le dur et le mou : sortilège et magie des formes, sculptures et objets, Eccart, [Azay le Rideau], 2003, p. 17, ill.
15. Companion to Spanish surrealism, Tamesis, Woodbridge, 2004, p. 131
16. Agustín Sánchez Vidal, Salvador Dalí, Fundación Mapfre. Instituto de Cultura, Madrid, 2007, pp. 54, 63, ill.
17. Dalí & film, Tate Publishing, London, 2007, p. 129, ill.
18. Dalí y el cine, Electa, Barcelona, 2008, p. 129, ill.
19. William Jeffett, Dalí doubled : from surrealism to the self : a new critical view of Dalí, The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, 2010, p. 46, ill.

Related works

• Babaouo 1932

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