Description

Date:

1936

Technique:

Painted plaster with metal pulls and mink pompons

Dimensions:

98 x 32,5 x 34 cm

Location:

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Through prior gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman 2005.424

This plaster sculpture, created by Dalí in 1936, takes as its reference the Venus de Milo in the Musée du Louvre. This icon of antiquity had fascinated the artist from childhood. In The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí he relates that as a boy he made a copy of this sculpture in clay, and how this first attempt at sculpture produced in him ‘an unmistakable and delightful erotic pleasure’. Later, in an interview he gave to Playboy magazine in 1964, Dalí explained that ‘With the addition of the drawers it is possible to look inside the body of the Venus de Milo to the soul: Thus Dalí creates a Freudian and Christian appearance in the Greek civilization.’ It is likely that this same plaster sculpture was part of an ephemeral installation at the exhibition Salvador Dalí 1939 held at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York.

Provenance

1. Salvador Dalí, 1936-c. 1964
2. Max Clarac-Sérou, Paris, c. 1964-1990
3. Patrick Derom, c. 1990-2005

Observations

Exhibitions

1. 1979, Paris, Galerie du Dragon, Objet surréaliste 1931-1937, 20/10/1979 - 20/12/1979, cat. no. 10
2. 2000, Paris, Musée du Louvre, D'après l'antique, 15/10/2000 - 15/01/2001, cat. no. 259
3. 2001, St. Petersburg, Florida, Salvador Dalí Museum, A Disarming Beauty: The Venus of Milo in 20th Century Art, 28/04/2001 - 09/09/2001, no reference
4. 2001, London, Tate Modern, Surrealism desire unbound, 20/09/2001 - 01/01/2002, no reference
5. 2002, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Surrealism desire unbound, 06/02/2002 - 12/05/2002, no reference
6. 2004, Venezia, Palazzo Grassi, Dalí, 12/09/2004 - 16/01/2005, cat. no. 156
7. 2005, Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dalí, 16/02/2005 - 15/05/2005, cat. no. 156

Bibliography

1. Robert Descharnes, The World of Salvador Dalí, Mcmillan, London, 1962, pp. 164-165, 222, ill.
2. Robert Descharnes, Dalí de Gala, Edita, Lausanne, 1962, pp. 164-165, 223, ill.
3. "Dalí presentará una gran exposición en Tokio", Voluntad, 08/05/1964, Gijón, p. 2
4. William S. Rubin, Dada and surrealist art, Harry N. Abrams, New York, [1968], p. 232
5. Robert Descharnes, Clovis Prévost, La Vision artistique et religieuse de Gaudí, Edita, Lausanne, 1969, p. [8]
6. Carlton Lake, In quest of Dali, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1969, pp. 72-74
7. G. A. Cevasco, Salvador Dalí : master of surrealism and modern art, SamHar, Charlotteville, 1971, p. 19
8. Salvador Dalí, André Parinaud, Comment on devient Dalí, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1973, pp. 79, 223, 358
9. Robert Descharnes, Salvador Dalí, Nouvelles Editions Françaises, Paris, 1973, p. [160], ill.
10. Robert Descharnes, Salvador Dalí, M. DuMont Schauberg, Köln, 1974, p. [160], ill.
11. Tadao Ogura, Robert Descharnes, Dali, Shueisha, Tokyo, 1974, pp. [51],108, fig. 38, ill.
12. Robert Descharnes, "Los Dalí del Museo Dalí", Gaceta Ilustrada, año XIX, nº 941, 20-26/10/1974, Madrid, p. 59
13. Le Surréalisme, XXe siècle, Paris, 1975, p. [63]
14. William S. Rubin, Art Dada et Surrealiste, Seghers, Paris, [1976], p. 249
15. William Wilson, "Art review: Fun and Games in La Jolla", Los Angeles Times, 30/05/1977, Los Angeles, CA, p. [G1], ill.
16. L'Objet Surréaliste 1931 - 1937, Galerie du Dragon, Paris, 1979, pp. [10-11], [30], ill.
17. Hommage à Dalí, Vilo, Paris, 1980, p. 140
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19. (Efe), "El escandalo de la «Expo-Dali»", Mujer, nº 46, 01/1980, Lima, p. 42, ill.
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35. D'après l'antique, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 2000, pp. 462-465, ill.
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38. Surrealism desire unbound, Tate Publishing, London, 2001, pp. 97, 329, ill.
39. Antoni Gaudí Salvador Dalí, Loft, Barcelona, 2002, p. 84, ill.
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56. The classical tradition, The Belknap Press of Hardvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2010, p. 962, fig. 163, ill.
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58. Michel Squire, The Art of the Body: Antiquity and Its Legacy, University Press, Oxford, New York, 2011, pp. 27-28, ill.
59. Marjorie Strider, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, 2011, p. 33, ill.
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63. Jane Munro, Silent Partners : Artist and Mannequin from Function to Fetish, Fitzwilliam Museum, Yale University Press, Cambridge, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. 210-211, ill.
64. Johannes Siapkas, Lena Sjögren, Displaying the Ideals of Antiquity: The Petrified Gaze, Routledge, New York, 2014, p. 138

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