Clot Collection, ‘Persee,’ edition of 350. Fairhead Fine Art image.
Five of the sculptures featured – Homage to Marcel Duchamp, Carmen Castanets, Le Triton Aile, La Madonne de Port Lligat and Persee – belong to a collection accumulated in the 1960s and ’70s and known as the Clot Collection after Isidro Clot, a Spanish art lover and friend of the artist who commissioned them from Dali in that period.
Dali modeled each of these sculptures directly in wax at his house in Port Lligat in Spain. Molds of the original works that had sprung from his fingertips were then produced using the lost-wax process. This process is widely acknowledged to produce the very finest casts. There is no better way of obtaining a better bronze, and Dali, like the Greeks before him, was well aware of this. Perfectionist that he was, he requested that, in accordance with his wishes, these sculptures always be cast in this manner, and then polished by the best foundry’s in Italy, France and Spain, with whom he had worked for many years.
The most extraordinary one in the auction, however, is undoubtedly Mother Earth, or Cybele. She has 18 breasts and a drawer in her forehead. This bronze tour de force stands 15 inches tall on a marble base. The bizarre and beautiful lady is imbued with all the traditional Dali mysticism. She does indeed have 18 breasts and a drawer in her forehead. And melting on her right shoulder is the famed Dali clock. Signed in the bronze, the limited edition of 100 is offered to serious collectors at a starting price of $6,000.
All bronze sculptures come with publisher’s certificate of authenticity and are fully guaranteed and documented.
SONG of SONGS of SOLOMON
Two of the copper plates that were used to produce the etchings for the portfolio Song of Songs are featured in this sale. The suite was published in 1971 and consisted of 12 etchings with stencil and gilding, limited to 320 numbered examples, all signed by Dali. It was published by Amiel. Both plates have been authenticated by Frank Hunter and are sold framed alongside the signed etchings.
AFTER 50 YEARS OF SURREALISM: PRESTEL 665-676
In 1974 Salvador Dali created a portfolio of 12 drypoints entitled After 50 Years of Surrealism” to celebrate the opening of the Gala-Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueras. All but one are included in this sale.
This portfolio serves as a documentation of important moments and events in the artist’s life, and can furthermore be seen as homage to Andre Bretón’s Surrealist Manifesto, written 50 years earlier in 1924. Bretón’s manifesto proposed a radical and systematic revision of received values, and a revaluation of the unconscious as a source of all artistic inspiration. In 1924, Dali had already dedicated his attention to Italian artists Giorgio De Chirico and Carlo Carra’s Metaphysical School, which rejected Futurism and Cubism and proposed a return to the world of dreams and inner life. Thus, embracement of Bretón’s manifesto was a natural extension of ideas that Dali had already begun to explore. The 12 hand-colored etchings that compose After 50 Years of Surrealism display personal events in Dali’s own life, and at the same time acknowledge his reverence for the ideals made popular by Bretón, and are appropriately illustrated in the surrealist style that Dali’s work so famously exemplifies.
All works are guaranteed as described and fully documented with catalogue raisoné references and authenticity certificates.
For additional information about the auction, call Niall Fairhead at +442084552700 or email nfairhead@images-art.co.uk .
View the fully illustrated catalog and sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Clot Collection, ‘Persee,’ edition of 350. Fairhead Fine Art image. ‘Cybele’ (Mother Earth), edition of 100. Fairhead Fine Art image. ‘The Voice of My Beloved,’ Galvano etching plate, 1971. Fairhead Fine Art image. ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,’ Galvano etching plate, 1971. Fairhead Fine Art image. ‘After 50 Years of Surrealism,’ The Museum of Genius & Fancy, Prestel 676. Fairhead Fine Art image.
