Additional Images

Provenance:

Carstairs Gallery, New York from whom purchased by the present owner’s father, Ontario, circa 1954-1960;
By descent to the present Private Collection, Ontario

Literature:

Robert Descharnes, “Salvador Dali The work The Man”, Harry N. Abrams, N.Y., 1989, p. 323;
Carme Ruiz, “Salvador Dali and Science”, Dali Study Centre, Newspaper “El Punt”, October 18, 2000; “Salvador Dali I Domenech. Biography”, in Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali

Exhibited:

Carstairs Gallery, New York, in a large exhibition held, circa 1954 to 1960

Note:

In the 1950’s Dali began “corpuscular” painting, influenced by atomic theories. In 1954, the year this drawing was executed, Dali painted “Rhinocerotic Figure of Ilissos of Phidias” on which his obsession with the rhinoceros’ horn (constructed according to a perfect logarithmic spiral) was starting to manifest.

Dali moved to the United States in 1940 when the German troops entered Bordeaux. In New York, he exhibited at the Carstairs Gallery six times in: 1950; 1952; 1954; 1957; 1958 and 1960. He continued to exhibit his works in Europe during this time.

In 1954 (from March through to June), the year this drawing was executed, Dali had several important exhibitions in Rome, Venice and in Turin where he showed, among other mediums, 102 watercolours intended to illustrate Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. On the occasion of this exhibition, Dali “suddenly emerged from a ‘metaphysical bucket’, symbolizing his rebirth”.

Returning to New York, “he inaugurated a new exhibition at the Carstairs Gallery” from December 7, 1954 to January 31, 1955, to show the works painted during the course of the previous six months. Descharnes noted Dali considered 1954 “the most creative” period of his life.

Dali exhibited again at the Carstairs Gallery in a show that ran from December 4, 1956-January 5,1957 and in 1958. The present owner recalls being with her father at a “big exhibition” at the Carstairs Gallery. In the 1957 exhibition, Dali had completed 15 lithographs for “History of a Great Book - Don Quixote”, and a series of articles concerning the future for “Nugget” magazine. In the 1958 exhibition at the gallery, he published his “Anti-matter manifesto”.

This drawing was acquired from the Carstairs gallery in either the 1954 exhibition, the 1956/57 show, or the exhibitions held in 1958 or 1960.

The present owner and her father met Dali for drinks at the Drake Hotel during the exhibition and it has remained in this Private Collection, Ontario, Canada ever since.