Glossary

The definitions in this glossary are based on authoritative dictionaries, thesauruses and works of reference such as the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms^[1] and the Art & Architecture Thesaurus of the Getty Research Institute.^[2] Some terms have been complemented with material from contemporaneous sources such as the 1938 Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme,^[3] and with excerpts from those of Dalí's writings that have a bearing on the sculptural work, which were especially significant during the 1930s. Consideration has also been given to the retrospective references to some of the sculptural works in the artist's autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, published in 1942.^[4] At the same time, it should be borne in mind that a number of terms are specific to Dalí and his work: in other words, they relate to original creations by the artist, and as such their definition is based exclusively on Dalí's testimony.

1. A

   Assemblage

   A type of three-dimensional artwork based on the combination of different materials or objects, generally found objects or non-traditional art elements, often in conjunction with elements painted, carved or moulded by the artist. The term is usually applied to certain works created by Jean Dubuffet in 1953.

   Automatic object

   This is the term used in certain documents in which reference is made to the involuntary sculptures published in the magazine Minotaure^[5] in 1933, created by Dalí and Brassaï, and to others that although unpublished probably belonged to the same series.

   Automatic sculpture

   In the article ‘The Object as Revealed in Surrealist Experiment’, published in 1932, Dalí defines automatic sculpture in the following terms: ‘At every meeting for polemics or experiment, let every person be supplied with a fixed quantity of malleable material to be dealt with automatically. The shapes thus made, together with each maker's notes (of the time and conditions of production), are later collected and analyzed.’^[6]

2. E

   Ephemeral installation

   An installation whose existence is limited to a specific period of time, on account of the transient nature of the materials used or the decision of the artist or the exhibition space.

   Ephemeral object-sculpture

   Dalí successively modified and transformed a number of his own object-sculptures, thereby generating unique original versions of an ephemeral nature, each of which had a limited life, because it ceased to exist when it was succeeded by a new version.

3. F

   Found object

   From the French objet trouvé, the term is used of an object found by an artist and presented as an artwork (or as part of one) by virtue of its aesthetic qualities. Such objects may be manufactured or of natural origin and be shown either without any alterations or slight modified by the artist. The practice is closely associated with a number of Dadaist and Surrealist artists.

4. I

   Installation

   An art assemblage or other creative work in which the space occupied by all of the constituent parts is integral to the overall design. While the first installations date from the early years of the 20th century, the genre became especially prominent in the 1970s. Installations, designed both for interior and exterior spaces, often require the physical presence and active involvement of the viewer.

   Involuntary sculpture

   This term corresponds to a new category of sculptural work in Dalí's œuvre, in which certain found or automatic objects were photographed according to specific artistic criteria. In 1933 Dalí took on the artistic direction of a series of photographs by Brassaï, in which the sculptural creation is endowed with a new conceptual and artistic dimension grounded in the essence of the photographic image. These pictures were published that same year in the magazine Minotaure,^[7] with descriptive titles - probably given to them by Dalí - to facilitate an understanding of the composition. It has not yet been established whether these creations were exhibited or were considered to be works in their own right, beyond photography.

5. M

   Manipulated object

   Three-dimensional works of this kind are characteristic of Dalí's output and are distinguished by being an intervention in an object or work created by another artist. This practice, which may involve a variety of different techniques, is usually identified with pictorial interventions or the assemblage of other objects.

   Manipulated sculpture

   Three-dimensional work characteristic of Dalí's output, in which he intervened a sculpture by another artist. This practice, which may involve a variety of different techniques, is usually identified with pictorial interventions or the assemblage of other objects.

6. O

   Object

   The term is generally applied to an object produced, modified and used by human agency, in contrast to a product of nature, usually movable and created to perform a specific function.

   Object functioning symbolically

   This new type of surrealist object, first created by Dalí in 1931, is distinguished by its origin and its automatic operation. As defined by Dalí, such objects are ‘based on phantasies and representations likely to be provoked by the realization of unconscious acts’^[8], and their origin can also be related to the contemporaneoous Suspended Ball, by Alberto Giacometti. This category also gives rise to the name of the first surrealist object created by Dalí, which he presented in Le surréalisme au service de la révolution, along with objects by Alberto Giacometti, Valentine Hugo, André Breton and Gala Éluard.

   Object-sculpture

   Three-dimensional artwork based on the combination of different materials or objects, generally found objects or non-traditional art elements, often in conjunction with elements painted, carved or moulded by the artist.

7. R

   Readymade

   According to Marcel Duchamp, a readymade is an everyday object elevated to the status of art simply by being chosen by the artist. On this basis it can be identified as a mass-produced utility object, which the artist places in an artistic context and in so doing transforms into a work of art. According to Duchamp, the selection of these objects is based on a reaction of visual indifference, with at the same time a total absence of good or bad taste.

8. S

   Sculpture

   A three-dimensional artwork in which forms and images are reproduced in relief, etching or high relief. The term refers especially to works of art created by carving or etching a hard material, by modelling or casting a malleable material (which usually then sets hard) or by grouping pieces to create a three-dimensional object. The term tends to be applied to large- and medium-sized objects made of stone, wood, bronze and other metals. For smaller objects, the term ‘carving’ or other appropriate designation is generally used. ‘Sculpture’ refers both to works that represent tangible beings, objects or groups of objects and to abstract works with defined and measurable boundaries.

   Sculpture in the round

   sculpture in which the forms are carved or modelled in full in three dimensions rather than being modelled or carved in relief on a plane surface.

   Surrealist object

   According to The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí: ‘The surrealist object is one that is absolutely useless from the practical and rational point of view, created wholly for the purpose of materializing in a fetishistic way, with the maximum of tangible reality, ideas and fantasies having a delirious character.’^[9] The origin of these creations can be linked to the readymades produced by Marcel Duchamp from 1914 and to the dream object proposed by André Breton in 1924. In 1931, in an article in Le surréalisme au service de la révolution,^[10] Dalí established a new system for classifying surrealistic objects in six categories: objects functioning symbolically, transubstantiated objects, objects to be thrown, wrapped objects, object-machines and objects-mouldings.

9. T

   Thinking machine

   Dalí distinguishes this category from other surrealist objects in his 1936 article ‘Honneur à l'objet !’^[11], in which he included The Aphrodisiac Jacket in the category of ‘thinking machines’. A little later, in an article published in Art Front in 1937, Dalí refers to a previous creation that identifies with the same category: ‘In 1932, during a seance of surrealist experiment I described a complicated project for a surrealist object to be called a "thinking machine", for which several hundred small goblets would be required, filled with warm milk and hung so as to conform with the structure of a large rocking chair.’^[12]

1. Michael Clarke, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, Oxford University Press, New York, 2001.
2. Art & Architecture Thesaurus of the The Getty Research Institute. Publ.: http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat [Date accessed: 05/09/2018].
3. André Breton, Paul Éluard, Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme, Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1938.
4. Salvador Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, Dial Press, New York, 1942.
5. [Salvador Dalí], ‘Sculptures involontaires’, Minotaure, num. 3-4, 12/1933, Paris, p. [68].
6. Salvador Dalí, ‘The Object as Revealed in Surrealist Experiment’, This Quarter, vol. 5, no. 1, 09/1932, London, p. 203.
7. [Salvador Dalí], ‘Sculptures involontaires’, op.cit., p. [68].
8. Translated from Salvador Dalí, ‘Objets surréalistes’, Le surréalisme au service de la révolution, num. 3, 12/1931, Paris, p. 16.
9. Salvador Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, op. cit., p. 312.
10. Salvador Dalí, ‘Objets surréalistes’, op. cit., p. 16-17, [sheets 5-6]
11. Salvador Dalí, ‘Honneur à l'objet !’, Cahiers d'art, num. 1-2, 05/1936, Paris, p. 53-[59].
12. Salvador Dalí, ‘I defy Aragon’, Art Front, no. 21, 03/1937, New York, p. 7.