Untitled. Automatic object
Cat. no. OE 12
Untitled. Automatic object
Description
- Author:
- Salvador Dalí i Domènech - Gyula Halász, alias Brassaï
- Date:
- ca. 1933
- Technique:
- Photograph and found object or object of automatic origin
Gelatin silver print - Dimensions:
- 23,6 x 17,7 cm
The dimensions correspond to the original print run of the photograph - Inscriptions:
- Letter from Salvador Dalí to Brassaï on the back
- Location:
- Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'art moderne - Centre de création industrielle, Paris
Between 1932-1933, Dalí took on the artistic direction of a series of photographs made with Gyula Halász, alias Brassaï (1899-1984), in which certain objects, probably of automatic origin, acquire a new conceptual and artistic dimension, grounded in the essence of the photographic image. Several of these photographs were published anonymously in 1933 in the magazine Minotaure, under the heading ‘Sculptures involontaires’, each with a descriptive title drawing attention to details of the work. A number of these photographs that were not made public at the time constitute further examples of this type of creation. This is the case of this photograph, conserved in the Centre de création industrielle at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, on the back of which there is a handwritten letter from Dalí to Brassaï with specific instructions concerning the creation of certain automatic objects.
Observations
The dimensions and inscriptions correspond to the original drawing of this photograph, which is conserved in the Centre de création industrielle de Paris.
Bibliography
- Brassaï, Centre Pompidou, Seuil, Paris, 2000, pp. 134, 317, ill., indirect image
- La Subversion des images : surrealisme, photographie, film, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009, pp. 347, 461, ill., indirect image
- Didier Ottinger, Dictionnaire de l'objet surréaliste, Gallimard, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2013, pp. [245], 246, [307], ill. (reversed image)
- Anna Dezeuze, Julia Kelly, Found sculpture and photography from surrealism to contemporary art, Ashgate, Farnham, UK, Burlington, VT, 2013, pp. 5-9, [13]-18, 30, 99-102
Related works
-
«Symmetrically» rolled-up bus ticket, forming a rare mechanism of automatism with evident germs of stereotypes
1932-1933
-
Ornamental Modern Style bread escapes the soft stereotype
1932-1933
-
Piece of soap presenting Modern Style automatic shapes, found in a washbasin
1932-1933
-
The morphological accident of the squeezed toothpaste does not escape the fine ornamental stereotype
1932-1933
-
Elementary rolling-up obtained from a «mental defective»
1932-1933
-
Rolled-up bus ticket, found in the pocket of an average bureaucrat (Crédit Lyonnais); the most frequent characteristics of «Modern Style»
1932-1933
-
The Envelope
ca. 1933
-
Untitled. Automatic object
ca. 1933
-
Piece of cotton wool instantly rolled up and abandoned (category of «aborted automatisms»)
ca. 1933
-
Shell
ca. 1933
Reproduction Rights
The copyright on Salvador Dalí's works, included those that are reproduced in this Web page, is held by the Spanish State and has been granted in exclusivity to the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí.
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