Description

Date:

1936

Technique:

Assemblage
Cardboard box, stone, polychrome clay, glass, alpaca, leather, chocolate, aluminium foil, matchbox and plaster of Paris

Dimensions:

31 x 60 x 11 cm

Inscriptions:

On the back of a sheet of cardboard: DALI

Location:

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

This is the current state of the Surrealist object shown by Dalí in the Exposition surréaliste d’objets at the Galerie Charles Ratton in Paris in 1936. Although it is not mentioned in the catalogue of the exhibition, it appears in some of the photographs of the show, specifically in the interior of one of the display cabinets. At the end of 1936, Dalí illustrates his article ‘Honneur à l’objet’, published in Cahiers d’Art, with a picture of this work, but without giving the title. In fact, the title of this Surrealist object was unknown until 1968, when it was listed as A Tray of Objects in the catalogue of the exhibition Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage held at MoMA in New York. The object shown at MoMA conserved only six elements of the original work: an erotic group, a paperweight, a stone foot, gloves covered with aluminium foil, a plaster foot and a book of matches. It is very likely that the other original elements had been lost, and that some of these, such as the shoe, were replaced.

Provenance

1. Charles Ratton, Paris, ?-1968
2. Berggruen & cie., Paris, ?-1990

Observations

Exhibitions

1. 1936, Paris, Charles Ratton, Exposition Surréaliste d'Objets, 22/05/1936 - 29/05/1936, not included in catalogue
2. 1968, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Dada, surrealism, and their heritage, 27/03/1968 - 09/06/1968, cat. no. 66
3. 1968, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dada, surrealism, and their heritage, 16/07/1968 - 08/09/1968, cat. no. 66
4. 1968, Chicago, The Arts Institute of Chicago, Dada, surrealism, and their heritage, 19/10/1968 - 08/12/1968, cat. no. 66
5. 1978, London, Hayward Gallery, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, 11/01/1978 - 27/03/1978, cat. no. 12.40
6. 1979, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Salvador Dalí: rétrospective, 1920-1980, 18/12/1979 - 21/04/1980, cat. no. 165
7. 1994, Bonn, Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ¿Buñuel!, Auge des jahrhunderts, 04/02/1994 - 24/04/1994, no reference
8. 1995, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Exposición de obras pertenecientes a la dación familia Elosúa de Juan, 26/09/1995 - 10/10/1995, no reference
9. 1996, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, ¿Buñuel!, la mirada del siglo, 16/07/1996 - 14/10/1996, no reference
10. 2002, París, Centre Pompidou, La Révolution surréaliste, 06/03/2002 - 24/06/2002, no reference
11. 2002, Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Surrealismus 1914 - 1944 : Dalí, Max Ernst, Magritte, Miró, Picasso..., 20/07/2002 - 24/11/2002, no reference
12. 2004, Barcelona, CaixaForum, Dalí. Cultura de masses, 05/02/2004 - 23/05/2004, cat. no. 243
13. 2004, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Dalí. Cultura de masas, 15/06/2004 - 30/08/2004, cat. no. 243
14. 2004, St. Petersburg (Florida), Salvador Dalí Museum, Dalí. Mass Culture, 01/08/2004 - 30/01/2005, cat. no. 243
15. 2005, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, It's all Dali, 05/03/2005 - 12/06/2005, no reference
16. 2007, Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, L'objecte català a la llum del surrealisme, 26/10/2007 - 13/01/2018, cat. no. 9
17. 2012, Paris, Centre Pompidou, Dalí, 21/11/2012 - 25/03/2013, no reference
18. 2013, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Dalí. Todas las sugestiones poéticas y todas las posibilidades plásticas, 27/04/2013 - 02/09/2013, no reference
19. 2013, Paris, Centre Pompidou, Le surréalisme et l'objet, 30/10/2013 - 03/03/2014, no reference

Bibliography

1. Salvador Dalí, "Honneur à l'objet!", Cahiers d'art, 11ème année, num. 1-2, 31/05/1936, Paris, p. [59], ill. (first state)
2. Juan-Eduardo Cirlot, El Mundo del objeto, Producciones Editoriales del Nordeste, Barcelona, 1953, p. 61, ill. (first state)
3. William S. Rubin, Dada, surrealism, and their heritage, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968, pp. 143-144, 232, ill. (first state)
4. William S. Rubin, Dada and surrealist art, Harry N. Abrams, New York, [1968], p. [234], fig. 204, ill. (first state)
5. Robert Stuart Short, Roger Cardinal, Surrealism : permanent revelation, Studio Vista, London, 1970, pp. [76-77], ill. (first state)
6. William S. Rubin, Art Dada et Surrealiste, Seghers, Paris, [1976], pp. [234], 477, ill. (first state)
7. Improbable Furniture, Institute of Contemporany Art, Philadelphia, 1977, p. 13
8. Dawn Ades, Dada and surrealism reviewed, Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1978, pp. 301, 322, ill., indirect image (first state)
9. Salvador Dalí: rétrospective, 1920-1980, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art moderne, Paris, 1979, p. 228, ill. (first state)
10. Salvador Dalí: retrospektive, 1920-1980, Prestel, München, 1980, p. 228, ill. (first state)
11. Gaëtan Picon, Diario del surrealismo, Skira, Destino, Genève, [Barcelona], 1981, pp. 154, 209, ill. (first state)
12. Dawn Ades, Dalí and surrealism, Harper & Row, New York, 1982, pp. 163, 213, ill. (first state)
13. Dawn Ades, Dalí, Thames and Hudson, London, 1982, pp. 163, 213, ill. (first state)
14. Gaëtan Picon, Le Surréalisme : 1919 - 1939, Skira, Genève, 1983, pp. 154, 193, ill. (first state)
15. Juan-Eduardo Cirlot, El Mundo del objeto a la luz del surrealismo, Anthropos, Barcelona, 1986, p. 83, ill. (first state)
16. Salvador Dalí, Rafael Santos Torroella, Salvador Dalí corresponsal de J.V. Foix, 1932-1936, Mediterrània, Barcelona, 1986, p. [49], ill. (first state)
17. Gaëtan Picon, Der Surrealismus : 1919 - 1939, Skira, Wasmuth, Genève, Tübingen, 1988, pp. 154, 201, ill. (first state)
18. ¿Buñuel!, Auge des Jahrhunderts, Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, 1994, pp. 501, 503, ill. (first state)
19. ¿Buñuel!, la mirada del siglo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Madrid, México, Distrito Federal, 1996, pp. 389, 392-393, ill. (first state)
20. Haim Finkelstein, Salvador Dalí's art and writing, 1927-1942 : the metamorphoses of Narcissus, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, p. 294
21. Gérard Durozoi, Histoire du mouvement surréaliste, Hazan, Paris, 1997, pp. 229, 231, ill. (present state)
22. La Révolution surréaliste, Éditions du Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2002, pp. 275, 433, ill. (present state)
23. Gérard Durozoi, History of the surrealist movement, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London, 2002, pp. [225], 229, ill. (present state)
24. Surrealismus 1914 - 1944 : Dalí, Max Ernst, Magritte, Miró, Picasso..., K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hatje Cantz, Düsseldorf, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2002, pp. 285, 455, ill. (present state)
25. Joan R. Kropf, Dalí objects / Dalí fetishes, Salvador Dalí Museum, Florida, 2002, p. 13, ill. (first state)
26. El Surrealismo y sus imágenes, Fundación Cultural Mapfre Vida, [Madrid], 2002, p. 201, ill. (first state)
27. Celia Rabinovitch, Surrealism and the sacred : power, Eros, and the occult in modern art, Westview Press, Cambridge, 2002, p. 187
28. Robert Descharnes, Nicolas Descharnes, Dalí : le dur et le mou : sortilège et magie des formes, sculptures et objets, Eccart, [Azay le Rideau], 2003, p. 30, ill. (first state)
29. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Arte para un siglo : Vanguardias, 1925-1939, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2003, pp. 74-75, ill. (present state)
30. Dalí. Cultura de masses, Fundació La Caixa, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Barcelona, Figueres, 2004, pp. 144, 274, ill. (present state)
31. Dalí. Mass Culture, Fundació La Caixa, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Barcelona, Figueres, 2004, pp. 144, 274, ill. (present state)
32. Dalí. Cultura de masas, Fundación La Caixa, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Barcelona, Figueres, 2004, pp. 144, 274, ill. (present state)
33. It's all Dalí, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2005, p. 231, ill. (present state)
34. Salvador Dalí, Obra completa : Assaigs 1, Destino, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Barcelona, [Figueres], 2005, p. 443, ill., indirect image (first state)
35. Emmanuel Guigon, L'Objet surréaliste, Jean-Michel Place, Paris, 2005, p. 156, ill. (first state)
36. L'Objecte català a la llum del surrealisme, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2007, pp. 60, 64, 67, 131, 137, ill. (first and present state)
37. Carmen Fernández Aparicio, Adelina Moya, Josefina Alix, Forma, signo y realidad: escultura española 1900-1935 = Forma, zeinua eta errealitatea: espainiar eskultura 1900-1935, Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza = Jorge Oteiza Fundazio Museoa, Alzuza, 2010, p. 82, ill. (present state)
38. William Jeffett, Dalí doubled : from surrealism to the self : a new critical view of Dalí, The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, 2010, pp. 93, 316, ill. (first and present state)
39. Surrealism in Paris, Hatje Kantz, Basilea, 2011, pp. 90, [96], ill., indirect image, detail (first state)
40. Surreal objects : three-dimensional works from Dalí to Man Ray, Hatje Cantz, Schirn Kunsthalle, Ostfildern, Frankfurt, 2011, pp. 166, 172, ill., indirect image (first and present state)
41. Dalí, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2012, pp. 191, 369, ill. (present state)
42. Dalí : Todas las sugestiones poéticas y todas las posibilidades plásticas, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, TF Editores, Madrid, 2013, pp. 191, 370, ill. (present state)
43. Didier Ottinger, Dictionnaire de l'objet surréaliste, Gallimard, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2013, pp. 77, 79, 308, ill., indirect image, detail (first state)
44. William Jeffett, Juan José Lahuerta, Picasso-Dalí, Dalí-Picasso, Museu Picasso, Salvador Dalí Museum, Barcelona, Sant Petersburg, 2014, p. 219, ill., indirect image, detail (first state)
45. Dalí / Duchamp, Royal Academy of Arts, The Dalí Museum, London, St. Petersburg, FL, 2017, pp. 30-31, ill., indirect image, detail (first state)

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