Dalí i Domènech, Salvador
The Spectre of Sex-Appeal
- Date
- c. 1934
- Technique
- Oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 17,9 x 13,9 cm
- Location
- Dalí Theatre-Museum
Dalí exhibited this oil painting in 1934, in the jacques Bonjean Gallery in Paris, and later in the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and introduces this fragment of text in both catalogues: " Instant photo in colours at hand subconscious, surrealist, extravagant, paranoiac, hypnagogic, extra-pictorial, phenomenal, superabundant, super-fine images, etc...of concrete irrationality...". On the right-hand side, we see Dalí as a child, dressed as a sailor, looking at an enormous monster, soft and hard at the same time, which for the artist symbolised sexuality, all of it framed by a hyper-realist Cap de Creus. This work is the concrete definition of a difficult-to-perceive feeling: the monster of sexuality, as precise as the landscape of his childhood, the rocks of Cap de Creus. We should emphasise the imposing presence of the crutches, to Dalí a symbol of death and resurrection.
© Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2014.
Copyright notice
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The Spectre of Sex-Appeal
