76. Venus à la girafe

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76. Venus à la girafe

Salvador Dalí

1904, Figueras, Spania - 1989, Figueras, Spania

Estimate:

EUR 2.500 - 4.500

Sold

EUR 2.750

References

SOBY, James Thrall, "Salvador Dali", The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1941.

bronze, 57 x 9 x 26 cm, signed on the side of the base, "Dali"; numbered and mention of the foundry, on the base, "Fusa dalla Venturi Arte Bologna-Italia, 423/1500"

Salvador Dali, one of the most avid promoters of the Surrealist movement in art, was deeply influenced by Sigmund Freud's theories on the latent manifestation of dreams. He took up his concepts in many of his works and gradually transposed them into paintings, sculptures or movies. The fluidity of genres and of addressed technique will bring Dali in the proximity a long promoted theme in art: divinity. The revisiting of classical art and its transposition into contemporary art will be produced, however, through the surrealist means at the artist's disposal. In 1936, Dali completed his "Venus de Milo with Drawers", which was intended to be a reinterpretation of the original work in the Louvre. This creation represented an act of revolution of consciousness, by transforming the ancient goddess of love and beauty into an anthropomorphic piece of furniture. The artist declares, in an interview, that the drawers facilitate the possibility to penetrate inside the body of the goddess, to her soul. Dali will continue the motif in 1973 as well, the year in which he finishes the concept of this work. It was a limited edition creation - of 1500 copies - by the Venuri Arte Bologna foundry. In this work, the artist separates the head from the body through a deliberate artifice: The replacement of the goddess's neck with an intensely elongated giraffe one. The 1973 version, like the one in 1936, receives a drawer designed to reveal the inner content of the being with divine origins. Paradoxically, the juxtaposition of the animal motif with the deity helps to create an unexpected harmony and an undeniable balance.

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