An important limited edition bronze study of a standing woman with both realistic and surreal components. The bronze with excellent detail and rich golden brown patina depicting a young woman supported by crutches being engulfed by flames. Signed Dali numbered 42 / 350, with the 'Fonderia Artistica' foundry stamp. Note: this bronze has been authenticated by Bruce Hochman® ™ OS. See https://www.daligallery.com/authentication.
“Fire is a constant theme in the œuvre of Salvador Dalí: reminiscences of grilled sardines on a rosemary fire in the covers of the Cap de Creus and the summer of fires that burned the olive groves and oaks of the hills of Cadaquès. The flames of these fires were engraved in his memory. In the thirties, a small brushstroke sufficed to inflame these figures furnished with drawers, pianos, trombones, cypresses and a desert with flaming giraffes or elephants and rhinoceroses. The same flames and sparks that illuminate the night of March 19 – the Fallas of Valencia. The graceful Woman Aflame illustrates this unexpected application of flames to a human body supported by a crutch, provided with nine, half-opened drawers whose contents are filled with mystery.” (R. & N. Descharnes, Dalí, The Hard and the Soft, Spells for the Magic of Form, Sculptures and Objects, Azay-le-Rideau 2004, p. 255).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Height: 81 cm
Width: 30 cm
Depth: 48 cm
Circa: 1980
Condition: Excellent Original Condition
Materials: Bronze
Foundry: Fonderia Artistica, Pietrasana, Italy
Book Ref: 'The Hard and The Soft' by R and N Descharnes
Page No: 255
SKU: 9458
ABOUT
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech (born May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain; Died January 23, 1989) spent his life exploring the limits of the human spirit. Which was sometimes reflected on the screen in bizarre dream worlds.
As one of the main representatives of Surrealism, Salvador Dalí is one of the most famous painters of the 20th century. But the universal genius was also a gifted graphic artist, writer, stage designer and sculptor. The year was 1956, when Dalí completed a sculpture that expressed all his creative power. Dalí was probably inspired by another important artist - Albrecht Dürer. As is known, in 1515 he had made a woodcut depicting a rhinoceros only on the basis of a description, since he had never seen the unusual animal himself.
Although coming from two different eras, Dalí and Dürer would probably have gotten along well. After all, both artists went into great detail with their works. However, Dalí would not be Dalí if he had not added a crown to his work, with a wink and a slight twirl to the famous beard. In Dalí's case, however, the crown mutates into a sea urchin. By arranging the rhinoceros with a sea urchin, Dalí succeeds in elevating the object of representation to a new level. Salvador Dalí, who liked to describe his associative and dream worlds as a paranoiac-critical method, thus alienates Dürer's depiction of the animal in a surrealistic way. Dalí's rhinoceros sculpture was created in 1954 as a large-format unique piece. The artist never realized an edition of this sculpture throughout his life. Dalí would certainly have been pleased that the original has been on display in the Marbella marina since 2004.
For those who would like to have the famous rhinoceros a few sizes smaller in their home showcase, there is an opportunity. Robert Descharnes, owner of the exploitation rights to Dalí's sculptures, authorized the casting of the small sculpture "Rhinocéros" in 1997, which is aimed at collectors. In the famous art foundry Airaindor-Valsuani, about 30 kilometers south of Paris, these and other bronze sculptures by Dalí. The unique piece in the marina of Marbella, however, in its monumental size exerts its own charm on the viewer. Quite in the spirit of the eccentric artist.
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