Salvador Dali Signed "The Flowering of Inspiration - Gala en Fleurs" LE 1978 Lithograph on Arches Paper #331/350

Rare Lithograph has been hand-signed in pencil by Salvador Dali. Limited edition hand-numbered 331/350 on arches archival paper. From the Dali Retrospective Suite 1978.



Authenticated in the "Official Catalog of The Graphic Works of Salvador Dali" by Albert Field page . Current value of $12,000 is verified in the Bruce Hochman 2015 Dali Print Price Guide.



The flowering head motif first appears in Dalí's work in the early 1930s. His portrait of the Viscountess Marie-Laure de Noailles of 1932 depicts the beautiful young aristocrat with her head covered in colorful summer flowers and a rose emerging from her cheek. By 1934, flowers have covered the entire head of a lascivious woman in The Dream Placing a Hand on a Man's Shoulder, and in Woman with a Head of Roses of 1935 an anonymous draped female figure is placed in an empty receding space, her head blossoming into roses.



This theme culminated in a 1936 performance in collaboration with the artist Sheila Legge at the Burlington Galleries in London. Time magazine reported, "Highlight of the exhibition was artist Salvador Dali's living design, Phantom of Sex Appeal, for which artist Sheila Legge solemnly glided through the crowded, stuffy gallery in a tight white satin gown, her head in a wire cage covered with pink paper rosebuds" (quoted in "Art: Phantom," 29 June 1936). A photograph of Legge wearing her costume on Trafalgar Square was used for the cover of the Surrealist Bulletin in 1936 (fig. 1).



The present beautifully preserved watercolor similarly portrays a curvaceous phantom-like woman clothed in a loosely draped gown, her head replaced by a bouquet of bright blooms. The title of the work The Flowering of Inspiration or alternatively Gala en fleurs, reveals that the identity of this figure is the artist's wife and muse Gala.



A haunting silence pervades the picture that unlike in so many of Dalí's earlier paintings is not over-populated by images of the weird and the wonderful. The mystery of the watercolor is conveyed primarily by the still atmosphere and the spatial relationship between the metamorphosed figure and its environment. Franco Passoni remarked "With Dalí, perspective becomes spatiality; and in this dimension it acquires a psychological reference which therefore lies outside mathematical and Renaissance perspective. Whereas Leonardo insisted that painting is science, for Dalí on the contrary painting is an adventure into dream and can exist and represent itself only in this form" (quoted in "Dalí in the Third Dimension," Dalí Sculptor, Dalí Illustrator, exh. cat., The Stratton Foundation, Milan, 1989, p. 108).



Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was one of the main representatives of surrealism and ranks among the most famous artists of the 20th century.



The work of Salvador Dali (1904-1989) is associated with the surrealist movement of the 20th Century. A diverse and multi-talented artist, Dali is considered one of the most collected artists today, and his works offer an incredible opportunity for enormous appreciation in value. In addition to his original works, Dali produced works on paper for reproduction using dry point, etching, woodcut, and lithography. Many of his works are held in prestigious museums, private and public collections world-wide.



Medium

Lithograph on Paper

Dimensions

H:

22 15/16"

W:

17"

Year Produced

1978

Edition Size

350 Numbered (1 - 350) Arches

75 APs (1 - 75)

350 Numbered

each starting with "E" (E1 - E350)

75 EA's (EA1 - EA75)

125 Numbered

each starting with "G" (G1 - G75)

65 HC's (1HC - 65HC)

150 Numbered on Japon (1 - 150)

5 PP's (PP1 - PP5)

Due to the uniqueness of each item, please refer to the photos provided in this auction. We offer high resolution images of each item rather than a written description of condition.

This item is being shipped from the Pristine Auction warehouse.