Posted on 02/08/2018 11:37:13 AM PST by nickcarraway
Two rediscovered Dalí paintings up for sale for first time
Two rediscovered masterpieces by Salvador Dalí will go under the hammer for the first time later this month.
Both works were sold directly to an Argentine noblewoman, the Countess de Cuevas de Vera by the artist in the 1930s and have remained in the family’s private collection ever since.
But now the pair are to be sold at auction by London’s Sotheby’s in the Surrealist Art Evening Sale on February 28th.
Tota Cueva de Vera on the porch of her home. Photo: John Phillips / Sotheby's
The Countess, known to all as Tota, divided her time between Argentina and Europe became a great friend and patron to the artists of the day including Dali, Picasso, Cocteau, Giacometti, Max Ernst, Le Corbusier, Man Ray as well as the Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel.
The two artworks that are offered on sale are characteristic of Dalís early Surrealist style.
“Painted in 1931, Gradiva is a jewel-like composition that unites Dalí’s unique painterly vision with the technical virtuosity characteristic of his early Surrealist art,” explains the Sotherby’s catalogue.
“Maison pour érotomane (circa 1932) also dates from the height of Dalí’s Surrealism and depicts a Catalan landscape, its rocks metamorphosing in front of the view’s eyes into a fantastical, dream-like image, dominated by two entities.
“The one on the left appears to be a horse rising from the ground, its extremities seeming to transform into a cello and a car. Two spear-like shapes penetrate the form on the right, which in turn appears to be an intangible, yet somewhat anthropomorphic rock. It was such hallucinatory compositions, giving a visual manifestation to the realm of the subconscious, that so impressed Sigmund Freud, who first met the artist in 1939.”
Both have an estimated guide price of £1,200,000-1,800,000.
I flew to FL to see the opening of that museum. It was fantastic. Great adventure.
Persistence of Time
Persistence of Memory
I believe I have seen everything Dali has done.
Looks like the real deal to me.
If that was fake, the faker would be more famous than Dali.
Nope. Real.
I went through the museum alone at first....then hooked up with one of the regular comprehensive tours that go on during the day with commentary by an expert docent....and I'm glad I went through the rooms again.
Dali's humor is evident in several "fool the eye" paintings he did...and they DO fool the eye! Some of his famous paintings are almost a story high !
The guide's narrative added SO much to the experience as to be unbelievable. You begin to understand the man and his art.
Because conventional wisdom is that Dali was "weird" and his art is "weird", neophytes tend to believe this misdirection . It's NOT so!!!
Please don't miss ANY chance to get to this museum if you live in or visit Florida. See for yourself.
It was several years ago I saw the multitude of his original and incredible art work. I can't wait to go back again to study and enjoy it even more.
Leni
Apparently the museum in St. Pete had a change of location in 2011. Haven’t been to the new building. The original opened on March 7, 1982.
Leni
“I never knew Argentina had an aristocracy. Must make them unique in Latin America as most are democracies without any hereditary nobility or royalty...”
Good question. I looked it up. She married a a Spanish Count, Carlos Caro y Potestad, I Conde de Cuevas de Vera.
Many people speculate that Dali may have done some drugs but there is no proof that he ever did. These quotes have been attributed to him...
"I don't do drugs, I am drugs."
"Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic."
“Everyone should eat hashish, but only once.”
Salvador Dali painting The Face of War, 1941
Barf. You couldn’t pay me to hang that in my house.
Picasso has said there is no image in art more powerful than the crucifixion.
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I'll drink to that!
Leni
I bought a poster of it in the '70s. Still have it somewhere.
This is one of my favorite Dali paintings...
The Hallucinogenic Toreador
It's huge, 157 in × 118 in. Saw that at the St. Pete Museum in 1982.
Picasso once wrote a good painting occurs when the artist knows when to stop painting.
He was told he was signing blank lithographs.......but there’s so much money to be made on his name, and so many shysters in the art world, there are questions about some of the paintings that showed up after his death.
Has anyone checked to see if these two paintings are not just broken clocks? :^)
Just sat down after work.
Snow day tomorrow.
Drink in hand.
“Cheers!”
The fish
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