Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989) The Annunciation

Description:

Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989)

The Annunciation
Signed and dated "Dali 1954" l.c.
Ink, graphite, and watercolor on STEE-VEE illustration board, sight size 30 x 44 in. (76.2 x 111.8 cm),framed.
Condition: Subtle toning, small crease to l.l. corner.

Provenance: From the collection of Louis Albert McMillen.

N.B. The present work is characteristic of Dali's artistic vision of the 1950s which he called 'Nuclear Mysticism.' This concept integrated Dali's interpretation of quantum mechanics with Old Master craftsmanship to create a new kind of spiritual art-making and viewing experience.

In 1951, Dali published his 'Mystical Manifesto' where he affirmed, in ecstatic prose, his belief that through Renaissance pictorial organization and subject matter an artist can express the immaterial 'soul' of painting. Dali writes, '…with the unity of the universe having been confirmed, clear as the aesthetic of Luca Paccioli or Vitruvius…it being observed that, every quarter of an hour and of a second, matter is in constant and accelerated process of dematerialization, of disintegration, slipping out of the hands of scientists and thus proving to us the spirituality of all substance, for the physical light of Dali's Paranoiac-Critical Activity, this too, is 'wave and corpuscle' at one and the same time.' (1) In the present work, matter and anti-matter is represented in the forms of Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, where the former is in the process of dematerializing (transforming from mortal to divine) and the latter as already dematerialized.


Nicolas Descharnes has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work, and a certificate from Mr. Descharnes accompanies the lot.

(1) Finkelstein, Haim, ed. The Collected Writings of Salvador Dali. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pg. 356.


Estimate $40,000-50,000

Crease to l.l. corner approx. 1/2 x 1/2 in.

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