The Dali Legacy

Jean-Pierre Isbouts, Christopher Heath Brown

Description

Traditional and digital media: print and online features, reviews, author op-eds and Q&As, and blog tour. Unique exploration of beloved artist with new hooks to attract attention in mainstream media covering art, such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal arts sections and the New Yorker, as well as art specific media such as ArtNews, the International Arts Magazine, and Aesthetica, and regional media around author residences in West Coast (especially CA) and in the southeast (especial NC).Online promotion: Authors will heavily promote the book on the Dalí Facebook page they helm with nearly 6 million followers, and host readings and Q&As with online art groups, libraries, and independent bookstores.

Targeted digital advertising with SEO keywords on sites like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Instagram with a focus toward art, Salvador Dalí, modern art, and more.

In-person signings: Authors will be available for readings and signings at bookstores and libraries in California and North Carolina.

Curriculum tie-ins: Book will be pitched to art history professors and teachers for required or supplementary reading at colleges and universities, and high schools.

This immersive dive into the life and work of Salvador Dalí unlocks the secret of this creative genius and reveals for the first time how his erotically charged paintings changed the world of modern art.

In turns beloved and reviled, twentieth century art, painter, filmmaker, and designer Salvador Dalí set Europe and the United States ablaze with his uncompromising genius, sexual sadism, and flirtations with megalomania. His shocking behavior and work frequently alienated critics; his views were so outrageous, even prominent Surrealists tried to ostracize him. Still, every morning he experienced “an exquisite joy—the joy of being Salvador Dalí,” and, through a remarkable talent that invited bewilderment, anger, and adoration, rose to unprecedented levels of fame—forever shifting the landscape of the art world and the nature of celebrity itself.

In this stunning volume, rich with more than 150 full-color images, noted art historians Jean-Pierre Isbouts and Christopher Heath Brown discuss the historical, social, and political conditions that shaped Dalí's work, identify the impact of Modern as well as Old Master art, and present an unflinching view of the master's personal relationships and motivations. With their deeply compelling narrative, Isbouts and Brown uncover how Dalí's visual wit and enduring cult of personality still impacts fashion, literature, and art, from Andy Warhol to Lady Gaga, and seeks to answer why, in an age of shock and awe, Dalí's art still manages to distress, perplex, and entertain.

Foreword

• Introduction


• 1. Beginnings


• 2. The Early Years: 1922–1926


• 3. The Years in the Wilderness: 1926–1929


• 4. The Persistence of Memory: 1929–1934


• 5. New Horizons: 1934–1945


• 6. The Atomic Era: 1945–1955


• 7. The Mystic Universe: 1955–1960


• 8. A Return to the Past: 1960–1968


• 9. The Later Years: 1968–1989


• 10. Epilogue

Timeline

Further reading

Endnotes

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des arts visuels
• Europe
• ART
• History
• Architect
• Artist
• List of photographers
• Architects
• Modern
• Artists
• Photographers

Informations

• Publié par: Apollo Publishers
• Date de parution: 23 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781948062671
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

How an Eccentric Genius Changed the Art World and Created a Lasting Legacy

Christopher Heath Brown and Jean-Pierre Isbouts



The Dalí Legacy: How an Eccentric Genius Changed the Art World and Created a Lasting Legacy
Copyright © 2021 by Christopher Heath Brown and Jean-Pierre Isbouts
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be sent by email to Apollo Publishers at [e-mail]
Apollo Publishers books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Special editions may be made available upon request. For details, contact Apollo Publishers at [e-mail].
Visit our website at www.apollopublishers.com.
Published in compliance with California’s Proposition 65.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020935787
Print ISBN: 978-1-948062-66-4
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-948062-67-1
Printed in the United States of America.


Dedicated to the memory of Michael Schwartz—a dear friend, extraordinary art dealer, and connoisseur of Dalí and Modern Art.




Fig. 1. Peter Basch, Salvador Dalí in Front of Saks Fifth Avenue, 1965


Contents
Foreword by Frank Hunter, director of the Salvador Dalí Archives
Introduction
1. Beginnings
2. The Early Years: 1922–1926
3. The Years in the Wilderness: 1926–1929
4. The Persistence of Memory: 1929–1934
5. New Horizons: 1934–1945
6. The Atomic Era: 1945–1955
7. The Mystic Universe: 1955–1960
8. A Return to the Past: 1960–1968
9. The Later Years: 1968–1989
Epilogue
Essays:
A New Interpretation of The Persistence of Memory
Illusion and Meaning in Dalí’s The Skull of Zurbarán
Timeline of the Life and Art of Salvador Dalí
Further Reading
Credits




Foreword
by Frank Hunter, director of the Salvador Dalí Archives
I n 2016 I received a telephone call from Dr. Christopher Brown, inquiring about prints by Salvador Dalí, especially early ones. He related how numerous people had told him that I was the Dalí print expert. “Well,” I said, “I suppose that’s not far from the truth. After all, I did publish a print with Dalí; I did work on The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dal í (Salvador Dalí Archives, New York, 1996); and I am currently the director of the Salvador Dalí Archives.”
The print I made reference to came about purely by happen stance. In 1974 I happened upon a small book titled La Vita Nuova (c. 1294) by Dante Alighieri. Paging through it, with original poems and sonnets on one page, and English translations on the opposite page, I was struck by the imagery portrayed in one particular sonnet, whose lines begin “ A ciascun’ alma presa e gentil core . . . ” (To every captive soul and loving heart . . .). With this sonnet, Dante relates a dream in which the personification of Love appears, holding B eatrice, Dante’s obsessive love object, on one arm and on the other, Dante’s burning heart, which Love feeds to Beatrice. Incredible, I thought; Dante was a proto-surrealist!
A short time later, I took the sonnet to Dalí’s weekly Sunday salon at New York’s S t. Regis Hotel. I first met Dalí here in 1969, introduced by my friend, mentor, and Dalí’s official archivist, A lbert Field. My intention was to see if Dalí would agree with my plan to create an original etching based on the sonnet’s imagery. Dalí was delighted. He agreed, and a year later, a shiny copper plate appeared, beautifully etched with the figure of Love holding Beatrice. After paying Dalí, the printer, and the paper supplier, we published the etching along with a facsimile of the sonnet from the editio princeps.
I tell this story to illustrate how Dalí was intrigued by Old Masters, not only artistic ones, but also literary ones. After all, he did produce one hundred paintings illustrating Dante’s D ivine Comedy , as well as many illustrations, paintings, and graphics based on C ervantes’s D on Quixote .
The connection between the Old Masters and Salvador Dalí had its beginnings when the fifteen-year-old Dalí wrote an essay for S tudium , a student magazine, describing L eonardo as “. . . the greatest master of painting, a soul that knew how to study, to invent, to create with ardor, passion, and energy . . .” Some years later, he wrote, “Begin by learning to draw and paint like the old masters. After that, you can do as you like; everyone will respect you.” ( 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship , Dial Press, New York, 1948.)
So it goes without saying that a book devoted to the secret of Dalí’s legacy and success—including his respect of and admiration for the Old Masters—is a welcome addition to the field of Dalí studies. Both Christopher Brown and J ean-Pierre Isbouts are well versed to tackle this intriguing subject; together they have written three books about the father of the Old Masters, L eonardo da Vinci: Y oung Leonardo , The Mona Lisa Myth , and The da Vinci Legacy .
Over the course of his long, creative life, Dalí paid homage to many of the Old Masters, including Velázquez, V ermeer, R embrandt, Raphael, Leonardo, M ichelangelo, Dürer, Cranach, and Goya, to name but a few. Dalí’s pointed mustache was probably his greatest and most iconic tribute to Spain’s Old Master, D iego Velázquez.
Dalí’s reverence is evidenced in paintings, drawings, illustrations, sculptures, and graphic works. In 1971 Dalí created a series of fourteen original engravings titled H ommage à Albrecht Dürer (Editions Vision Nouvelle, Paris). A few years later, another tribute—a series of six paintings for a set of lithographs titled Changes in Great Masterpieces (Sidney Z. Lucas, New York)—paid homage to Velázquez, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Raphael.
As the authors state early on, how pervasive was the influence of the Old Masters on Dalí’s art, and how did these influences manifest themselves? These are but a few of the many questions this book attempts to answer.
Dr. Brown, who first approached me several years ago seeking information, has since become a friend, as well as an inveterate Dalí collector, and now scholar. As Dalí was apt to say quite often, “Bravo!”


Introduction
Begin by painting like the Renaissance masters. After that, do as you wish. You will always be respected.
Salvador Dalí
W ho was Salvador Dalí, and what is the secret of his enduring popularity today? That is the question that inspired this book. Why does Dalí still rank as one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century, even though for much of his lifetime he was both beloved and reviled for his uncompromising genius, overt eroticism, and flirtations with megalomania? Indeed, his controversial writings and outrageous behavior alienated not only his critics but also many of his fellow Su rrealists. So then, who was this man who every morning experienced “an exquisite joy—the joy of being Salvador Dalí”?
This question is even more striking when we remember that Dalí rapidly rose to prominence during the roaring twenties of the artistic demimonde of Paris, when all sorts of new and daring Mo dernist movements were tearing at the fabric of traditional European art. With his prodigious talent, Dalí was soon recognized as the public face, the universal brand of Surrealism. Ho wever, as his fame grew, so did his pursuit of celebrity and wealth, which, in the minds of many twentieth-century critics, overshadowed his reputation as an artist. Even as late as the 1960s, his provocative art continued to invite bewilderment, anger, and adoration, thus shifting the landscape of the art world and the nature of celebrity itself.
It is only in recent years that historians have begun to re -appraise Dalí as one of the most influential artists of the modern age. Part of the reason, perhaps, is that his oeuvre includes not only paintings but also sculptures, films, theater sets, costumes, jewelry, clothing, and literary works, as well as a large number of drawings and graphics. Dalí expert Frank Hunter believes this output rose to as many as two thousand graphic works and fifteen hundred paintings—an incredible body of work for a twentieth-century artist.
Today, Dalí’s popularity is greater than ever. In addition to the Sa lvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the Da lí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain, new Dalí exhibitions and ad hoc “museums” continue to pop up all over the world, including recent exhibits in St. Petersburg, London, Dubai, Madrid, and Dallas. His whimsical, even outrageous approach to subject matter, his fondness for nudes, and his consistent adherence to the canon of traditional figurative art continue to exert a magical appeal.
What is less understood, in both popular and scholarly literature, is the root of Dalí’s enduring popularity. Is it his choice of mystical motifs? His unique ability to capture the sensuousness of the nude? Or his dogged devotion to the Western canon of realism, even as modern art continued to plumb the uncertain depths of abstraction? And if that last is true, which styles of the past exerted the greatest influence on his work? Which Old Masters of the Renaissance and the Baroque served as his primary models? And to what extent was Dalí influenced by the exceptional realism of nineteenth-century artists—a movement usually referred to as “academic art,” given that this style was taught at art academies throughout Europe?
This is a major gap in the study of twentieth-century art history. We know a great deal about Dalí’s involvement with the Modernist currents of his time, but much less is known about his engagement with the Old Masters. 1 This grows in part from a