Salvador Dali Y Domenech Lot n° 44

Salvador Dali Y Domenech Tienta en Espana (Epreuve de corrida en Espagne) 1960 Ink, watercolour and gouache on card with dry stamp 'Strathmore' 75.5 x 101.3 cm Framed under glass. Signed, dated and titled 'TienTA en ESPANA Dalí 1960' in black ink lower centre. We thank Nicolas Descharnes, Azay-le-Rideau, for kind information. The work is registered and documented in his archive under the number 'd0057_1960'. Provenance Collection Jean-Paul Schneider; Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne; Private collection, Rhineland Exhibitions Stuttgart/Zurich 1989 (Staatsgalerie/Kunsthaus); Montreal 1990 (Museum of Fine Arts); Cologne 2000 (Galerie Orangerie-Reinz), 40 Jahre Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, o. cat. No., p. 71 Literature Robert Descharnes, Dalí - His Work, His Life, Cologne 1984, p. 360 Salvador Dalí is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Between Surrealism and Dada, his work ranges from painting, drawing, sculpture and graphic art to decorative objects. Last but not least, Dalí was a writer, essayist and stage designer - he left behind an oeuvre that knew no genre boundaries and had a lasting influence on performance and happening, especially on theatre, ballet and film. Our impressive drawings are also remotely reminiscent of stage sets - cursory tableaus that the artist stages in a manner similar to a director. While in "Tienta en Espana (Epreuve de corrida en Espagne)" bullfighters and other actors clash like miniatures on a chessboard, literally enlivening the arena, the flowerbeds of the "Esplanade des Invalides" are lined with precisely arranged small trees, which in this place not by chance evoke associations with small soldiers. In stark contrast to this are the ink blots, placed with the greatest freedom, into which the composition extends to the right. The works attest to Dalí's virtuoso sense of proportion, volume and space - themes with which the artist dealt intensively in the course of his multifaceted oeuvre. They are works of the highest artistic sovereignty. The large-format watercolors served Salvador Dalí as models for the etchings of the same name - they can be seen as rare, representative works on paper from the early 1960s.