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An almost unknown work by Dalí goes up for auction after 50 years in a private room

2021-04-05T14:13:46.389Z


'Cosmic Madonna', made in 1958 within the mystical-nuclear period of the painter, had not been seen since his last exhibition in 1965. The heirs of its last owner have decided to sell the canvas inspired by a virgin by Raphael


First color photograph of 'Cosmic Madonna', painted by Dalí in 1958 that goes on sale.

Cosmic Madonna

, one of the paintings made by Salvador Dalí in 1958, within his mystical-nuclear period, had not been seen since his last exhibition in New York in 1965. Now, after the death of its owner, who has had it in the living room of his house for more than 50 years, his heirs put it up for sale.

The canvas is a 152.5 by 91.5 centimeter work that was renamed by Dalí as

Van Gogh's Cut of the Ear, dematerializing from its horrific existentialism and exploding like a pion during the dazzling of Raphael's Sistine Madonna

;

a second title

that he wrote on the back of the work.

Until now, only black and white images were known of this painting, so its release on the market has allowed us to have, for the first time, its real image and see the colors, especially red and blue, that Dalí used to paint it.

  • Dalí, under the influence of Rafael

  • A rare portrait of Dalí's poet Paul Eluard breaks an auction record

The statement released by the owner of the painting includes opinions of experts such as that of Eliott H. King, curator of the 2010 exhibition

Dalí: The Late Work,

at the Atlanta museum, who assures that "the resurgence of painting in all its dazzling color establishes it as one of Dalí's most successful and elaborate works of art during the post-war period ”.

Regarding the secondary title, King assures that "Dalí recalls the hypothesis of medieval theologians that the Virgin Mary conceived through the word of God, and, therefore, was inseminated through her ear."

The same statement ensures that: "

Cosmic Madonna

is Dalí's last masterpiece that can be acquired by a person or private entity, since all the others of this caliber are already in museums or private collections around the world" .

A web page has been developed where all the information related to the painting is provided, with detailed images and videos of it, as well as photos of the artist next to the work, possibly in the first of his exhibitions.

Also with the contact information for potential buyers, although no information is provided on the approximate price of the painting.

Dalí with his painting 'Cosmic Madonna' in one of the few exhibitions in which it has been seen so far.

The piece that goes on sale is inspired by the

Sistine Madonna

that Raphael made in the 16th century;

one of the painters that Dalí most admired (after the Dutchman Johannes Vermeer and the Sevillian Diego Velázquez), for embodying the classical tradition.

The same year that he was painting this picture, Dalí, comparing himself to Rafael and despite his enormous ego, wrote: “I am a bad painter.

If I compare my canvases with those of the Renaissance, with those of Raphael, for example, I realize the total disaster of my work.

But this does not prevent him from being, thanks to my style, one of the best current artists ”.

In 2018, the

Dalí-Rafael

exhibition could be seen at the Figueres Theater-Museum

.

A prolonged reverie

, to explain Dalí's devotion to the Italian painter who featured a Prado masterpiece,

The Virgin of the Rose,

painted by Rafael in 1517 along with various works that inspired Dalí.

Cosmic Madonna

is one of the paintings from the mystical-nuclear period created by the painter, in which he deals with religious themes under the prism of scientific advances of the moment.

One of his first manifestations is another Virgin, the

Madonna of Portlligat

, of which he painted two versions, one in 1949 and the other in 1950. The same year that he painted this

cosmic Madonna

, Dalí created, according to the Foundation's catalog of paintings Gala-Salvador Dalí, a total of 18 oil paintings;

portraits of characters from the North American ruling classes and other religious-themed paintings treated in this light, such as the

Virgin of Guadalupe

and her best-known work of this time,

The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus

, a huge painting of more than four by three meters, which can be seen in the Florida museum created by Reynolds Morse, Dalí's greatest collector.

Dalí in 1951 in the library of Portlligat, reading under a fragment of 'Transfer of Christ', painted by Rafael in 1507, a photograph that could be seen in the exhibition organized by the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in 2018 to show the influence of Rafael in Dalí, Ricardo Sans / Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí)

According to the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, the

Cosmic Madonna

(illustrated with the only known black and white photo) had been exhibited only three times previously, all three in New York: at the Carstairs Gallery, between December 1958. and January 1959;

the place where the painter always exhibited and put up for sale everything he had painted during the previous summer in Portlligat.

Two years later, in 1960, it could be seen at The Finch College Art Gallery, within an exhibition dedicated to the surrealist painter and the third and last, in 1965, at the Gallery of Modern Art, in the anthology

Salvador Dalí, 1910-1965 ,

which could be seen in the American city.

Unlike Dalí's engravings and drawings that are present in many auctions, the release of one of his oil paintings is rarer.

The work that has reached the highest price in one of them is

Portrait of Paul Eluard

(1929), which was sold at Sotheby's in London in 2011 for 15.9 million euros.

It is followed by

Necrophilic Spring

(1936), which was also sold at Sotheby's, but in New York, for 13.8 million euros and

Transitional Moment

(1934)

,

which reached slightly more than after its sale in 2014 at Christie's in New York. 7.7 million euros.

All three are from the painter's surrealist period, the most highly valued, although they are small-sized works, compared to that of the

cosmic Madonna

that is now on sale.

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2021-04-05

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