SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMÈNECH (Figueras, Girona, 1904... Lot 73

SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMÈNECH (Figueras, Girona, 1904 - 1989). "Madonne au serpent", 1966. Gilded plaster. The edition is formed, on the one hand, by three pieces in plaster that were given to three Catalan restaurants in Barcelona, Tarragona and Figueres; on the other hand, by some other copies in the same material that were made for friends and relatives of Joan Duran, creator of the frame that surrounds the sculpture (being this last group to which the work in bidding belongs). A last copy in gilded bronze is also part of the edition. Signed and dated in the lower left corner. Frame made by Joan Durán. Catalogued in: "Le dur et le mou", Eccart, R&N Descharnes, p. 204, fig. 496. Measurements: 49.5 x 33 x 6.5 cm (plaster); 62.7 x 46.5 x 12.5 cm (frame). Typically Dalinian elements decorate the frame of this relief of the Immaculate Conception: a set of snails, alluding to the surrealist master's meeting with Sigmund Freud, are flanked by two eggs symbolizing fertility, a motif repeated many times in Dalí's repertoire, which even decorates the roof of the Salvador Dalí Museum in Figueras, During his early years, Dalí discovered contemporary painting during a family visit to Cadaqués, where he met the family of Ramon Pichot, an artist who regularly traveled to Paris. Following Pichot's advice, Dalí began to study painting with Juan Núñez. In 1922, Dalí stayed at the famous Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid to begin studying Fine Arts at the San Fernando Academy. However, before his final exams in 1926, he was expelled for claiming that there was no one there fit to examine him. That same year Dalí traveled to Paris for the first time. There he met Picasso, and established some formal characteristics that would become distinctive of all his work from then on. During this period, Dalí held regular exhibitions in both Barcelona and Paris, and joined the surrealist group based in the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse. The painter landed in America in 1934, thanks to art dealer Julian Levy. As a result of his first individual exhibition in New York, his international projection was definitively consolidated, and since then he has been showing his work and giving lectures all over the world. Most of his production is gathered in the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueras, followed by the collection of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (Florida), the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades (California), the Espace Dalí in Montmartre (Paris) or the Dalí Universe in London.