Salvador Dalí

Private Collection, France

Rendered with exacting attention to detail and imaginative brio, the present work is a beautiful example at Dalí's genius at incorporating a variety of images within a singular composition.  Created in 1942, the scene features paratroopers, a Leonardo-like rendering of Icarus, a Baroque papal image and two of most transformative American presidents -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator -- personifying the U.S. airforce.   Hyper-detailed, the composition valorizes the American war efforts in North Africa.   In the upper-left, Dalí has written a characteristically Surrealist description of the events depicted here: “Dalinian prophecy: articulated and flexible giant planes, mixture of the lobster and the bee and the mechanical sea horse carry in their explosive entrails the unicorn-eggs of the future sky victories."

Dalí's experiences in the United States had a profound impact on the aesthetic development and content of his art.  Following a dramatic escape from occupied France through Portugal and Spain, he and Gala relocated to Virginia and then New York, where fortune and opportunity awaited them.  Dalí immersed himself in a wealth of career-transforming projects during the eight years he stayed in the U.S., including film and theatrical productions, illustrated books, critical and autobiographical writing, and numerous portrait commissions from society's elites.  Leaving behind the chaos of Europe, Dalí believed that America offered the last resort for creative freedom.  The present work is a representation of this sentiment, annotated with Dalí's prophecy of Allied Victory.