- 130
Salvador Dalí
Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 USD
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Description
- Salvador Dalí
- Rhinocéros en désintégration
- Signed Dalí and dated 1950 (lower center)
- Watercolor and pen and ink on paper
- 29 7/8 by 39 7/8 in.
- 75.8 by 101.3 cm
Provenance
Carstairs Gallery, New York
Acquired in 1981
Acquired in 1981
Condition
Executed on cream wove paper affixed to a mount around several places on the perimeter on verso. Sheet is slightly dirty although the medium is bright and fresh. There are a few small surface scratches in the blue-gray pigment area near lower right corner. A few scattered abrasions to the sheet around the extreme perimeter. There is a water mark a lower right corner. Overall this work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Enigmatic and evocative, this work on paper exemplifies Dalí’s desire to reconcile the irreconcilable and ground the ethereal in the earthly realm. In Rhinocéros en désintégration, Dalí incorporates a series of figures unique to his Surrealist canon—a rhinoceros flanked by attenuated angels—situated within a dream-like locale. As Ramón Gómez de la Serna wrote in his essay on Surrealism, “everything is deformed by its own ephemerality, and it is this which the surrealists show” (Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Dalí, New York, 1979, p. 28).
This work on paper was executed at the cusp of Dalí’s reconfiguration of his thematic universe, a shift further mobilized by his exhibition of The Temptation of Saint Anthony at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1950. He henceforth refined his universe to be an intermediary dimension: one suspended between heaven and earth and the transfiguration of figures between the two. It was shortly after the execution of Rhinocéros en désintégration that Dalí would further explore the symbols of transformation and transcendence in monumental canvases such Christ of Saint John of the Cross of 1951, Corpus Hypercubus and Madone Microphysique of 1954 (see fig. 1).
This work on paper was executed at the cusp of Dalí’s reconfiguration of his thematic universe, a shift further mobilized by his exhibition of The Temptation of Saint Anthony at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in 1950. He henceforth refined his universe to be an intermediary dimension: one suspended between heaven and earth and the transfiguration of figures between the two. It was shortly after the execution of Rhinocéros en désintégration that Dalí would further explore the symbols of transformation and transcendence in monumental canvases such Christ of Saint John of the Cross of 1951, Corpus Hypercubus and Madone Microphysique of 1954 (see fig. 1).