Elephants spaciaux
1988
1
Size
26 x 19.69 in
Year
1988
Medium
Paintings
Reference
7ee9bada
A lithograph by the Surrealist master Salvador Dali, showing one of his most emblematic subjects: the "Space Elephants".
Dali made extensive use of symbolism in this work. In the desert, elephants carry various symbolic elements on their backs, including an obelisk, a sign of power and dominance.
Dalí has depicted earthly temptations as a procession of enormous pachyderms.
The four elephants, portrayed with thin, fragile, almost invisible legs, represent the evil spirits. The elephant represents the distortion of space, an elongated reality where the slender legs deform, lengthen and enter a new dimension connecting heaven and earth. Dalí probably wanted to contrast the absence of gravitational weight with structure. On the backs of two of the 'Space Elephants' stands an obelisk, a symbol of the presence of technological progress in the modern world and a clear reference to Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture in Piazza della Minerva in Rome.
The work is executed on watermarked paper on BFK RIVES France infinity sheet.
The work is signed in the lower right-hand corner and numbered MDIII/MM in the lower left-hand corner.
The lithograph bears the characteristic dry stamp of the publisher GDALI.
1904 Figueras, Spain
Salvador Dalí was born in 1904, in Figueras, Catalonia. He was one of the most well-known surrealist artists of the twentieth century, and he was a great experimenter of the pictorial, theatrical and cinematographic fields. His style is original and it is distinguishable due to the provocative subject matter. He was able to integrate the Freudian theory of dream analysis in his works, expressing the workings of the unconscious mind and associate words, images and thoughts to provoke a specific kind of emotion in the viewers, revealing also the artist’s darkest secrets and an alternative reality. Thanks to his expertise as a draftsman and a colorist, he used a variety of techniques and mediums to create his artwork, such as lithography, sculpting, oil painting, fashion designing and writing. Dalí’s work was inspired by Pablo Picasso, whom he met in Paris, and by an Italian painter, called Giorgio de Chirico. Since he used the themes of death, eroticism, childhood memories, dreams, his artworks can be viewed as modern, innovative, deep, symbolic and sometimes grotesque.
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