Board of Demented Associations (Fireworks).
Title |
Board of Demented Associations (Fireworks). |
Creator |
Dali, Salvador (Spanish painter and printmaker, 1904-1989) |
Date |
1930-1931 |
Cultural Context |
Spanish European Western European |
Style/Period |
Surrealist Modern (styles and periods) Modernist |
Subject |
Symbols Lust Erotica Sex Relations between the sexes Human body Body parts Women Men Portraits Self-portraits Nudes Footwear Shoes Keys (Hardware) Fireworks Firecrackers Explosives Pitchers Butterflies Ants Insects Locusts |
Description |
"The dedication reads 'Painted for Paul Éluard by his friend Salvador Dalí'. Éluard, who enjoyed his erotica as much as Dali, must have been impressed by this tour de force." (Caption); "One of his earliest ventures was Board of Demented Associations, or Fireworks (1930-1), in which he appropriated an exquisitely worked box of Roman candles, rockets, bangers, Bengal-lights, crackers, squibs and attendant pyrotechnical gadgetry. Each object was meticulously labeled, as if the whole box were a museum piece, Dali adding to the fireworks tiny, meticulous paintings of his obsessive icons of the moment: ladies' high-heeled shoes (one of them with a glass of milk standing inside it, another rubbing a clitoris), William Tell with bleeding eyes, a swarm of ants, Great Masturbators (one with the dreaded locust stuck to its mouth), the jug motif of Dali as idiot, an imaginative copulation (woman on top), the horribly leering male adult, and, on the largest firework in the whole explosive collection, labeled 'Whistling Volcano', a lady in black stockings who raises a leg to show off her genitals." (Excerpt, p.346) |
People Pictured |
Tell, William Dalí, Salvador, 1904-1989 |
Material |
Oil on embossed tin Oil paint (pigmented coating) Paint Tin (metal) Metal |
Measurements |
40 x 65.5 cm |
Technique |
Oil painting (technique) Painting (image-making) |
Inscription |
Fireworks label on left (#31): AMIGO VOLCAN |
Work Type |
Oil paintings Paintings |
Repository |
Private collection |
Source |
Gibson, Ian. The Shameful Life of Salvador Dali. New York; London: W.W. Norton, 1998. (Color plate XXI) |
Rights |
Photograph reproduced in Gibson courtesy: Private collection. |
Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
Format |
image/jpeg |
Digital File Name |
VRC 2447-14.jpg |
Rating |
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