Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ (Spain, 1904-1989)
"Passage de l'éléphant", 1980
Etching colored pochoir on Arches paper, copy 255/300.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
With dry stamp "Salvador Dalí" in the lower left corner.
Catalogued in Official Catalog of Graphic Works, Albert Field, p. 239.
Measurements: 27 x 37.5 cm (print); 36.5 x 51 cm (sheet).

Graphic work representative of Dalí's surrealist imaginary, in which one of his most iconic motifs appears: the elephant with elongated legs and impossible structure, symbol of instability and desire. The dreamlike scene takes place in a desert landscape where human figures and symbolic elements are integrated into a suspended atmosphere, characteristic of the Dalinian universe.

The combination of the precise line of the etching with the manual application of color by pochoir intensifies the fantastic character of the composition, providing a vibrant and delicate dimension. This work reflects the continuity of Dalí's classic themes in his late production, consolidating a recognizable visual language within surrealism.

A painter and sculptor, Salvador Dalí was one of the leading exponents of the surrealist movement. His work greatly influenced the course of surrealism during the twenties and thirties, being acclaimed as the creator of the paranoiac-critical method, an essential combination of the real with the imaginary. Most of his production is gathered in the Dalí Theater-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.