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Apparatus & Hand

Artwork Details

Title
Apparatus and Hand

Maker
Salvador Dalí
Date Made
1927
Materials
Oil on panel
Dimensions
Image: 24 1/2 in x 18 3/4 in
Accession ID Number
1991.1
Credit Line
Collection of The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL (USA); Gift of A. Reynolds & Eleanor Morse 1991.1
Location
ON VIEW
Copyright
In the USA ©Salvador Dalí Museum, Inc. St. Petersburg, FL 2023 / Worldwide rights ©Salvador Dalí. Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí (Artists Rights Society), 2023.

Supplemental material

Description

Dalí painted this work directly after military service when he was 23 years old. In 1923, Sigmund Freud’s Psychopathology of Everyday Life was published in Spanish, followed by the Interpretation of Dreams in 1924. By 1925, Dalí and his friends at the Residencia read them enthusiastically shortly after publication. So it is not surprising that by 1927, Dalí was beginning to employ Freud’s ideas in his work. This pre-surrealist work foreshadows Dalí’s surrealist style and is intended to provide the viewer with a spectacle beyond rational comprehension. Symbolic language is employed to record unconscious dream imagery; already Dalí is trying to demonstrate fidelity to his unconscious sources in accordance with surrealist goals. This is Dalí’s first painting in which elements of Surrealism adorn the landscape. The overall monochromatic tone and illusion of depth further accentuate the dreamlike quality. "Apparatus and Hand" is reminiscent of the biomorphic shapes that Surrealist Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) created in his work, such as in "Genesis," 1926. The triangular shape of the apparatus is repeated in the flight pattern of the birds. In contrast to the strange, otherworldly landscape and elements, the woman’s body is depicted with academic realism. The fish is a reference to the duality of male and female genitalia.

Exhibition History:
1927, Barcelona, Sala Parés, "Saló de Tardor"
1928, Figueres, Casino Menestral Figuerense, “Catálogo de la Exposición Provincial de Bellas Artes”
1929, Madrid, Jardín Botánico, “Exposición de Pinturas y Esculturas de Españoles Residentes en París”
1929, Paris, Galerie Goemans, “Dalí”
1965, New York, Gallery of Modern Art, “Salvador Dalí, 1910-1965”
1994, London, Hayward Gallery, "Dali: The Early Years"
1994, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, "Dalí Joven, 1918-1930"
1994, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Dali: The Early Years"
1995, Barcelona, Palau Robert, "Dali: els Anys Joves, 1918-1930"
1995, St. Petersburg, Salvador Dali Museum, “The Young Dali: Works from 1914-1930”
1999, Shinjuku(Tokyo), Mitsukoshi Museum of Art, "Dali Exhibition 1999"
1999, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, "Dali Exhibition 1999"
2000, Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, “Dalí's Optical Illusions”
2000, Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, “Dalí's Optical Illusions”
2000, Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, “Dalí's Optical Illusions”
2000, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, “Yves Tanguy and Surrealism”
2001, Paris, Galeries Nationales de Grand Palais, “Paris-Barcelona”
2002, Barcelona, Musee Picasso, “Paris-Barcelona”
2004, Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, “Dalí. Cultura de masses”
2004, Barcelona, CaixaForum, “Dalí. Cultura de masses”
2005, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, “Salvador Dalí and Mass Culture”
2005, St. Petersburg, Salvador Dalí Museum, “Salvador Dalí and Mass Culture”
2006, Tokyo, Ueno Royal Museum, “Dalí Centennial Retrospective”
2007, London, The Tate Modern, “Dali and Film”
2008, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Dali and Film”
2008, New York, Museum of Modern Art, “Dali and Film”
2014, St. Petersburg, Salvador Dali Museum, "Picasso/Dali Dali/Picasso"
2015, Barcelona, Musee Picasso, "Picasso/Dali Dali/Picasso"
2022, St. Petersburg, The more

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