Salvador Dalí "Spellbound"

From: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Limited Edition: 25
Exhibition: Dalí: Painting & Film
Material: Printed 2-ply vinyl
Dimensions: 35" x 96" (88cm x 243cm)

Hanging Hardware Included

Summary

From LACMA's "Dalí: Painting & Film" exhibition come banners featuring a painted eye which Dalí created as a set piece for Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 thriller Spellbound. Hundreds of Dalí's eery human eyes float through Gregory Peck's surreal dream in the film, leaving Ingrid Bergman to sort out their Freudian meaning. Painted with Dalí's signature technical prowess, the dripping eye on these 25 banners watches over a calm landscape of muted blues and greys.

Description

The recent exhibition Dalí: Painting and Film explored the closely intertwined relationship between Salvador Dalí's painted images and "moving" pictures. As a lover of film as well an occasional screenwriter, filmmaker and art director, it is not surprising that Dalí would embrace this new medium in his own unique way. In 1945, Alfred Hitchcock enlisted Dalí's talents to design a dream sequence for his next film Spellbound starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck.

In one sequence of the film, Peck lies on the chaise of Bergman's psychotherapy office recounting a disturbing dream. The film cuts to scenes from the dream with amazing, surreal sets designed by Dali. The dream begins in a theater hung with curtains made of eyes. A man with giant scissors cuts holes through the curtains to reveal even more eyes. The scene goes on to show more stunning sets: a masked man drops a warped wheel on a rooftop; another man falls from the rooftop from which a chimney sprouts on tree roots; a menacing face looks over the scene from an outcropping of rocks.

It is a study for one of the eyes designed for the Spellbound set that is featured on these banners. The painting, The Eye from 1945 shows a disturbing, dripping brown eye floating in a surprisingly calm, serene landscape. Perspective lines lead out to the flat horizon in the distance. At the bottom of the banner white text reads “LACMA/October 24, 2007 – January 6, 2008”. The other side of the banner is black with white text that reads “Dali/Painting & Film”. Another banner from the exhibition makes a perfect companion to this one, showing Dali’s exploration of the human eye in a still from his 1929 film Un Chien Andalou.

Provenance

These banners were displayed around Los Angeles from October 14, 2007 through January 6, 2008 to promote the exhibition, Dalí: Painting & Film at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition was also shown at The Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

About the Artist

Learn more about Salvador Dalí'