How Salvador Dali's whimsical works became jewelery masterpieces

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

A real genius of art, an unrecognized master of fine crafts at one time, Salvador Dali was known to the world not only for his amazing works, which caused a lot of questions and gossip, but also for unique jewelry. Not accepted in the past, during the life of their creator, today they find a response in the hearts of people around the world, causing delight with their forms, meaning and, of course, delicate work.

It all started in 1941, when Dali was on one of the plantations in Virginia, which belonged to a wealthy and famous philanthropist from America - Kares Crosby. While there, Dali decided to invite Duke Fulco di Verdura, who at that time was reputed to be a very talented and promising designer and jeweler all rolled into one. Fulco earned his fame by working on jewelry for the most famous persons, including Coco Chanel and even for Paul Flato. At that time, Salvador cherished the dream of working with him, and therefore a serious conversation awaited future partners.

But when Fulco arrived at the so-called Hampton Manor, he was literally horrified. Instead of the rich and luxurious house that loomed in his imagination, he saw the most real ruins, where there was no heat or electricity. In the midst of these ruins, Salvador was waiting for him in a good mood, who compared his home with the atelier in which Picasso himself worked. The designer was in a state of shock, perceptibly freezing, being in an unheated living room.

And at that moment Dali laughed. As it turned out, it was all a carefully crafted joke. This building was indeed abandoned, and El Salvador spent enough time to arrange it so that it looked like it was half-residential. When they moved to the real Crosby residence, Verdura noted that it was the embodiment of coziness and comfort.

Ultimately, Fulco admits that his visit was an insane success. Shortly thereafter, they both began a collaboration, creating a whole set of jewelry and jewelry. It was presented in the same year at the Julien Levy Gallery, which also featured new paintings by El Salvador.

After some time, all in the same 1941, a whole series of jewelry, which included five different designs, was presented at the Museum of Modern Art. It is worth noting that Dali's jewelry was presented along with the works of Joan Miró.

Miniature drawings and paintings of El Salvador were skillfully placed in cigarette cases, brooches and other jewelry and frames that were created by Verdura. The most popular piece of jewelry that came to us a year later is considered to be a brooch called "Medusa", which was a nest of snakes made of pure gold and with ruby eyes.

During the 50s, the artist has been working on creating more and more interesting and fantastic shapes and patterns for jewelry. This time he enlists the help of an Argentine jeweler named Carlos Alemani, who at the time ran his own workshop at a famous hotel. Most of the jewelry they created in pair were made in small quantities, and therefore are considered unique. In addition, they used sapphires, emeralds, lapis lazuli and other precious stones from all over the world, including Congo.

Cooperating with Alemani, Dali was constantly present at the creation of this or that jewelry. He reserved the right to interfere in any process, and also independently selected stones using the method of symbolism and associations. Together with the designer, they agreed that the design and construction of the jewelry themselves should be a priority, and this is what allowed them to create over forty ingenious works of art.

Some products were even mechanized. For example, in one of the collections there was a flower made of diamonds, the petals of which opened and closed. Or you can note a brooch made of rubies, which constantly pulsed, as if a real heart. There was also a starfish made of diamonds, rubies and emeralds, as well as a pearl centerpiece. She literally froze, as soon as she was taken in her arms, and then she began to move, clinging to her hands, clothes and much more, firmly fixing herself in place.

The ideas of metamorphism, as well as cosmology and religion, are increasingly beginning to flicker in his works. Dali himself noted: “My jewelry is increasingly beginning to acquire anthropomorphic outlines. I see man in nature, and animals and plants in man. All the materials I use, from diamonds to chrysolites, from gold to pearls, help me demonstrate how people change, describe and depict these metamorphoses."

Some of his jewelry had quite funny and even very unusual shapes. For example, earrings in the shape of a telephone. Dali himself noted that he has nothing against the fact that someone his work causes a smile or even laughter. However, he was not lazy to emphasize that they are all absolutely serious, harmonious and united, and also have a certain hidden meaning and symbolism.

By the time Dali began to pursue jewelry, he had already been expelled from the surrealist community. In addition, he managed to be “tried” by the famous André Breton, who released his “Manifesto of Surrealism”. By the late 1940s, El Salvador's work was no longer accepted for exhibitions by surrealist painters. Instead, however, he found a new calling and began to portray himself as an artist from the Renaissance. In the announcement for his new jewelry collection, Dali noted:.

According to Dali expert Elliot King, during this time period his work “becomes more varied, including sculpture, ballet, and even the basics of marketing. The only difference is that Dali did what people did not expect from the artists of that time."

Critics, however, were not very enthusiastic about Dali's new occupations. They saw them not as a new round in his work, but as a commercial activity, an opportunity to earn money, as well as his craving for excesses and frivolity.

Art critics of that period ignored Dali so thoroughly that many historians, including King, assumed that he died in 1940:.

Of course, all the works that Dali created during this period were already far from the melting clocks and images of elephants that we saw earlier. Because of this, the Spanish master very clearly lagged behind the fashion trends of that time. In the 40s, everyone admired Jackson Pollock's work and his abstract expressionism. And it was incredibly far from the decorations that Salvador did, which were outside this style and unlike everything that critics were so fond of then that were present at exhibitions and in museums.

However, his later creations finally gained recognition and were rethought by society. For example, King, curator of the 2010 exhibition "Dalí: The Late Work" in Atlanta, noted that the artist's work received very high praise and recognition.

King noted:.

In the early 1950s, about twenty Dali pieces were purchased by the philanthropist and banker Cummins Catherwood and his charming wife. For many years they kept their collection, but part of it ended up in the Sotheby's auction house in 2017. For example, one of the lots was the so-called "Eye of Time".

A second of the same "Eye" was sold at the same auction house in 2014 for more than one million dollars. It was owned by the collector Owen Cheetham, who bought part of Catherwood's collection in the late 1950s.

In modern times, a huge part of El Salvador's jewelry collection is located in his personal museum, which is located in Spain, in the city of Firegas. And, in fact, Dali was not exaggerating when he once said that his jewelry, which was previously valued as aesthetic and useless objects of beauty, would later become important for the history of art.

If jewelry created according to Dali's sketches and works are distinguished by their bizarre shapes and originality, then jewelry masterpieces of the Chinese "wizard" amaze with their filigree work and mesmerizing beauty of every smallest detail made of titanium and precious stones.