Cataleg

In 1934, Dalí married Gala, formerly the wife of Paul Éluard. His muse also encouraged his return to classicism: “It was Gala who reawakened the Renaissance of classicism that had been dormant within me since adolescence, gradually surrounding me, almost without my realizing it, with all the rarest architectural documents of the Renaissance,” Dalí wrote in his book 50 secrets magiques. He then exhibited at the Exposition du cinquantenaire at the Salon des Indépendants of the Grand Palais in Paris, disregarding the opinion of the other Surrealists, who had decided not to participate — a decision that led to his virtual expulsion from the group led by Breton. He subsequently held his first solo exhibition at the Zwemmer Gallery in London, before sailing with Gala aboard the Champlain on his first trip to the United States.

Two solo exhibitions of Dalí’s work were organized there: one at the Julien Levy Gallery, the other at the Avery Memorial of the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (Connecticut).

But five of the canvases had already been shown a few months earlier in Barcelona: from 2 to 4 October, Josep Dalmau i Rafel, one of the key figures of the Spanish avant-garde since founding his gallery on the Portaferissa in 1910, held a confidential exhibition. Five paintings were shown, true miniatures intended for the Julien Levy Gallery exhibition in New York (held 21 November–10 December 1934): El desnonament del moble-aliment (24 x 19 cm); Cadernera-Cadernera (22 x 16 cm); Imatge mediumnica-paranoica (22 x 16 cm); Materializació de la tardor (…a les set ja es foc) (8.5 x 6.5 cm) and Imatge hipnagògica de Gala (8.5 x 6.5 cm).

The catalogue, of unusually tiny format (3 x 7.7 cm), announces a lecture Dalí was to give on 5 October, on the theme “Misteri surrealista i fenomenal de la taula de nit.” It was, however, cancelled owing to the general strike and the beginning of what is known as the “fets d’octubre”: the uprising of the autonomous government and the proclamation, by President Companys, of the Federal Republic.

Of the utmost rarity.