Salvador Dali’s Biblia Sacra, The Complete Collection On View At The William Bennett Gallery December 10, 2007

WILLIAM BENNETT GALLERY PRESENTS
SALVADOR DALI’S BIBLIA SACRA
FEATURING THE COMPLETE 105 LITHOGRAPHS IN 5 VOLUMES

December 11, 2007 – January 9, 2008
65 Greene Street

WHAT:
William Bennett Gallery is pleased to present in it’s entirety, the five-volume work of Salvador Dali’s Biblia Sacra, featuring the complete 105 original lithographs, published in 1969 by Rizzoli Editions, Milan, Italy. Dali’s Biblia Sacra is the largest issued suite of the Spanish artist’s work. The portfolio was commissioned by leading patron Dr. Giuseppe Albaretto, who was determined to redeem what he felt were Dali’s wayward views by leading him back towards the Catholic Church by using the Holy Bible. Subsequently, these exquisite works illustrate Dali’s renewed ties to Christianity as well as his profound personal spirituality. The illustrations, fertile in both color and content, exemplify Dali’s range of creativity and artistic process. The wide variety of imagery employed by Dali incorporates both religious and historical images; some Christian and some based on classical mythology. Additionally, Dali’s exploration as an artist is evident in his use of “bulletism,” a Dalinian invention where an arquebus (a type of antique gun) was loaded with ink-filled capsules and then fired at blank sheets of paper. The resulting patterns were then incorporated into the suite’s compositions.

WHO:
Salvador Dali (1904-1989): Spanish painter, graphic artist, filmmaker, writer. A modern master of the surreal arts, Salvador Dali’s works continually challenged convention by questioning the antithesis of surrealism: our normal sense of the “real." Surrealism’s objective was to make accessible to art the realms of the unconscious, irrational and imaginary. An expansive movement that extended beyond the canvas, Surrealism embraced literature, music, cinema, philosophy and popular culture. Dali’s works drew inspiration from fellow Surrealists, such as Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miro and Yves Tanguy, and also from old European masters like Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Giovanni Bracelli and Antoni Gaudi. Dali’s works depict a highly provocative pictorial language that illustrate his imagery into painted metaphors. Iconic images such as a melting clock, the burning giraffe and swarming ants are all keys that Dali offers the viewer to try and unlock his cryptic images.

Of all his diverse techniques, Dali was perhaps at his most virtuosic when it came to printmaking. The artist made over fifteen hundred prints during the course of his lifetime, fifty seven of which were created during the 1930’s, the key decade for his artistic development. Most of Dali’s prints from this era appeared as illustrations in books by fellow Surrealists like Andre Breton and Paul Eluard, among others. In 1930 Dali illustrated Les Chants de Maldoror, in which he used a stream-of-consciousness process to access personal hallucinations and delusions. These visions ultimately replaced what was described in the book, once again putting Dali on stage.

WHEN:
December 11, 2007 – January 9, 2008
Open 7 days a week; 11:00AM – 7:00PM
WHERE:
65 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012

Tel 212.965.8707
www.williambennettgallery.com

Official Website: http://www.williambennettgallery.com