Dalí’s interest in three-dimensionality lasted throughout his illustrious career and he was always looking for new mediums to express himself. Dalí recognised in glass the properties and the possibilities for Surrealist transformation between light and colour in threedimensional form.
One of the most interesting collections in the world of colour-glass sculpture is one that arises from the artistic collaboration of Salvador Dalí and the prestigious French glass-making company, Daum Cristallerie. Dalí created his first glass objects in the 1940s, but his major work began in 1968 for Daum and lasted nearly twenty years.
Dalí found that glass, la pate de verre, offered the perfect medium for the “expression of metamorphose” which, according to Dalí, is his Surrealist perception of reality. The Daum collection allows us to view Dalí’s genius through the translucence of sculptures modelled from coloured glass.
Many pieces in the Daum collection originate from his childhood summers in Cadaqués: summers Dalí spent exploring the different shades of colours and the transparency of the Mediterranean sea, or collecting coloured glass pieces smoothened by the salt and tumbling rhythm of the waves. His very first glass sculpture was in fact inspired by an abandoned object which Dalí found on the beach; a washed-up plastic bottle which transformed into the beautiful piece L’Important c’est la rose. Others instead derive from his most treasured works such as Portemanteau-Montre which depicts the famous melting clock based on one of his paintings, The Persistence of Memory.
Infinitely beautiful and shimmering with ethereal colour, these unique Surrealist objects represent the world of Dalí’s vast creativity and diverse range of work. This unique marriage of the foremost artist of our times and one of the most prestigious cristallerie firms brings into being a completely new dimension for viewing the most famous Dalinian images, ideas and symbols. Sublimated to the transparency of glass, today these artworks are essential objects of Surrealism whose incontestable beauty is recognised by all.
