iconic image of surrealist art by salvador dali from the playboy

ICONIC IMAGE OF SURREALIST ART BY SALVADOR DALI
FROM THE PLAYBOY COLLECTION TO BE SOLD AT
SOTHEBY'S
Jeune vierge autosodomisée par les cornes de sa propre chasteté by
Salvador Dali, est: £1,300,000-1,800,000
ONE of the most erotic and surreal images of the 20th century painted by
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) is one of the highlights of Sotheby's evening sale
of Impressionist and Modern Art in London on Tuesday, February 4, 2003.
Painted in 1954, Jeune vierge autosodomisée par les cornes de sa propre
chasteté is being sold by the Playboy Collection in Beverly Hills.
An important and iconic painting that Dali completed during the 1950s, it was
created after the artist's return to Spain following his exile during the Second
World War in America and illustrates the renewed energy and power in Dali's
oeuvre in the 1950s. The painting is from a series of oils which feature
disintegration of the human form into atomised spheres or phallic shapes,
swirling around or threatening the human presences at the centre of the
composition. In some of the canvases, the figures are recognisable as key
people on Dali's 'emotional landsape', such as Gala, his wife. In others, the
figure is taken from art history, such as from paintings by Vermeer or
Raphael. In Jeune vierge autosodomisée par les cornes de sa propre
chasteté, the image of the woman leaning suggestively over a balcony was
inspired by a photograph Dali had seen in an erotic magazine, and it is
therefore very fitting that the painting was bought by the Playboy Collection.
In the late 1960s, Playboy Enterprises put together a fine collection of 20th
century paintings which hung in the Playboy Mansion in Chicago. When the
company relocated the Mansion to Beverly Hills in the early 1970s, it sold
most of the larger paintings including works by Picasso, Delvaux and Franz
Kline. Two wonderful paintings which remained in the collection in Beverly
Hills were Jackson Pollock's Number 16, 1950 and Willem de Kooning's
Woman, of 1953. Playboy Enterprises sold both works at Sotheby's in
November 1987.
The painting is estimated to fetch £1,300,000-1,800,000 when it is offered
for sale on February 4, 2003.
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