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Artist: Salvador Dalí
Title: The Wailing Wall (from the Aliyah, The Rebirth of Israel Suite)
Year created: 1968
Medium: Hand-Signed Colored Lithograph on Arches Paper
Signed by the artist
Edition: Rare Epreuve d'Artiste (Artist's Proof) from Limited Edition on Arches Paper
Height (inches): 20 1/16
Width (inches): 15 11/16
Framed Size: 30 1/4" x 24 1/4"
This piece is framed.
Includes a certificate of authenticity.
Description of piece: This rare lithograph, The Wailing Wall, by Salvador Dalí is hand-signed and inscribed "Epreuve d'artiste" (Artist's Proof), from the limited edition of 250 pieces created on Arches paper. A colored lithograph from an original water-color, this work bears Dalí's signature, prominently, hand-signed in pencil.
With an image area measuring 20 1/16" in height x 15 11/16" width, this important work is part of Dalí's masterful and resplendent Aliyah, The Rebirth of Israel Suite. The Hebrew word aliyah means "ascent", such as going up stairs, or climbing a mountain; in biblical terms, "to ascend to Jerusalem" in pilgrimage.
In April 1968, for the 20th anniversary of the State of Israel, a special issue of Hadassah Magazine was published, which joined in the excitement of Dalí's Aliyah Suite, calling it "An epic history of the return of the Jewish people to their homeland— expressed in 25 bold, dramatic, yet sensitive drawings, sketches and water-color paintings by the surrealist master, Salvador Dalí." The series of paintings captures the spirit of the Jewish people from the first days of exile and for nearly 2,000 years in the diaspora until their final return to their cherished soil of Israel. Embracing a wide spectrum of moods, from gaiety to deep drama to stark tragedy, the Suite culminates in the ultimate triumph of justice and the joyous restoration of the nation. Portfolio No. 1 was presented as a gift to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem where an exhibit of the Aliyah Suite was held to coincide with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Israel's independence.
The Wailing Wall is a visually eloquent and moving work, with subdued yet glowing coloration. It comes framed and ready for display in a custom vintage frame of golden wood, with an elegant double mat in cream and russet, perfectly selected to highlight the work. The framed size is 30 1/4" in height x 24 1/4" width.
Referenced in Dalí expert Albert Field's authoritative Official Catalog of The Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, Reference: 68-1 E, pages 152-3, and valued at $14,000 in the 2015 edition of The Print Price Guide to the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, by Bruce Hochman OS, the work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
Artist bio: Salvador Dalí, born Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, (1904-1989) was a prominent artist born in Figueres, Spain, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, sixteen miles from the French border, in Catalonia. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media, and he is best known for his surrealist work, including his most well-known painting, The Persistence of Memory. Highly imaginative, Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to an ancestry of descent from the medieval Moors. His individualistic nature and resistance to conformity made waves, including among his colleagues. In 1934, when Dalí was subjected to a "trial", in which he was formally expelled from the Surrealist group, Dalí retorted, "le Surrealisme c'est moi": "I myself am surrealism".