LIFE IS SURREAL SALVADOR DALÍ + MR. BRAINWASH DECEMBER 22, 2023 - JANUARY 28, 2024
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LIFE IS SURREAL SALVADOR DALÍ + MR. BRAINWASH Step into the mind-bending universe of art at West Chelsea Contemporary! Brace yourself for Life is Surreal: Salvador Dalí + Mr. Brainwash – an extraordinary collision of dreams and reality, past and present. This mind-blowing exhibition boasts a treasure trove of over fifty hand-colored prints, rare originals, tapestries, and sculptures by the legendary Salvador Dalí, alongside more than thirty fresh, cuttingedge creations by the sensational Mr. Brainwash, spanning from paintings and sculptures to neon wonders and mixed-media marvels. Dalí, the maestro of Surrealism, and Mr. Brainwash, the trailblazing icon of Street and Pop Art, are a dynamic duo that challenge the conventional. Prepare to be swept into an alternate realm where reality takes a detour and imagination reigns supreme. These two visionaries reconstruct the world in their unique ways and push the boundaries of artistic expression. Life is Surreal transforms our sprawling 8,000 square-foot gallery into a mesmerizing journey through the minds of these two artistic powerhouses. Salvador Dalí's dreamy, surreal vistas merge seamlessly with Mr. Brainwash's bold, graffitiinspired strokes, creating an explosion of color and creativity. Mr. Brainwash remixes iconic imagery from pop culture and art history, infusing his art with contagious positivity and awe-inspiring wonder. Prepare to be dazzled as both artists challenge perceptions, provoke thoughts, and celebrate the unexpected through their visually stunning paradoxes. At West Chelsea Contemporary, we invite you to toss aside the rulebook and step into a world where imperfections breed possibilities and imagination knows no limits. Join us on this journey where boundaries blur and art becomes an exhilarating adventure into the unknown!
SALVADOR DALÍ Spanish, 1904–1989
Salvador Dalí was an icon of Surrealism, the 20th-century avant-garde movement that sought to release unconscious creative potential through art that featured dreamlike imagery. Dalí’s fantastical prints, paintings, sculptures, films, and writing helped cement the movement’s identity. Working off psychoanalytic ideas, Dalí rendered fantastical creatures and landscapes that could unsettle and awe. His 1931 canvas The Persistence of Memory is one of the most recognizable artworks of all time. Dalí exhibited widely in his lifetime, and his works belong in the collections of institutions including the Tate, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. His work has fetched multimillions of dollars on the secondary market.
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ARGILLET COLLECTION The Argillet Collection is a tribute to the work of Pierre Argillet, an extraordinary publisher of the Dada and Surrealist groups. Now overseen by his daughter Christine Argillet, West Chelsea Contemporary is proud to present over 50 works by Salvador Dalí direct from the publisher that epitomize his macabre yet humorous vision. This collection reflects the fascinating collaboration between Pierre Argillet and Salvador Dalí that began in 1934 and lasted more than fifty years. Together, they produced nearly 200 etchings drawing upon various themes from Greek Mythology to literary texts by Apollinaire and Goethe. Many consider the 1960’s the “Golden Age” of Dalí’s prints, a decade that saw some of the most brilliant works to be produced by the artist. In Christine Argillet’s own words “[Pierre Argillet] began as a journalist with a true passion for Surrealism. His relationship with Dalí was as sincere as it was passionate. They had long discussions together on the art in process and on literary topics that Dalí would then illustrate. Dalí was a man who saw the world as one in which everything was linked. That view of the world is evident in each and every piece of his art, for him it was never a progression of the idea that all things have a shared link...it was the common denominator...Dalí’s philosophy...if you will.” The Argillet Collection demonstrates high standards of quality and the impassioned collaboration between an artist and his publisher. This ensemble of works has appeared in the best-known museums in the world, including: Musée Rotterdam 1971; Kunsthaus, Zürich and Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1989; and the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan, 1990. This collection's permanent home is at the Museum of Surrealism in Melun, France and the Dalí Museum in Figueras, Spain.
Salvador Dalï and Christine Argillet in Dalí’s garden | Port Lligat, Spain, 1963 Photo: The Argillet Collection
Salvador Dalí Narcissus, 1964 Watercolor and ink on paper 29.50" x 21.50"
Salvador Dalí Study for Couple Frontispiece, 1967 Ink and gouache on paper 17.75" x 12.50"
Salvador Dalí Women in the Waves (/6), 1985 Aubusson tapestry 63" x 49"
Salvador Dalí Burning Giraffe (/6), 1985 Aubusson tapestry 67" x 87"
Salvador Dalí Marilyn Monroe (43/100), 1967 Hand colored etching 26" x 20"
Salvador Dalí Saint Anne (31/100), 1965 Hand colored etching 30" x 22.5"
Salvador Dalí Saint Julien Le Pauvre (19/100), 1971 Hand colored etching 26" x 20"
Salvador Dalí Vitrail (45/100), 1969 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
APOLLINAIRE In 1967 Salvador Dalí created a suite of 18 etchings based on Poèmes Secrets (Secret Poems) by Guillaume Apollinaire. Considered one of the foremost poets of the early 20th century, Apollinaire was also one of the most impassioned defenders of Cubism and a forefather of Surrealism. He is credited with coining the term Cubism in 1911, the term Orphiosm in 1912, and the term Surrealism in 1918. Dalí’s initial plan was to illustrate a number of songs by French singer-songwriter Georges Brassens, shown with his guitar singing in Woman with Guitar. However, the singer’s agent recommended so many changes that Dalí shifted themes and turned his composition The Trenches into a military ground, where time seems at a standstill with a melting clock rock. Seeing a correlation in this work with the 1914-1918 War, Pierre Argillet suggested that instead Dalí illustrate the Secret Poems by Apollinaire. From this point forward, the series took a more unconventional, more surrealist turn, with compositions such as Woman with Snail, Woman at the Fountain covered by giant ants, and The Drawers who winds up devouring his guitar.
Salvador Dalí Apollinaire "The 1914-1918 War" (11/150), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Apollinaire "Woman with Snail" (50/150), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Apollinaire "Woman, Horse, and Death" (35/145), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Apollinaire "Woman with Parrot" (83/145), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Apollinaire "Woman with Guitar" (131/145), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Apollinaire "The Drawers" (111/145), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Apollinaire "The Trenches" (59/145), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
FAUST Between 1968 and 1969 Salvador Dalí created a series of twenty-one etchings based on the passage La Nuit de Walpurgis (Walpurgis Night) in Faust, the great literary work of German poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. In these works, Dalí used rubies and diamonds as engraving tools, a technique that lent an incomparable delicacy to the design. Various scenes in Faust appear within a magic circle or utilize circular motifs to create dynamic configurations. This series highlights Dalí’s masterful use of chiaroscuro, evocative of Rembrandt’s etchings. In Sator, Dali creates alchemical signs formed by his inverted signature, adding an esoteric dimension to the composition.
Salvador Dalí Faust "Sator" (31/150), 1968 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Faust "Knight and Death” (94/145), 1968 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Faust "Kneeling Knight" (59/145), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Faust “Witches with Broom" (9/145), 1968 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Faust "The Bust" (46/150), 1968 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
MYTHOLOGY From the birth of Venus to the fall of Icarus, Salvador Dalí often depicted scenes from classical mythology in his paintings and prints. Dalí’s interest in mythology stemmed from his admiration for the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who taught that ancient myths reveal fundamental truths about the human psyche. Between 1961 and 1965, Dalí explored the symbolism of these ancient tales with his Mythology series, a collection of 16 prints featuring Narcissus, Medusa, and other mythic figures. This series also highlights Salvador Dalí's daring and experimental techniques in printmaking. While working on certain pieces, the artist would throw snail shells filled with etching acid onto the metal plates that would form random shapes serving as a foundation for his composition. Dalí referred to this technique as "hasard objectif," the meaningful manifestation of chance. This is particularly noticeable in etchings such as Oedipus and Sphinx, Theseus and Minotaurus, and The Milky Way. When Dalí worked on these plates, he experimented with all kinds of unusual tools and even used a real octopus immersed in acid, which left its imprint on his etching plate for Medusa.
Salvador Dalí Mythology “Milky Way” (41/100), 1964 Hand colored etching 22.5" x 30"
Salvador Dalí Mythology “Leda and the Swan” (97/100), 1964 Hand colored etching 30" x 22"
Salvador Dalí Mythology “Oedipus and Sphinx” (15/100), 1964 Hand colored etching 30" x 22.5"
Salvador Dalí Mythology “Narcissus” (41/100), 1965 Hand colored etching 30" x 22.5"
Salvador Dalí Mythology “Judgement of Paris” (92/100), 1963 Hand colored etching 30" x 22"
THE HIPPIES In 1969, Pierre Argillet came back from a trip to India with numerous personal photographs. These images inspired Dalí and served as the groundwork for his series entitled Les Hippies (The Hippies), the artist’s own interpretation of the “Love and Peace” years. The etchings in this series reveal the superb, spontaneous, and consummate technique of Dalí at the peak of his maturity. Outlandish, surrealist characters and situations appear through intricate whirls and golden halos.
Salvador Dalí The Hippies “The Old Hippy” (92/100), 1969 Hand colored etching 26.5" x 20"
Salvador Dalí The Hippies “Women in the Waves” (12/100), 1969 Hand colored etching 26" x 20"
Salvador Dalí The Hippies “Corridor Of Katmandu” (88/100), 1969 Hand colored etching 25.75" x 19.75"
MAO ZEDONG Amidst the Cultural Revolution in China, followed shortly by the May 1968 riots in France, Pierre Argillet brought back a book of poems by Mao Zedong. Tickled, Dalí decided to create eight illustrations inspired by the text as political satires. His work The 100 Flowers references one of Zedong’s political philosophies which got its name from his own poetry. Here, Dalí chose to illustrate these flowers as towering fleurs-de-lis, symbols of royalty, with people attempting to reach them. The Turtle Mountain depicts two mountains referenced in Zedong’s poems as gigantic, antediluvian animals wandering in the midst of excrements that resemble the Yin and Yang symbol. When asked why his composition Bust of Mao was a headless Chinese uniform, Dalí responded wryly “Well, the man is so tall that he didn’t fit on the page!”
Salvador Dalí Mao Zedong “Bust of Mao“ (43/150), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Mao Zedong “The 100 Flowers” (37/95), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Mao Zedong “The Turtle Mountain” (94/95), 1967 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
SURREALIST BULLFIGHT Between 1966 and 1967 Salvador Dalí created a suite of 7 works called Surrealist Bullfight. This series was inspired by Pablo Picasso’s “Tauromachie” works that depict the Catalan theme of bullfighting. Dalí’s bullfight etchings epitomize his surrealist style with their burlesque touches. Bishops are seen blessing macabre parades where the bull ends up in a grand piano and a hallucinogenic matador gazes at the audience like a sad clown. Parrots and fish turn into toreadors, while a burning giraffe, a lion, or a statue stand within the arena.
Salvador Dalí Surrealist Bullfight “Surrealist Bullfight with Statue” (17/150), 1966 Hand colored etching 20" x 26"
VENUS IN FURS n keeping with Surrealism’s celebration of sexuality and exploration of desire, Dalí created a collection of 20 etchings interpreting the text Venus in Furs by Austria nobleman and writer Sacher-Masoch. Throughout the series, portrays himself across genders either in pain or inflicting pain in a setting where Eros, the Greek god of love, and Thanatos, the Greek god of death are laughing at each other. Venus in Furs is a major, powerful series where Dalí’s freedom of line and thought are best expressed. Sacher-Masoch’s original text describes the obsessions of Severin von Kusiemski, a European nobleman who desires to be enslaved to a woman. Severin finds his ideal of voluptuous cruelty in the merciless Wanda von Dunajew. Published in 1870, the novel gained notoriety and a degree of immortality for its author when the word “masochism”—derived from his name— entered the vocabulary of psychiatry. This remains a classic literary statement on sexual submission and control.
Salvador Dalí Venus in Furs “Woman Holding Veil” (65/145), 1969 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Venus in Furs “Woman with Shoe” (63/145), 1969 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Venus in Furs “The Purple Boot” (64/150), 1969 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Venus in Furs “Woman with Whip” (83/150), 1969 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
Salvador Dalí Venus in Furs “Woman with Crutch” (61/145), 1969 Hand colored etching 15" x 11"
MR. BRAINWASH French, b. 1966 A provocative figure in street art, Mr. Brainwash (a pseudonym for Thierry Guetta) recontextualizes images from popular culture and art history and incorporates them into his wry screen prints and sculptures. Mr. Brainwash’s colorful texts and iconography reflect the artist’s graffiti-inspired sensibility and undermine his original source material. The artist rose to prominence as the main figure in the 2010 Banksy-directed film Exit Through the Gift Shop. Today, his work sells for up to six figures on the secondary market. Mr. Brainwash has also designed album covers for the likes of Madonna and Rick Ross.
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Mr. Brainwash The Persistence of Communication, 2023 Mixed media on canvas 29.75" x 24.50"
Mr. Brainwash Cover Up, 2018 Oil on canvas 21" x 28.50"
Mr. Brainwash Balloon Girl, 2020 Spray paint on vintage canvas 20" x 24"
Mr. Brainwash Stop and Frisk, 2016 Oil on canvas 28" x 39.50"
Mr. Brainwash Pop Wall, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on paper 48" x 84"
Mr. Brainwash Balloon Girl, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on paper 36" x 36"
Mr. Brainwash Pop Wall, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on canvas 36" x 60"
Mr. Brainwash Everyday Life, 2023 Stencil and mixed media on street signs, wood, and brick panel 47.50" x 36"
Mr. Brainwash Balloon Boy, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on street signs, cement, wood, and brick panel 45.75" x 33.50"
Mr. Brainwash Work Well Together, 2023 Stencil and mixed media on street signs, cement, wood, and brick panel 40" x 38.75"
Mr. Brainwash Pop Wall, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on canvas panel with splashed frame 27" x 36"
Mr. Brainwash With All My Love, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on canvas panel with splashed frame 41.25" x 36"
Mr. Brainwash Brother’s Advice, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on paper 36" x 36"
Mr. Brainwash Beautiful Girl, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on paper 50" x 38"
Mr. Brainwash Flower and Sun, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on paper 30" x 22"
Mr. Brainwash Life Is Beautiful, 2022 Silkscreen and mixed media on paper 38" x 50"
Mr. Brainwash Balloon Girl, 2022 Neon lightbulb, stencil, and mixed media on canvas in plexiglass box 48" x 36"
Mr. Brainwash Neon Hearts, 2019 Neon lightbulb and acrylic in plexiglass box 64" x 48"
Mr. Brainwash Love is the Answer, 2023 Neon lightbulb, stencil, and mixed media on canvas in plexiglass box 30" x 30"
Mr. Brainwash Life is Beautiful, 2023 Neon lightbulb, stencil, and mixed media on canvas 30" x 30"
Mr. Brainwash Banksy Thrower, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on wood 37.25" x 60.50"
Mr. Brainwash Work Well Together, 2023 Oil and mixed media on canvas 48" x 68.25"
Mr. Brainwash Balloon Heart, 2023 Stencil and mixed media on 16" fiberglass sculpture and acrylic base 17" x 10" x 10"
Mr. Brainwash Love is The Answer - Chrome Silver(1/3), 2023 Polished stainless steel sculpture 38" x 78.75" x 11.75"
Mr. Brainwash Subway Panel, 2023 Silkscreen and mixed media on aluminum, plywood and plexiglass panel 20" x 72"
West Chelsea Contemporary is much more than the typical gallery. Offering worldclass art in a dynamic, interactive setting. WCC produces museum-quality exhibitions year-round with programming that is free and open to the public. West Chelsea Contemporary’s collection includes artists influential to Pop Art, Street Art, Graffiti, Post-Graffiti and contemporary art as well as tastemakers of these movements. With a local, national, and international roster of represented artists, West Chelsea Contemporary situates artwork from the primary market alongside a highly curated selection of pieces from the secondary market. This novel display of represented, emerging and mid-career artists alongside Blue Chip masters increases each artist’s exposure and serves to make connections between their work. 1009 West 6th Street #120 Austin, TX 78703 Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm Sunday 12 - 6pm 512.478.4440 sales@wcc.art wcc.art @wcc.art
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