Salvador Dalí

Property from Lady Meylert Melville Armstrong, Sotheby's New York, December 10, 1986, lot 253.

Illustrated in Joyas de Artista: Del Moderinismo a la Vanguardia, the catalogue for the exhibition at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, page 279.

Illustrated in Dalí Dalí featuring Francesco Vezzoli, the catalogue for the exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, page 146.

A brooch of similar design is illustrated in Dalí Jewels-Joyas: The Collection of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, pages 54-57, Dali: A Study of his Art-in-Jewels, The Collection of The Owen Cheatham Foundation, p. 19, pl. II and Modern Jewelry by Graham Hughes, page 171.

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Joyas de Artista: Del Moderinismo a la Vanguardia, Barcelona, October 2010-February 2011.

Moderna Museet, Dalí Dalí featuring Francesco Vezzoli, Stockholm, September 2009-January 2010.

Victoria & Albert Museum, Surreal Things: Surrealism & Design, London, also exhibited at Boijmans Museum Van Beauningen, Rotterdam; Guggenheim Museum, Bilboa; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, March 2007-September 2009.

There’s a little bit of sweetness in the heart of every woman

-Salvador Dalí

The cultural impact of Salvador Dalí’s creations spans an incredible breadth of media, from the visual arts to literature, all extensions of the highly eccentric, often outlandish, persona he crafted for himself. He was the Andy Warhol of his time—or Warhol, the Dalí of his—and it is therefore not surprising that the earclips offered here (lot 7) were among the thousands of objects discovered in Warhol’s home after his death in 1987. 

From 1941 to 1970 Dalí created designs for 39 jewels in precious metal and gemstones. Curator A. Hyatt Mayor, in his introduction to the catalogue for the Owen Cheatham Foundation Collection, remarks that some of the artist’s jewels “explode with agony. Crystals pierce; rubies bleed.” Dalí himself expounded on each piece in the collection, including “The Honeycomb Heart.” While the jewel may at first be viewed as a macabre commentary on love, Dalí adjusts this perceptual astigmatism by noting “there’s a little bit of sweetness in the heart of every woman.” Whether this is a cynical or simply provocative statement on the largely cold and bitter nature of the female heart, or one of tenderness, is unclear. To this point, he maintains “The viewer, then, is the ultimate artist. His sight, heart, mind—fusing with and grasping with greater or lesser understanding the intent of the creator—gives (the jewels) life.”