Óscar Domínguez

Dr. Pierre Mabille, Paris (probably acquired directly from the artist)
Gallerie André-François Petit, Paris
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in 1968

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ateneo, Exposicíon Arte Surrealista, 1935, probably no. 7, illustrated in the catalogue
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno & Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Centro de Arte 'La Granja', Oscar Dominguez 1926 antológica 1957, 1996, no. 14, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Eduardo Westerdhal, Oscar Domínguez, Barcelona, 1968, illustrated p. 18b
René Passeron, Histoire de la peinture surréaliste, Paris, 1968, no. 134, illustrated n.p.
Pierre Walberg, Les demeures d'Hypnos, Paris, 1976, illustrated p. 340
Fernando Castro, Oscar Domínguez y el Surrealismo, Madrid, 1978, no. 21, illustrated p. 119
Gaetan Picon, Diario del surrealismo. 1919-1939, Geneva, 1981, illustrated p. 166
René Passeron, Enciclopedia del Surrealismo, Barcelona, 1982, illustrated p. 154
La Part du jeu et du rêve, Óscar Domínguez et le surréalisme 1906-1957 (exhibition catalogue), Musée Cantini, Marseille, 2005, fig. 42, illustrated in colour p. 43


The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Ana Vàzquez de Parga.

The canvas is not lined. There are a few scattered specks of retouching in areas, including a few tiny specks in the sky, mainly to the centre of the upper edge, a few specks in the grey lava in the foreground and in the beige rectangle to the left. These signs of retouching are visible under UV light. There are drying cracks in the black pigments and a faint craquelure pattern in the sky. There are a few frame abrasions to the centre of the upper edge. This work is in good and stable condition.
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Désir d'été is one of Domínguez's finest Surrealist paintings, admired by André Breton when it was exhibited during the Arte Surrealista exhibition in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1935. Born in the beautiful and mysterious Canary Islands, Domínguez began to paint at an early age and was known as the 'Surrealist painter of the islands'. A year after his first exhibition in Tenerife in 1933, he decided to settle in Paris and was instantly welcomed at the Café Cyrano, meeting place of the Surrealists. The artist's emotional turbulence and inventiveness attracted great interest, and very quickly he soon gained a privileged position within the Group. It was not long before Domínguez began working closely with some of the most important Surrealist artists, including Yves Tanguy. It was in this very inspiring and experimental context that he painted his most remarkable Surrealist compositions, Désir d'été being one such work.

In the present painting the viewer is invited into an enigmatic and dream-like landscape, where we meet two figures with terracotta jars for heads. A male figure pours water into the seated woman's head which emerges as thick lava pouring down from her legs. Such actions and imagery set the tone for what is an undeniably sexual and abundant atmosphere. In the background, the silhouette of a couple is carved in the rocks, echoing the organic connection between the figures in the foreground. The barren moon-like landscape and lava in the foreground evoke his native volcanic Canary Islands, a 'rich region whose sumptuous beauty he never tired of praising, a place where nature has soul and accentuates one's dreams. It is such a phantasmagoria that one encounters in Domínguez's works' (Jacques Baron in S. R. Guggenheim Foundation (ed.), Surrealism: Two Private Eyes, New York, 1999, p. 862).

By manipulating the context of everyday objects, Domínguez was also manipulating the viewer's perception of them, continually surprising and delighting with his fresh juxtapositions. In 1934 - the same year the present work was painted - the father of Surrealism André Breton wrote Qu'est ce-que le surréalisme?, which he used to introduce the 'fundamental crisis of the object' as one of the most urgent artistic preoccupations (quoted in Emmanuel Guigon, Óscar Domínguez et le Surréalisme 1906-1907, Paris, 2005, p. 48). Anticipating many of Domínguez's future compositions, such emphasis on the role of art is testament to his ongoing quest to find the ultimate pictorial manifestation of Surrealism. 

The present work was acquired by Dr. Pierre Mabille, a French doctor, anthropologist, and writer who was a close friend of André Breton and also active in the Surrealist group.