Salavdor Dali woodcut - Babaouo - Frontspiece in box
This is a Salavdor Dali woodcut. Babaouo is a Salvador Dali postcard collage on white mounted paper and gold foil duplex stock plus Four-color over screen. This piece was at one time bound in a satin Box (included) It is signed in plate in two places by silkscreen and in ink. This is an original mixed media collage / woodcut by Guy Descuens from the original drawing. In 1932 Dali wrote a scenario Baba Ouo, which was never played, and designed a multi media cover of the play bill. Good condition. Rare and hard to find. The original silk box is included. An opportunity to own an original Dali for a small investment. Babaouo is the name of a Salvador Dali film that was never finished. Actually, aside from some designs, a screenplay and this poster, it was barely started. Dalis script was intended as a completion of a trilogy of surrealist works started with Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930). It was eventually filmed by Manuel Cussó-Ferrer in 1998, and tells the story of Babaouo, who sets out to rescue his lover, who has been imprisoned in a castle. The plot sounds like an excuse for a journey that incorporates plenty of surrealist imagery, but its difficult to say how closely the poster relates to the film itself - it has plenty of his trademarks, such as the ants crawling on skin, and the melting clock, which as been cut and pasted from The Persistence of Memory (1931). Is this Dalis sly commentary on the marketing of the celebrity artist, pre-empting the films production with recognizable but irrelevant iconography? Or did he do it to try and raise some money for the production? It’s interesting that he began with the publicity long before the shooting had begun, relishing the chance to pre-visualize it as a finished property. Salvador Dali (1904-1989) Frontispiece, from Babaouo, 1978 Engraving in colors on paper 15 x 11 inches (38.1 x 27.9 cm) (sheet). Published by Centre Cultural de Paris, Paris LITERATURE: Field, 78-2. Sheet is loose. Unframed. Scattered slight scuffs to the gold margin of the sheet.

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