Salvador DALI by Philippe Halsman – “Dali Atomicus”. 1948

Salvador Dali (1904.1989)

Original photograph.

Dali atomicus.

Argentic draw of the famous photograph of Philippe Halsman taken in New York in 1948.

Posterior draw. Keystone and legend stamp dactylographed on the back. Slight transparency of the legend on the front.

Format: 15 x 21.3 cm.

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In 1941, Philippe Halsman and Salvador Dali met at the Julien Levy gallery in New York where the painter exhibits. It is the beginning of a collaboration of thirty-seven years. In 1948, the two men, impressed by the emergence of the atomic era and by the laws of physics, worked together in the development of a cliché with levitation objects. Dali, meanwhile, continues to make Leda Atomica , canvas that we see (not completed) to the right of the shot and in which almost all the elements are also in levitation.

This iconic photograph was ideally successful after twenty-six attempts to shoot. The left chair is held in the air by the wife of Halsman while the objects (the easel and the canvas) are suspended from invisible wires. There are up to three: assistants launch 3 cats and a bucket of water. At four, Dali jumps in the air and Halsmann triggers. After 6 hours, the photo is good!