Dali Jewels: A Collection of the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation

Description

Dali, like the Renaissance artists, refused to be restricted to one unique form of expression: to that of painting. He wished to go beyond that point by making new discoveries; by trying out new means of expression, one of which being the creation through the combination of precious stones and noble metals. Dali's jewellery designs span almost thirty years until the 1960s. Thirty-seven of the jewels were produced in the New York workshop owned by goldsmiths Alemany and Ertman. Dali himself would choose the most appropriate precious stones, not only for their colour and quality but also for their suitability in order to transmit a certain connotation or a specific atmosphere. Dalinian symbolism is ever present in one way or another in all of his jewels: the soft watch, the telephone, the mouth and the subject of war among others. A brief chronology of the "Dali Jewels" is included, documenting their conception in the early 1940s, through to their most recent exhibition.

'My aim is to put the art of jewelry into its right perspective: that in which the design of the jewel and the perfection of the work carried bear, as in the Renaissance period, more importance than the insignificant value of the stones themselves.'