Declaration of the Independence of the Imagination and the Rights of Man to his own Madness.

Folio: [4] pp., light green paper 38 x 21,5 cm (1st p. sl. brown., 2 small spots, horizontal folds, marg. tears without lack of paper).

Framed (studied outside frame).

Very rare 1st edition of this pamphlet illustrated with "Dream of Venus", a surrealist vision of Botticelli's Venus with the head of a fish, parodying the 1st words of the American Declaration of Independence ("When, in the course of human culture it becomes necessary for a people [...]"). "Salvador Dalí wrote this declaration after his experience creating a pavilion for the 1939 New York World's fair. The "Dream of Venus" pavilion was a Surrealist undersea grotto where semi-naked women performed in tanks playing the piano and milking cows amongst other suitably surreal activities. The image on this pamphlet of Botticelli’s Venus with the head of a fish was Dalí’s original idea for the entrance to the pavilion. However, the design was rejected by the Fair’s organisers who stated “A woman with the head of a fish is impossible” and replaced it with a simple reproduction of Venus. Believing that his artistic vision had been unacceptably compromised, Dalí responded by producing this pamphlet berating the Fair’s organisers and railing against mediocrity in art by consensus" (V&A).
Ref. https://collections.vam.ac.uk › item › declaration-of-the...
Joined : We don't hear it that way. S.l., s.n., [1960]. Broadsheet, 4to. Rather rare protestation (in French) against the presence of a painting by Dalí in an international surrealist exhibition held in New York, d'Arcy Gallery. Copy on cream vellum paper. Co-signed by surrealists including Benayoun, Breton, Corneille, Ivsic, Jaguer, Lacomblez, Mesens, Toyen, etc. Ill. with a portrait of Gala by Dalí, "adorned" with a moustache. Ref. Biro & Passeron, Dict. général du surr., p. 409 with reprod. (2 pcs)