Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid
Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid | |
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Artist | Salvador Dalí |
Year | 1963 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 305 cm × 345 cm (120 in × 136 in) |
Location | Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida |
Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid (also known as Homage to Crick and Watson (Discoverers of DNA)) is a 1963 painting by Salvador Dalí. The painting's title is a portmanteau of the name of Dalí's wife, Gala Dalí, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). It is a tribute to Francis Crick and James D. Watson, who are credited with determining the double helical structure of DNA in 1953.
The painting is in the collection of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.[1]
History
The painting was commissioned by the New England National Bank of Boston.[2] It was exhibited at Knoedler in 1963 from November 26 to December 26.[3] In the exhibition catalogue, Dalí declared that:
At a time when the titles of pictures are rather short (i.e. "Picture No. 1" or "White on White") I call my Hommage to Crick and Watson: GALACIDALACIDESOXIRIBUNUCLEICACID. It is my longest title in one word. But the theme is even longer: long as the genetical persistance of human memory. As announced by the prophet Isaiah—the Saviour contained in God's head from which one sees for the first time in the iconographic history his arms repeating the molecular structures of Crick and Watson and lifting Christ's dead body so as to resuscitate him in heaven.[3]
Composition
Gala Dalí is depicted in the foreground of the painting, with her back to the viewer.
Analysis
In a note describing the work, Dalí mused that the double helix is "the only structure linking man to God."[4] This is one of 13 large paintings Dali produced. On the right hand side there are riflemen arranged to form "cubes of death". Within each "cube of death" their rifles aim at each other's head, thus if one of them shoots it will trigger the reaction of the other three, and they will all shoot killing each other. According to Dali, these cubes also represent the cubic structure of one of the most familiar substances, table salt or sodium chloride. However, the crystal structure of NaCl is cubic all-face centered rather than cubic primitive, thus there is a scientific inconsistency.
"The prophet Isaiah appears at the top left holding a scroll inscribed with the title of the painting—Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid. It combines a string of words that decodes the meaning of the work. The first word in the string is Gala, Dalí‘s wife and muse. The word ―"cid" refers to a Spanish folklore hero, and Allah is the Arabic word for God. The last word in the string is Dalí's spelling of the full scientific name for DNA—desoxiribunucleicacid."[4]
See also
References
- ^ "Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid (Homage to Crick and Watson)". archive.thedali.org. Archived from the original on 2023-07-09. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
- ^ Phillip Lambro. Close Encounters of the Worst Kind. Lulu.com, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4303-0401-2. Page 24
- ^ a b Keller 1963.
- ^ Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin. The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2004. AuthorsEdition 2, illustrated. ISBN 0-87969-697-4. Page XII.
Bibliography
- Keller, Georges (1963). Georges Keller presents DALI: November 26 to December 26, 1963. New York: M. Knoedler & Co.
- v
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- List of works
- Landscape Near Figueras (1910)
- Vilabertran (1913)
- Cabaret Scene (1922)
- Portrait of My Father (1925)
- Young Woman at a Window (1925)
- The Basket of Bread (1926)
- Apparatus and Hand (1927)
- The Lugubrious Game (1929)
- The First Days of Spring (1929)
- The Accommodations of Desire (1929)
- The Great Masturbator (1929)
- The Invisible Man (1929–1932)
- The Persistence of Memory (1931)
- The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (1934)
- Morphological Echo (1934–1936)
- A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano (1936)
- Couple with Their Heads Full of Clouds (1936, 1937)
- Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936)
- The Burning Giraffe (1937)
- Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937)
- Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937)
- Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach (1938)
- The Enigma of Hitler (1939)
- Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time (1939)
- The Face of War (1940)
- Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire (1940)
- Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man (1943)
- The Seven Lively Arts (1944)
- Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944)
- Basket of Bread (1945)
- The Apotheosis of Homer (1945)
- The Temptation of St. Anthony (1946)
- The Elephants (1948)
- Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio (1949)
- Leda Atomica (1949)
- The Madonna of Port Lligat (1949)
- Christ of Saint John of the Cross (1951)
- Galatea of the Spheres (1952)
- The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952–1954)
- The Colossus of Rhodes (1954)
- Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) (1954)
- Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity (1954)
- The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955)
- Living Still Life (1956)
- The Seven Lively Arts (1957)
- The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1958–59)
- The Ecumenical Council (1959–60)
- Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid (1963)
- La Gare de Perpignan (1965)
- Tuna Fishing (1966–67)
- The Hallucinogenic Toreador (1968–1970)
- La Toile Daligram (1972)
- Dalí Seen from the Back Painting Gala from the Back Eternalised by Six Virtual Corneas Provisionally Reflected by Six Real Mirrors (1972–1973)
- Lincoln in Dalivision (1977)
- The Swallow's Tail (1983)
- Lobster Telephone (1936)
- Lobster dress (1937)
- Mae West Lips Sofa (1937)
- Champagne Standard Lamps (1938)
- Rainy Taxi (1938)
- A Logician Devil (1951)
- Giraffes on Horseback Salad (1937)
- The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (1942)
- Dali's Mustache (1954) (with Philippe Halsman)
- Être Dieu (1985)
- Un Chien Andalou (1929)
- L'Age d'Or (1930)
- Spellbound (1945, dream sequence)
- Destino (1946, completed 2003)
and costumes
- Mariana Pineda (1927 production)
- Gala Dalí (wife)
- Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation
- Paranoiac-critical method
- Salvador Dalí and dance
- Chupa Chups
- Dalí Atomicus (1948 photograph)
- Salvador Dalí (1966 film)
- The Death of Salvador Dali (2005 film)
- Little Ashes (2008 film)
- Midnight in Paris (2011 film)
- Dalíland (2022 film)
- "Salvador Dalí" (song)
- 2919 Dali (asteroid)
- Dali crater
- Salvador Dalí Desert
- Dalí cross