Salvador Dali's Tarot

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Salvador Dali's Tarot is a book by Rachel Pollack published in 1985.

Contents

Contents

Salvador Dali's Tarot is a book about the 78 paintings used for Salvador Dalí's deck of Tarot playing cards, published for him in 1984 by the card-printer Naipes Comas of Spain. [1] The book features each painting reproduced in color on its own page. [2]

Dali began work on them in 1973 after a request from film producer Albert Broccoli for a prop for the James Bond film Live and Let Die . [3] His wife Gala had an interest in the subject and may have encouraged him to undertake it. [4] Broccoli rescinded his offer after Dali requested an excessive fee; the artist Fergus Hall produced the ones featured in the film. [4] But Dali continued to work on his version, including his and Gala's faces in the deck, and the former James Bond, Sean Connery, instead of Roger Moore who appeared in that film. In his Surrealist style, many of the Tarot subjects were depicted as well-known classical paintings reimagined and with collage elements. [4]

Pollack had been introduced to Tarot in 1970, and had published Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, an interpretive guide, in 1980 and 1983. [5]

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed Salvador Dali's Tarot for White Dwarf #71, and stated that "I have no faith in fortune-telling, but the cabalistic symbolism is fascinating ... especially when refracted through the eye of a supremely dotty surrealist." [2]

Related Research Articles

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Live and Let Die is a 1973 spy thriller, the eighth film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Guy Hamilton and produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, while Tom Mankiewicz wrote the script. Although the producers had approached Sean Connery to return after Diamonds Are Forever (1971), he declined and a search for a new Bond actor led to Moore being signed.

Surrealist cinema is a modernist approach to film theory, criticism, and production, with origins in Paris in the 1920s. The Surrealist movement used shocking, irrational, or absurd imagery and Freudian dream symbolism to challenge the traditional function of art to represent reality. Related to Dada cinema, Surrealist cinema is characterized by juxtapositions, the rejection of dramatic psychology, and a frequent use of shocking imagery. Philippe Soupault and André Breton’s 1920 book collaboration Les Champs magnétiques is often considered to be the first Surrealist work, but it was only once Breton had completed his Surrealist Manifesto in 1924 that ‘Surrealism drafted itself an official birth certificate.’

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<i>Basket of Bread</i> Painting by Salvador Dalí

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<i>Soft Construction with Boiled Beans</i> (Premonition of Civil War) Painting by Salvador Dalí (1936)

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936) is a painting by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. Dalí created the piece to represent the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, having painted it only six months before the conflict began. He subsequently claimed that he was aware the war was going to occur long before it began, and cited his work as evidence of "the prophetic power of his subconscious mind." However, some have speculated that Dalí may have changed the name of the painting after the war to emphasize his prophetic assertions, although it is not entirely certain.

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<i>The Colossus of Rhodes</i> (Dalí) 1954 painting by Salvador Dalí

The Colossus of Rhodes is a 1954 oil painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. It is one of a series of seven paintings he created for the 1956 film Seven Wonders of the World, each depicting one of the wonders. The work shows the Colossus of Rhodes, the ancient statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun, Helios. The painting was not used for the film and was donated to the Kunstmuseum Bern in 1981, where it remains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Field (archivist)</span> American art archivist (1916-2003)

George Albert Field Jr. was known for cataloging and authenticating artwork by the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. Designated by Dalí as his official archivist in 1955, Field went on to archive and confirm the authenticity of thousands of Dalí works, mostly prints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Games Systems</span>

U.S. Games Systems, Inc. (USGS) is a publisher of playing cards, tarot cards, and games located in Stamford, Connecticut. Founded in 1968 by Stuart R. Kaplan, it has published hundreds of different card sets, and about 20 new titles are released annually. The company's product line includes children's card games, museum products, educational cards, motivational cards, tarot cards, and fortune telling decks. These are marketed through a network of retailers, including bookstores, museum gift shops, metaphysical shops, greeting card stores; toy and game stores; hobby shops, and mail order catalogs.

<i>Dalíland</i> 2022 American film

Dalíland is a 2022 American biographical film directed by Mary Harron. It is based on the true story of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and his tempestuous marriage to muse and wife Gala during the 1970s. The film stars Ben Kingsley, Barbara Sukowa, Christopher Briney, Rupert Graves, Alexander Beyer, Andreja Pejić, Suki Waterhouse, and Ezra Miller.

References

  1. "Tarot Universal Dali".
  2. 1 2 Langford, Dave (November 1985). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf . No. 71. Games Workshop. p. 6.
  3. "Salvador Dalí's Surreal Tarot Card Designs from 1984 Have Been Re-Released".
  4. 1 2 3 Nina Kravinsky. "See Surreal Tarot Cards Designed by Salvador Dalí for a James Bond Movie". smithsonian.com. archive:https://web.archive.org/web/20191108043240/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-surreal-tarot-cards-designed-salvador-dali-james-bond-movie-180973506/
  5. George Gene Gustines (April 13, 2023). "Rachel Pollack, Transgender Activist and Authority on Tarot, Dies at 77". New York Times.