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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from Ana Vazquez de Parga, dated 14. Nov. 2005.
Paysage fantastique is a striking and mystical vision, a landscape that perfectly blends the potent dream imagery of Domínguez' figurative works with the full automatism of decalcomania. The rugged, grotto-like landscape in the background is the result of decalcomania, but has been transformed through the artist's own interpretation and manipulation into a scene that resembles his native Canary Isles. The almost lunar appearance of the mountains is otherworldly, faintly unreal, and yet all too rooted in Domínguez' own experience and memory.
As part of a new generation of Surrealists brought into the fold during the 1930s, Domínguez more than pulled his weight, pioneering the objet surréaliste and inventing decalcomania. This was a technique of pressing paint onto a picture surface, creating a random and organic-looking area which was then subject to the artist's own interpretations. Domínguez invented his technique in 1934, and introduced it to the Surrealists the next year. Within months, it was being adopted by other members of the movement including Tanguy and Breton. The latter hailed it as the first technique to allow full automatism in art, and published his own efforts in Minotaure. Later, the technique would be adopted by Max Ernst.
In Paysage fantastique, the dense visual texture of the decalcomania is accentuated by the presence of the Surreal lily that floats before it. With its un-lily-like leaves, incongruous lime and the birds head at one end, this too appears to tap into automatism as well as Domínguez' own powerful and ever-shifting lexicon of dream imagery. The claw at the end of the stem hints at violence, lending the work a predatory feel. At the same time, the flower itself has a suspicion of sexuality, all these elements combining to form an impossible yet highly evocative and mysterious apparition that, blending imagery with decalcomania, combines the strongest facets of Domínguez' work with sublime and poetic results.
Paysage fantastique is a striking and mystical vision, a landscape that perfectly blends the potent dream imagery of Domínguez' figurative works with the full automatism of decalcomania. The rugged, grotto-like landscape in the background is the result of decalcomania, but has been transformed through the artist's own interpretation and manipulation into a scene that resembles his native Canary Isles. The almost lunar appearance of the mountains is otherworldly, faintly unreal, and yet all too rooted in Domínguez' own experience and memory.
As part of a new generation of Surrealists brought into the fold during the 1930s, Domínguez more than pulled his weight, pioneering the objet surréaliste and inventing decalcomania. This was a technique of pressing paint onto a picture surface, creating a random and organic-looking area which was then subject to the artist's own interpretations. Domínguez invented his technique in 1934, and introduced it to the Surrealists the next year. Within months, it was being adopted by other members of the movement including Tanguy and Breton. The latter hailed it as the first technique to allow full automatism in art, and published his own efforts in Minotaure. Later, the technique would be adopted by Max Ernst.
In Paysage fantastique, the dense visual texture of the decalcomania is accentuated by the presence of the Surreal lily that floats before it. With its un-lily-like leaves, incongruous lime and the birds head at one end, this too appears to tap into automatism as well as Domínguez' own powerful and ever-shifting lexicon of dream imagery. The claw at the end of the stem hints at violence, lending the work a predatory feel. At the same time, the flower itself has a suspicion of sexuality, all these elements combining to form an impossible yet highly evocative and mysterious apparition that, blending imagery with decalcomania, combines the strongest facets of Domínguez' work with sublime and poetic results.