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Lot Essay
Propped above a tear in the fabric of its desert landscape, a strange dream-like lion stalks across the canvas. Painted in 1934, Le lion du désert appears to merge hints of automatism with the powerful dream imagery that makes Domínguez' works so potent, while also evoking some of the landscapes of his native Tenerife. In this sense, the painting blends the personal world of memory with wider, subconscious associations. There is a brutal life force at play in this painting, evident both in the figure of the lion itself, and in the deliberate lack of finesse in the execution. Unlike his compatriot Dalí, Domínguez did not attempt to create a sheen on his paintings, a gloss of perfection. Instead, he deliberately created an almost brutal manner of execution that makes his paintings all the more forcefully direct. This is a strong vision from his imagination. The lion is an apparition within a dreamscape that is torn and pierced, revealing a mysterious subworld lying beyond.
The various areas in the painting appear to connect through oblique visual hints, in a manner reminiscent of the Surrealist game of Le cadavre exquis. The lion's legs become strange props jutting out from the tear in the fabric of the picture's reality. They even seem to be holding the hole open. They are like sunken struts, and from them dangles a cord, from which hangs material, which brings the viewer's eye to the foreground, to an assemblage of objects that has little conscious connection with the lion at the top, but which nonetheless has a distinct internal logic. Intriguingly, the box at the bottom of the painting appears to prefigure Domínguez' invention and development of the objet surréaliste the next year, heightening the sense of mystical cohesion in the painting. It even strangely resembles 'Caja con piano y toro', his surrealist object being sold in the present sale as lot 105.
It was in 1934 that Domínguez found himself properly introduced to the Surrealists, and he soon became a key member, part of an important new generation that revitalised the movement. Le lion du désert shows to what extent his visual idiom was already developed by this stage: he had long been fascinated by Surrealism and its adherents, and his works had already been driven by the intangible world of dreams and subconscious associations. Now he was accepted into the fold, and the brute oneiric potency of pictures such as Le lion du désert were the direct result and revealed him as an accomplished and recognised Surrealist.
The various areas in the painting appear to connect through oblique visual hints, in a manner reminiscent of the Surrealist game of Le cadavre exquis. The lion's legs become strange props jutting out from the tear in the fabric of the picture's reality. They even seem to be holding the hole open. They are like sunken struts, and from them dangles a cord, from which hangs material, which brings the viewer's eye to the foreground, to an assemblage of objects that has little conscious connection with the lion at the top, but which nonetheless has a distinct internal logic. Intriguingly, the box at the bottom of the painting appears to prefigure Domínguez' invention and development of the objet surréaliste the next year, heightening the sense of mystical cohesion in the painting. It even strangely resembles 'Caja con piano y toro', his surrealist object being sold in the present sale as lot 105.
It was in 1934 that Domínguez found himself properly introduced to the Surrealists, and he soon became a key member, part of an important new generation that revitalised the movement. Le lion du désert shows to what extent his visual idiom was already developed by this stage: he had long been fascinated by Surrealism and its adherents, and his works had already been driven by the intangible world of dreams and subconscious associations. Now he was accepted into the fold, and the brute oneiric potency of pictures such as Le lion du désert were the direct result and revealed him as an accomplished and recognised Surrealist.