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Horseman Of The Apocalypse

Salvador Dali • Painting, 1970
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About the artwork
This artwork was added since it is referred to in the materials below
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Religious scene
Style of art: Surrealism
Technique: Gouache
Materials: Paper
Date of creation: 1970
Artwork in selections: 22 selections

Description of the artwork «Horseman Of The Apocalypse»

"Horseman of the Apocalypse" - drawing by Salvador Dali, crowning his passion for Catholicism, which he solemnly announced in 1950. "I was a blasphemer, but I became a mystic", - the artist told the audience of a lecture in Barcelona two years after returning from America, where he and Gala waited out the years of turmoil of the Second World War. True, as in other spheres of life, Dali's faith bore an eccentric connotation: a touch of "nuclear mysticism", as the artist called a new milestone in his work.

In fact, this manifested itself in the religious motives of the works (numerous Madonnas and crosses), combined with reflections on the topic of atomic fission (1, 2, 3). Around the same time, Dali began to actively collaborate with publishing houses, creating illustrations for printing lithographs. In the 1950s - 70s he illustrated Cervantes' Don Quixote, Dante's Divine Comedy, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Goethe's Faust, Boccaccio's Decameron and other literary works. And in 1969, a luxurious edition of Biblia Sacra came out - a Bible in red leather with illustrations by Salvador Dali.

The artist has been working on this edition since 1963. During this time, he created 105 lithographs with very unusual interpretations of events from the Holy Scriptures (1, 2). Drawings made in mixed media (watercolor, ink, gouache, pastel, pencil) bear little resemblance to illustrations for the Bible, but thanks to the fame and reputation of the author, the edition, printed in an edition of 1,800 copies, quickly sold out to collectors around the world. In 1989 it was re-released in Germany in German.

Horseman of the Apocalypse dates back to 1970, that is, the work was created by Dali after the publication of Biblia Sacra. But both the theme, and the style of the drawing, and its format refer to this edition: it seems as if this is a belated illustration to the Revelation of John the Theologian. It accurately conveys the atmosphere of a fragment of Scripture about the time of the appearance of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, bringing war and death: "There was a great earthquake, and the sun became as dark as sackcloth, and the moon became like blood.".

A year later, Dali returns to the theme of the Apocalypse in the painting “Second Coming of Christ"- much more peaceful in color, but no less disturbing in mood. Thus, he closed the topic of Christianity and Catholicism in his work, and never again returned to religious motives (except for isolated cases like the crucifixion with Gala in 1978).

The author: Natalia Azarenko
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