Artist: Salvador Dali 

Title- Le Cavalier Zebre (1963)

Medium: Watercolor, brush, Pen & ink over pencil on board

Size: 29 ¾ x 39 ½ (75.6 x100.3 cm)m 48 x 57 frame size

Signed by Salvador Dali

Archived by Descharnes

Galerie Michael Certificate 

For Dali and the Surrealists, the zebra was a symbol of the surrealist concept of Critical Paranoia, an idea also promoted by Sigmund Freud. The zebra, being a surreal creature, poses the question, "Is it white and black, or black and white?" Dali's Le Cavalier Zebre is the only work in his entire oeuvre where he illustrates this fascinating question. It makes us wonder, "What does the zebra see? What does Dali see? And, most importantly, what do you, as the viewer, see?" The Surrealist Manifesto aimed to penetrate the veil of consciousness and access the deep and meaningful manifestations of what lies beneath the surface. Think of the metaphor of the tip of the iceberg versus the magnitude of what lies below the surface. Dali's approach to Critical Paranoia had a profound influence on the next generation of artists, including Lucien Freud, who happens to be Sigmund Freud's grandson  The concept of self-identity and how we each identify ourselves in an often absurd world populated with vague manifestations from our subconscious self is behind the Critical Paranoiac method. The Rorschach Ink Blot test is another example of this Critical Paranoia. Ask two people what they see, and you will get two different answers. This is a classic surrealist conundrum. The provenance of this work is impeccable. It is important to note that 1963, the year Le Cavalier Zebre was created, is a defining year in the progression of Dali's work. Several large, key compositions were executed in 1963, perhaps most importantly the tribute to his dead brother, Portrait Of My Dead Brother, 1963, now in the Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida. Works of this quality and historical importance seldom become available. Since the painting was created over 50 years ago, only three people have owned the work. One of those people, Mrs. Edward L Watson, was an important Modern Master dealer working in New York during the 1960s. Watson helped organize several important exhibitions in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, one of the pantheons for Dali's paintings. The Persistence of Memory ranks among one of the Museum's sacred treasures. It is rare and virtually impossible to find museum paintings of this quality outside of museum collections.