P3D Another Dali mystification

[abram klooswyk <abram.klooswyk@xxxxxx>]

Bruce Springsteen wrote (P3D Digest 3691, 27 Jan 2000):
>Pop quiz:  In 1976, at the 2nd International Congress of Stereoscopy,
>Salvador Dali addressed the assembled crowd, and showed his stereo
work.
>He also designed the logo for that Congress, reproduced as a pair in
the
>March 1998 issue of "Stereoscopy".

Ray Zone (P3d 3692, 28 Jan 2000):
>(...) is a line art drawing of an Eyeball (yes, just one).

Bruce (P3d 3693, 28 Jan 2000):
>True, but not the prize-winning answer! (...)

Salvador Dali was a master of surrealism who also was a master in
promoting legends about himself. Now he even seems to have made a
new legend after his death.
I was present at the ISU Congress in 1976, held at the premises of
the Institut Géographique National in St. Mandé, close to an end
station of the Paris métro. Salvador Dali was _not_ there.

The original program (I have kept all programs of all ISU
Congresses, I'm no contestant in Bruce's quizzes :-)) says
under Saturday 4th September:
16 h. 30 M. Robert DESCHARNES, art critic and collaborator of
Salvador DALI: "Art, Cyclopean vision and the problem of
stereoscopic expression".

The stereo logo was printed in the program, with a note (in
French only):
- dessiné spécialement par Salvador Dali pour le Second
  Congrès International de Stéréoscopie
- stéréogramme de Robert Descharnes
- Ce stéréogramme figurera en frontispice d'un bulletin
  hebdomaire "Setmanari Artistic Ampardanesa"
  qui sera publié à Figuras (Espagne), sous la direction
  de Salvador Dali.

So apparently Dali only made one drawing and Descharnes
produced the stereo version by appropriate shifting of
elements. To the drawing was a French title, which I don't
dare to quote in order not to annoy Larry Berlin :-), but
I suppose the real title is in Spanish, as the drawing was
to be published in a Spanish journal.
At the congress 2x50x50 stereoslides were sold of the Dali
logo, I have got a pair (somewhere).

About the content: it is not just a line art drawing; probably
it is not a drawing at all, but eg. a black-and-white aquarelle
with thinner and thicker painted stripes.
Also it shows not just an eye_ball_, the closest plane is the
outline of an eye (like the Horus sign), with two hairs
indicating the eyelash.
Moreover, the eye is set in a desert landscape with hills
or mountains at the horizon, and a small man with a tiny flag(?)
walking at some intermediate distance, casting a long shadow
on the soil. The stereo depth effect of the huge eye, extending
to the horizon, is great. (Dali is known of course for his
desert landscapes.)

Robert Descharnes has published several books on Dali, including
a biography. Descharnes' interest in stereoscopy also brought
him to collect instances of "accidental stereo" in old paintings
(I have found a few myself, but most not very special).

What about Descharnes' reading at the 2d ISU Congress?
He wasn't there either! The reading was presented for him by
Pierre Tavlitski, a wellknown French stereoscopist.
Since Dali nor his biographer were there, it is a clever
mystification to have initiated the legend that he was there.

Abram Klooswyk