Customer Reviews

Dali : Catalogue Raisonne of Prints II Lithographs

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This book was a rather daring undertaking. As you probably know many years and many lines of print were spent decrying the plethora of Dali forgeries and photomechanical reproductions of his works printed on pre-signed paper. It was a scandal, it was scandalous, to be sure. So, for instance, when I was involved with the sale of prints by Dali, an editorical choice was made to never ever sell a Dali Lithograph for the simple reason that there was just too much stink surrounding them. In fact, I was under the impression that virtually all of his alleged work product of lithographs was phony partially because of his self-professed disdain for the medium. This book disabused me of this notion because it is full of very early and often, I hate to say it, visually exciting and beautiful works by the man that really causes one to wish to own some. This book does discuss the scandal surrounding Dali briefly, very briefly, and notes that the editors got far less cooperation from various galleries in the course of their research than they did for the first volume of the catalogue which dealt with the etcthings, etc. No mention was made of the multi-million dollar judgment against Center Art Galleries in Hawaii, for instance, that was apparently responsible for a whole boat load of the inauthentic stuff. Anyway, the book is broken up into three parts. The introductory discussion, roughly 75 pages of well-done full color reproductions and roughly 100 pps. of cataloguing data recording edition size, printer, medium, etc. I don't believe that any of the photomechanical reproductions produced by Center are included but I do notice a Center Art Gallery commissioned series or two. In that vein, the page dedicated to known forgeries and unauthorized edtions is only about, well one half page. This seems far too short, and the editors admit to the herculean task it would be to get more extensive and accurate information in print. Suffice it to say that a lot of swamp land ground was not covered. I'd recommend sticking strictly to the, ahem, book in your search for Dali Lithographs and let the sands of time sort out the sordid bits in another, different book. This comes with my highest recommendation especially for print collectors.

The Catalogue is better organized and easier to read than Albert Fields' Graphic Works of Salvador Dali. Unfortunately, most pictures are in black and white.

A MUST for any seriuos collector and honest dealer. Dali's lithos are among the most forged works of art in the world: you can find forgeries at auctions, for often auctioneers have no idea and/or sell just for cash (the same all over the world, also in China, where I live, and where I have seen both fakes tout court and original with forged signatures in Beijing and Shanghai). The best money you can invest for your Dali collection!

I own 11 different books on Dali, and the two books published by Prestell are the best in my collection, much better and fewer mistakes than the "Fields" book!!

The graphic work of the surrealist Dalí is voluminous and makes understandable how much work there was necessary to produce this book. Though it shows clearly more then only a few bad mistakes and a lack of information, like proofed by the "Official Catalog of Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí", which is required by international museums and written by Albert Field, the official Dalí-Archivar, authorized by Dalí himself and accepted as an expert by international museums and courts all over the world. In contrast to this book, published by Dali specialist Brana Fine Art, the Michler/Löpsinger book remains very superficial only also concerning the announced details of forgeries. A redaer looking for an overview of a part of the graphic works of Salvador Dali may find it in this book, though over all, also together with the accompaniing second volume, both volumes do miss the high claimed aims.

As the Owner and Manager of Pop and Contemporary Fine Art in Singapore I fully recommend this book to any serious collector or fan. As a catalogue raisonne it is obviously full of details and pictures of Salvador Dali's work. Unfortunately this book is somewhat lacking in historical details which makes it more of a book to have to complement others such as Salvador Dali: The Catalogue Raisonne of Etchings and Mixed-Media Prints, 1924-1980 (Art & Design) or The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali rather then a standalone book. Salvador Dali is considered one of the forefathers of the Surrealism Art Movement and is today still one of the most fascinating artists that Spain has produced.

If you are looking into purchasing any prints or lithographs of the great one , Salvador Dali ,
Then I suggest you pick up this book.
It lists most of his lithographs from 1956-1980 ( when he STOPPED signing art work )
It will give you all the needed information:
sizes of the prints , year produced , numbers produced and various other information.
There are some mistakes in this book , as there are in the Fields guide too but the number of them aren't enough to discount the information contained here.
The biggest drawback about this book is MOST of the artwork photos is done in Black & White.
For the price they should have produced ALL of them in color.

If you're willing to spend big bucks on a Dali graphic ,
No sense in not doing the homework involved to make sure that your investment is a good one.
The price of these books is small when compared to the prices on prints out there
and from personal experience I know there are LOTS of bogus lithographs out there ,
Many with fraudulent signatures that ruin what could be an otherwise decent cheap piece of limited edition artwork.

This is only part of the library you will need if you're going to be an informed buyer of Dali material.
For etchings , prints and lithographs I also suggest you also look into :
Salvador Dali: The Catalogue Raisonne of Etchings and Mixed-Media Prints, 1924-1980 ( very expensive )
The Albert Field graphics guide
and while I haven't seen this one yet
the annual price guide put out by Bruce Hochman ( I have one incoming currently as I write this )

Good luck in buying your Dali prints.
If you are reading this then you must be a serious buyer and
I would also like to make another suggestion.
Try searching for an online group called
CollectDali
it has a number of knowledgeable folks who are well versed at collecting all things DALI

The two books I have are great but in Vol II I'm missing pages 130 through 150. I only discovered this when i was looking for a work referenced on 148. Is anybody elses copy missing pages?