Dali by Harry Sternberg

Dali, is a screen print created by Harry Sternberg. It's part of a series of works Sternberg did in 1944 that could be characterized as caricatures of other artists of the day. In addition to Dali, he featured Pablo Picasso (in cubist style), Thomas Hart Benton as a country guitarist, Raphael Soyer with models, among others. The Dali piece includes many surrealist elements set in a barren plain including a melting canvas, bizarre perspective, holes in bodies, and a phallic symbol. Dali's face is partially covered by a cloth with holes, but his characteristic moustache is visible (or at least 1/2 of it is). There is also a fleeing nude woman and what I interpret as a gesture to Giorgio de Chirico (the brick building on the right). A marvelous and insightful portrait. It is titled and signed in pencil lower right Dali by H. Sternberg. The piece is mounted on a mat board 21.75 x 27.5 inches. The sheet is full and untrimmed, 18 x 24 inches. The image size is 12.5 x 16.5 inches. It is in pristine condition with no paper loss, tears, stains, foxing, toning, or fading. Just a wonderfully humorous take on Dali and surrealism.

Harry Sternberg (1904–2001) is probably best known as a social realist. He worked in multiple media including murals, painting, and printmaking. His formal studies were at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Arts Students League in New York. During the depression he was a WPA artist and was a technical advisor for the Graphic Art Division, of the Federal Art Project. His murals are in post offices in Chicago, and Pennsylvania. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1936 and his work was included in the first Whitney Museum Invitational Annual in 1937. He was a dedicated teacher with long stints at the Art Students League in New York City. He taught printmaking at the New School of Social Research. He directed the art department at the Idyllwild School of Music and Art Idyllwild, California.. He authored several books on artistic technique, primarily printmaking but also composition. A noted and well-respected artist, he was the subject of many career retrospective exhibits including at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1975) and the San Diego Museum of Art (1994). A catalogue raisonne of his graphic work was completed in conjunction with a retrospective at Wichita State University (1975). Another retrospective just a year before his death at the Museum–California Center for the Arts, Escondido, California also issued a catalogue. His work is held in most major collections. The National Gallery of Art holds a set of his artist portraits (caricatures) of which this work is one.