Salvador Dalí’s Memories of Surrealism suite was published by Transworld Art. The total edition is 500, including sets in English and in French.
Each of the prints is a photo-lithograph (photolith) of an original mixed media artwork created using gouache and collage on paper.
Salvador Dalí created the Memories of Surrealism suite in 1971 in express reflections based upon his career to date.
Pierre Restany, a French art critic, interviewed Salvador Dalí about each of the Memories of Surrealism prints. The text appears out of order on printed introductory pages to accompany the photo-lithographs.
About Surrealistic King, Restany recounts his interview with Dalí as follows. “Let this be quite clear today: I am not only a first-class plagiarist, but also one of the first thieves, just like the God Mercury who was chief of the thieves. Lest anyone say that I am dishonest to the people I rob, let it be known by all, according to the tradition of the legitimate kings, that I hereby declare that all I am doing is a repetition of the appropriation process, which is not achieved by Marcel Duchamp in his ready-made, but that of Louis XIV, when at the most glorious time of his reign, he said: “L’État c’est Moi”. (Some information on Louis XIV, the Great: called Dieudonné—Heaven-sent—for his birth had been awaited 23 years, son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, he was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1638, was king of France from 1643 to 1715 and died in Versailles. He was not yet five when he succeeded his father under the regency of this mother and the ministry of Mazarin. In 1661, after Mazarin’s death, Louis XIV announced to the Council of Ministers that he intended to rule by himself from then on: “L’État c’est Moi”.)”