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.
About Surrealistic Portrait of Dali Surrounded by Butterflies, Dalí says “
Pie 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 Portrait of Dali Surrounded by Butterflies, Restany recounts his interview with Dalí as follows. “If you wish to attract bombyx moths, all you have to do is to hang into your bedroom, your dining room or anywhere else, the tail of a cod. Fifteen minutes later there come the moths which are those the divine Dali brought to the ball given by the Baron de Rédé. The moths were still in their little silk cocoons and had been supplied by Mao Tse Tung’s embassy in Paris; they were supposed to hatch at exactly the time the Baron would have opened the ball. This unfortunately did not happen due to a mistake on the part of the specialist who had calculated the time at which the cocoons would open. If the hatching had taken place at the right time, the Baron’s palace would have been completely full of bombyx moths; this would have been the greatest surrealistic happening of the century. I immediately informed Mr. Rosenberg in New York, by telephone; from the other side of the Atlantic he sent me a cable saying: ‘Bombyx, bombyx, bravo, bravo, bravo!’.”