Leaf Hands

Salvador DalíWW-1949-044522

1949·Cotton and rayon, plain weave; screen printed with vat-dyes·195.8 × 123.4 cm (77 1/8 × 48 1/2 in.)

<p>Disembodied green hands with gently pointed magenta fingernails and dark brown veins float across a fractured white ground in Salvador Dalí’s <em>Leaf Hands</em> design for Schiffer Prints. In the mid-twentieth century, Schiffer, a division of Mil-Art Company, Inc., commissioned artists, such as Dalí, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/87463">Edward Wormley</a>, and <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/73553">Ray Eames</a>, to produce designs for fabrics, expecting to market them to clients interested in a modernist aesthetic for their homes. Dalí found this design process fruitful and went on to use the leaf hands motif for brooches, which were cast in eighteen-carat gold and feature red enamel fingernails.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1949
Medium: Cotton and rayon, plain weave; screen printed with vat-dyes
Dimensions: 195.8 × 123.4 cm (77 1/8 × 48 1/2 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Salvador Dalí

Artist

Salvador Dalí

Painting

S alvador Dalí, the legendary Spanish Surrealist, became world-famous for his dreamlike masterpieces—most notably The Persistence of Memory—as well as his eccentric persona and boundary-pushing explorations in film, sculpture, fashion, and design. Today, Dalí’s visionary works are celebrated in major museums worldwide and continue to show strong performance at auction, solidifying his status as one of the 20th century’s most influential artists.

Figueres, Spain

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