- Cat. no. OE
- 11
Morceau de coton hydrophile roulé instantanément et abandonné (catégorie des « automatismes avortés »)
Piece of cotton wool instantly rolled up and abandoned (category of «aborted automatisms»)

Cat. no. OE 11
Piece of cotton wool instantly rolled up and abandoned (category of «aborted automatisms»)
c. 1933
Description
- Author:
- Salvador Dalí i Domènech - Gyula Halász, àlies Brassaï
- Date:
- c. 1933
- Technique:
- Photograph and found object or object of automatic origin
- Dimensions:
- 23.2 x 16.4 x cm
The dimensions correspond to the original print run of the photograph - Inscriptions:
- Dalí's writing appears on the back: morço de coton roule instantanement et l'aisse / il se classe parmi les "otomatismes avortes"
On the back: Morceau de coton hydrophile / roulé instantanément et abandonné / (catégorie des "automatismes avortés) - Location:
- Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'art moderne - Centre de création industrielle, Paris
- Description:
- Between 1932-1933, Dalí took on the artistic direction of a series of photographs made with Gyula Halász, alias Brassaï (1899-1984), in which certain objects, probably of automatic origin, acquire a new conceptual and artistic dimension, grounded in the essence of the photographic image. Several of these photographs were published anonymously in 1933 in the magazine Minotaure, under the heading ‘Sculptures involontaires’, each with a descriptive title drawing attention to details of the work. A number of these photographs that were not made public at the time constitute further examples of this type of creation. This is the case of this photograph, conserved in the Centre de création industrielle at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, with a handwritten note by Dalí on the back establishing the title of this creation.
Dalí’s original spelling of the title on the back of the photograph has been corrected: "Morço de coton roule instantanement et l'aisse il se classe parmi les «otomatismes avortes»".
The dimensions and the inscriptions correspond to the original print run of this photograph, which is conserved at the Centre de création industrielle in Paris.
- Brassaï, Conversations avec Picasso, Gallimard, [París], 1964, p. 49
- Brassaï, Picasso and company, Doubleday, New York, 1966, p. 36
- Brassaï, Centre Pompidou / Seuil, Paris, 2000, pp. 134, 317, ill., indirect image
- La Subversion des images : surrealisme, photographie, film, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2009, pp. 347, 461, ill., indirect image
- Anna Dezeuze, Julia Kelly, Found sculpture and photography from surrealism to contemporary art, Ashgate, Farnham, UK, Burlington, VT, 2013, pp. 5-9, [13]-18, 30, 99-102
- Didier Ottinger, Dictionnaire de l'objet surréaliste, Gallimard, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2013, pp. [245], 246, [307], ill. (reversed image)
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Cat. no. OE 3
«Symmetrically» rolled-up bus ticket, forming a rare mechanism of automatism with evident germs of stereotypes
1932-1933
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Cat. no. OE 4
Ornamental Modern Style bread escapes the soft stereotype
1932-1933
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Cat. no. OE 5
Piece of soap presenting Modern Style automatic shapes, found in a washbasin
1932-1933
-
Cat. no. OE 6
The morphological accident of the squeezed toothpaste does not escape the fine ornamental stereotype
1932-1933
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Cat. no. OE 7
Elementary rolling-up obtained from a «mental defective»
1932-1933
-
Cat. no. OE 8
Rolled-up bus ticket, found in the pocket of an average bureaucrat (Crédit Lyonnais); the most frequent characteristics of «Modern Style»
1932-1933
-
Cat. no. OE 9
The Envelope
c. 1933
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Cat. no. OE 10
Untitled. Automatic object
c. 1933
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Cat. no. OE 12
Untitled. Automatic object
c. 1933
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Cat. no. OE 13
Shell
c. 1933
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