Reflection

about Reflection

Reflections comes from a portfolio of three lithographs titled “The Cycles of Life”, produced by Duall Graphics for DALART in 1977.

There were several editions produced as photolithographs with etchings both on Arches and Rives paper. This piece is from the HC edition of 65 on Arches paper.The portfolio shows life at three different stages. The first two prints – Vigor of Youth and One’s Identity – show young figures placed upon a watch amidst a sparse landscape, their lives the foreground to a background of meteor showers and knights on galloping horses. The activity shown is present and immediate.In Reflections, however, the figures have aged and are shown in profile as wrinkled and tired visages. The watch of the first two prints has moved from its hovering place in space to be anchored firmly to the wrist of a pointing hand. The watch now also resembles those seen in the famous painting The Persistence of Memory by Dali, which is long considered to be a self-portrait of the Surrealist artist. The clocks of that piece are described as “the camembert of time” by Dali; they melt in place, losing their connection to time and permanence. The same interpretation can be made of the clock in Reflections, which tells the viewer to view the life that has passed as unfixed in time.The pointing hand directs the viewer to look at a small window, through which can be seen a mountain landscape. These are likely the same mountains that were seen in the distance in Vigor of Youth, further encouraging the viewer to look back on the memories of youth and reflect on its distance from the present.This remarkable print is signed and numbered in pencil by Salvador Dali.