Dali Planet #105: Disney does Dali
“I have come to Hollywood and am in touch with the three great American surrealists — the Marx Brothers, Cecil B DeMille and Walt Disney,” Dali wrote to Andre Breton in Paris. Dali finally met the last of this triumvirate at a 1946 party at the home of Warner Brothers studio chief Jack Warner, who had commissioned the artist to do his portrait and one of his wife.
Dali approached Disney with the suggestion that Walt was the man who could make “the first motion picture of the Never Seen Before”. Disney saw the possiblities and assigned director John Hench to help Dali turn the Mexican ballad “Destino” into a six-minute animated film at the Disney studios.
The company hit a financial reef, however, and “Destino” the film was shelved, to be finally resurrected in 2002, freshened up with some computer-generated imagery.
Meanwhile, as happened on the “Spellbound” set, collectors absconded with much of Dali’s artwork for the cartoon, including storyboards. Some have occasionally shown up at auction.
Here’s Uncle Walt returning the visit, strolling in Cadaques with the maestro.
Above is a detail of “Portrait of Mrs Jack Warner”, which is in a private collection.
In May 2008, the study for this painting, seen below and with a detail here, came up for bidding at Bonham’s in New York, at an estimated price of between $40,000 and $60,000.
There were no takers.
