Dalí and the Ballet: The Three-Cornered Hat


	Dalí and the Ballet: *The Three-Cornered Hat* While his paintings in the 1932 Surrealism exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery first captured the attention of the New York art world, the Spanish-born artist, Salvador Dalí, in no way limited his activities to the easel. Along with painting, he worked in cinema, produced illustrations and advertising, wrote an autobiography (The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí published in 1942,) and designed for the theater and ballet. Dalí's designs for the ballet began with Bacchanale,a Metropolitan Opera production choreographed for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo by Léonide Massine. This ballet was set to the music of Richard Wagner and first performed in 1939. Bacchanalewas followed by Labyrinth,a ballet based on the myth of Theseus and Ariadne, Mad Tristan inspired by Wagner's Tristan and Isolde,Balanchine's Sentimental Colloquy, Café de Chinitas, The Three-Cornered Hatand, finally, the ballet Gala.The last production, dedicated to Dalí's wife, premiered in 1961 capping almost thirty years of involvement in the ballet. In 1948, after seeing the Spanish dancer Ana María and her Ballet Español perform at Carnegie Hall, Salvador Dalí proposed that they stage The Three-Cornered Hatthe following year. This Spanish comedy of amorous pursuit and mistaken identity is based on Pedro Antonio de Alarcón's comic story El sombrero de tres picos,first published in 1874. The story had previously inspired Serge de Diaghilev to stage Le Tricorne (The Three-Cornered Hat) with the Ballets Russes. Massine provided the choreography for this earlier ballet set to the music of Manuel de Falla. Picasso designed the set and costumes for this 1919 Ballets Russes production. The set designed by Dalí for The Three-Cornered Hat(1949) consisted of the theater backdrop, several side tabs and an array of flour sacks made to levitate above the stage. It was fabricated at the E.B. Dunkel Design Studios of New York. Scenic artist Eugene Dunkel and his son George had previously worked with Dalí on the ballet sets for Bacchanale (1939) and Labyrinth (1941.) For The Three-Cornered Hat backdrop, Dalí created an expansive landscape reminiscent of his Catalan homeland with such surrealist details as flying trees, floating sacks and a guitar shape. The costumes designed by Dalí capture the vibrancy of the Spanish style, yet their designs also suggest that the artist was more interested in visual effect and mood than the dancers' ability to dance. According to George Dunkel, "Many dancers are still out of condition because they had to work once in a Dalí costume." ----Annemarie Sawkins, Associate Curator, Haggerty Museum of Art © 2000 Marquette University

Dalí and the Ballet:
The Three-Cornered Hat

While his paintings in the 1932 Surrealism exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery first captured the attention of the New York art world, the Spanish-born artist, Salvador Dalí, in no way limited his activities to the easel. Along with painting, he worked in cinema, produced illustrations and advertising, wrote an autobiography (The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí published in 1942,) and designed for the theater and ballet.

Dalí's designs for the ballet began with Bacchanale,a Metropolitan Opera production choreographed for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo by Léonide Massine. This ballet was set to the music of Richard Wagner and first performed in 1939. Bacchanalewas followed by Labyrinth,a ballet based on the myth of Theseus and Ariadne, Mad Tristan inspired by Wagner's Tristan and Isolde,Balanchine's Sentimental Colloquy, Café de Chinitas, The Three-Cornered Hatand, finally, the ballet Gala.The last production, dedicated to Dalí's wife, premiered in 1961 capping almost thirty years of involvement in the ballet.

In 1948, after seeing the Spanish dancer Ana María and her Ballet Español perform at Carnegie Hall, Salvador Dalí proposed that they stage The Three-Cornered Hatthe following year. This Spanish comedy of amorous pursuit and mistaken identity is based on Pedro Antonio de Alarcón's comic story El sombrero de tres picos,first published in 1874. The story had previously inspired Serge de Diaghilev to stage Le Tricorne (The Three-Cornered Hat) with the Ballets Russes. Massine provided the choreography for this earlier ballet set to the music of Manuel de Falla. Picasso designed the set and costumes for this 1919 Ballets Russes production.

The set designed by Dalí for The Three-Cornered Hat(1949) consisted of the theater backdrop, several side tabs and an array of flour sacks made to levitate above the stage. It was fabricated at the E.B. Dunkel Design Studios of New York. Scenic artist Eugene Dunkel and his son George had previously worked with Dalí on the ballet sets for Bacchanale (1939) and Labyrinth (1941.)

For The Three-Cornered Hat backdrop, Dalí created an expansive landscape reminiscent of his Catalan homeland with such surrealist details as flying trees, floating sacks and a guitar shape. The costumes designed by Dalí capture the vibrancy of the Spanish style, yet their designs also suggest that the artist was more interested in visual effect and mood than the dancers' ability to dance. According to George Dunkel, "Many dancers are still out of condition because they had to work once in a Dalí costume."

----Annemarie Sawkins,
Associate Curator, Haggerty Museum of Art