Salvador Dalí
Poems by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung), The Dragon, 1967.
Hand-colored etching on archival paper.
Hand-signed and numbered at the lower margins.
A certificate of authenticity is issued for the work.
Published by Pierre Argillet.
This artwork is framed and wall-ready.

Mao Tse-Tung, the iconic figure and absolute leader of Communist China and leader of the Cultural Revolution in China, was also surprisingly a calligrapher and graceful and eloquent poet. Amid the Cultural Revolution in China, followed by the May 1968 riots in France, Pierre Argillet brought the book “Poems” by Mao Tse-Tung to Dalí. Tickled, the artist decided to create eight illustrations, some of which were political satires. The “Hundred Flowers” are shown as towering fleurs de-lis, symbols of royalty, with people attempting to reach them. Crowns emerge from the “River of Plenty.” When Argillet asked Dalí why his “Bust of Mao” was headless in a Chinese uniform, Dalí replied: “Well, the man is so tall that he didn’t fit on the page!”—“And what about these small dancing “Demons?”—“To the Chinese, they are Japanese!” The “Dragon” is a female monster, the “Three Mountains of Peace” are hardly larger than rocks, and the “Turtle Mountain,” shown as gigantic, antediluvian animals, wanders in the midst of excrements resembling the Yin and Yang symbol. As to the splendid “Small Horses,” their pirouettes call to mind the Renaissance period but also the longing for freedom. © Argillet Collection.

Poems of Mao Zedong is A suite of 8 original etchings reworked in drypoint and published in 1967.
It is 15 x 11 inches. The edition size is 1-150 signed and numbered on Arches and 1-95 on Japanese paper.

Salvador Dali – Off The Wall Gallery, Houston, Texas.