In 1973, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, art publisher Alex Rosenberg commissioned Salvador Dal\u00ed to create a portfolio of etchings titled The Twelve Tribes of Israel. The project grew out of the long-standing and prolific collaboration between Rosenberg\u2019s company, Transworld Art, and Dal\u00ed, which had already produced more than 150 of the artist\u2019s editions. The portfolio was designed as a unique artistic tribute to a pivotal moment in contemporary Jewish history.<\/p>\n
Its association with Israel was underscored by the inclusion of a foreword by Abba Eban, then serving as Israel\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and by its issue in both English and Hebrew editions. That same year, Rosenberg presented a copy of the portfolio to President Ephraim Katzir for the collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Rosenberg was closely engaged with Israeli cultural institutions more broadly, including through his position on the board of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.<\/p>\n
This collection comprises the original proof copies, each entirely hand-painted, together with the original copper plates used to print the edition. Also included is a complete signed set of the cancelled proofs. This exceptionally significant group remained in the personal collection of Alex Rosenberg until his death in 2022.<\/p>\n
Created in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the State of Israel, Salvador Dal\u00ed\u2019s The Twelve Tribes of Israel (1973) presents a strikingly surreal interpretation of biblical prophecy, fusing religious symbolism with the dream logic of the unconscious. Salvador Dal\u00ed, known for his bizarre surrealist style inspired by Freudian theories of the subconscious, reimagines scriptural emblems using the same techniques and aesthetics that appear in his wide and complex oeuvre. In The Twelve Tribes of Israel, Dal\u00ed draws on Jacob\u2019s predictions for his sons and leaders of each tribe in Genesis, and Moses\u2019 blessings in Deuteronomy. The interaction of the tribes\u2019 symbols with the landscape lends the piece its eccentric qualities, creating a sense of dissonance and irregularity. Each tribe is depicted through vivid, unnatural colour, exaggerated scale, and dynamic form, crafting symbolic scenes in which the literal and the metaphoric converge.<\/p>\n
Working with the intertwined themes of exile and return, icons and faith, Dal\u00ed created a suite of images that commemorate the biblical tribes and their ancestral regions. The compositions convey a sense of movement and pilgrimage: transient figures traverse luminous, expanding landscapes framed by mountains and monuments that evoke the geography and character of each tribe. Beneath the bright, celebratory colour lies a quiet tension, an awareness of impermanence and displacement. Erratic, sketch-like monochrome figures animate the scenes with restlessness and energy. The incongruent style of the unstable figures and the softly coloured, simplified backgrounds resonates with the historical moment in which the works emerged, one that witnessed the return of dispersed communities to a reimagined national landscape.<\/p>\n
Provenance: Freedman Gallery, Albright College; The Alex and Carole Rosenberg Collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1. The complete set of thirteen original drypoint etchings painted with watercolours.<\/strong> 2. The complete set of thirteen unique original drypoint etchings of the cancelled plates.<\/strong><\/p>\n The complete set of thirteen unique original drypoint etchings of the cancelled plates without the pochoir, 1973, on BFK Rives paper, all drypoints signed in pencil except \u2018Gad\u2019, plates: 19\u00be x 14\u00bd inches, sheets: 25\u00bd x 19\u00bd inches.<\/p>\n 3. The set of original unique copper etching plates.<\/strong>
13 original watercolors on etching. Each of the paintings is approximately 19\u00be x 14\u215c ins. or 14\u215c x 19\u00be ins.
Each painting was executed on Arches paper measuring approximately 25\u00be x 20 ins. except for \u2018Judah\u2019 and \u2018Gad\u2019 which measure approximately 20 x 25\u00be ins.<\/p>\n
The set of original unique copper etching plates for The Twelve Tribes Of Israel, hand engraved by Salvador Dal\u00ed 1973, with titles etched verso, 15 x 20 inches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":90102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[544],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-90105","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-literature","7":"pa_auteur-dali-salvador-2","8":"pa_type-de-livre-print","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"product-type-simple"},"acf":{"artist":"Salvador DAL\u00cd","chapeau":"","adresse_bibliographique":"","book_type":"Print","provenance":"","afficher_prix":"non"},"yoast_head":"\n