The Catalogs Raisonnés of Salvador Dalí

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The catalog raisonné aims to determine, in a definitive way, what artworks belong to the pictorial and sculptural production of an artist. The catalog raisonné is an exhaustive list of all the paintings, drawings, sculptures, engravings, lithographs and in general any known graphic artwork of an artist during its artist life. They are usually short-run editions aimed to professionals, collectors and investors in art, the vast majority being sold out on the market, so finding a new copy is quite difficult, if not impossible. The second-hand copies that can be found in specialized bookstores are not exactly cheap, but their purchase is a guaranteed investment due to the increasing price of these editions.

Below we offer a list of the most relevant Catalogues Raisonnés of the graphic work of Salvador Dalí:

The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali, Albert Field, Editorial S. Dalí; Archives, 1996

The reference in Anglo-Saxon countries is the so-called Albert Field Catalogue. Authorized by Dalí, Field dedicated himself to his work. for more than forty years to collect and maintain the official archives of Dalí in New York. Written in English, it is organized by type of graphic artwork and by year, including color photographs of the artworks together with the description of each one of the editions, publisher, printer, measurements, type of paper and total print run. This catalog can be found at Amazon starting at $499

Dali: Catalogue Raisonne of Etchings and Mixed-Media Prints, 1924-1980, and Dali : Catalogue Raisonne of Prints II Lithographs Publisher Prestel, Michler y Loepsinger.

The Prestel Catalog of Dalí's Graphic Works is the main reference for Europe. Consisting of two volumes written in English, it is organized by type of graphic artwork and by years. It lacks an index by titles that would be very useful to locate the artworks. Includes black and white photographs along with a description of each of the editions, publisher, printer, measurements, type of paper and total print run. Sold on Amazon from $600 and $400 respectively. 

Catalogue of the Graphic Art of Dalí, 1988, Habarta and Moore

The first of the catalogs and the most incomplete. Bilingual in German and English only includes black and white photographs and the titles of the artworks together with a small review at the end of the book where it says the year of publication, the publisher and the printer. In some cases it includes the measurements but does not include the print run size. At the time of writing this article we have found a single copy on Amazon for $500

The Catalogs Raisonnés of Salvador Dalí try to determine, definitively, what artworks belong to the graphic production of Dalí. All the more so since Dalí He was a very prolific artist, who worked with different materials and techniques over time. The Catalogs Raisonnés thus allow the identify what lithographs and etchings belong to the artist and are essential tools for any art collector and investor.

Miguel Ángel Currás