Dalí pays homage to Isaac Newton for his discovery of the law of gravity symbolized by the apple falling from a tree. The famous apple has been transformed into a hard sphere hanging from a string. It appears to be halted mid-flight, the cord representing the fall of the apple.
In this sculpture, Dalí implies that the living being Newton has become a mere name in science, entirely stripped of his personality and individuality. His incredible and revolutionary laws of motion take centre place obscuring all personal details of Newton himself.
To depict this transformation, Dalí has pierced the figure with two eye-catching holes, the oval in the head suggests open mindedness whilst the large opening in the torso portrays the absence of Newton’s physical body. The opening in the chest and the way light shines through is a perfect symbolic allusion to anther of the physician’s discoveries, on the subject of light.
Date: conceived in 1977, first cast in 1984
Material: bronze
Technique: lost wax process
Edition size : 350 + 35 EA
Height : 49 cm
Edition : patina blue
Maquette: original drawing, Surrealist Newton, 1977
Direct intervention (created by Dalí): the idea, image, and original maquette
Indirect intervention (created by artisans): lost wax process and patina
