The Springfield Museum's latest exhibit
entitled Card Tricks Salvador Dali and the
Art of Playing Cards, is currently on
exhibit through November 20th at the Dunmore
Museum of Fine Arts.
Playing cards have been around for hundreds
of years, and the exhibit explores Dali's
surrealist contribution to this popular
pastime with his unique limited edition
designs, as well as through card decks
designed by artists working today.
I spoke with Maggie North, curator of art at
the Springfield Museums, to learn more.
Salvador Dali was born in 1904 and he lived
for much of the 20th century.
He was born in Spain, but by the end of his
lifetime, he had really become an
international artist celebrity in part for
his artwork, and in part because he had an
eccentric personality and a very distinctive
mustache. He really came to prominence in
the 1930s for surrealist paintings like The
Persistence of Memory, which is that famous
Salvador Dali painting with melting clocks
and a sort of eerie landscape.
But really, the artist was involved in many
media, including printmaking, sculpture.
He didn't shy away from commercial
opportunities such as furniture design - he
designed department store displays, and he
even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show
towards the end of his lifetime.
So, he was really a household name at the
end of the 20th century, but is best known
for that early surrealist painting that was
often inspired by dreams and mind his own
subconscious in order to create material.
And I know that his artwork that's on display
currently in the Springfield Museum hasn't
been on display since 2004.
So what was it that made you want to bring
back out this artwork for the public to see?
We're really excited to share this work with
the public, and it's an opportunity for us
to share works on paper from our permanent
collection, which can't always be on view
because of their light sensitivity.
But we do try to rotate them through our
gallery spaces every so often.
I actually must admit that I was unaware
that we had these prints until I stumbled on
a record for them in our database and we
didn't have great images in the database, so
I wasn't exactly sure what I had come
across. But once I investigated a little bit
further, I was really excited to see that we
had eight examples from a suite of 17 prints
that Salvador Dali created in the 1970s, in
about 1970, that really emulated and
reinterpreted playing card designs.
So they include wonderful depictions of
Dali's own imaginings of what Queens and
Jacks and King faced cards could look like,
as well as aces.
You describe this exhibit as small but
mighty, so in your opinion, what makes this
exhibition so robust?
This exhibition is one that includes the work
of a well known artist - Dali has really
become one of our most famous artists of the
20th century, but I think that more so than
even just focusing on Dali's important
contributions, which are showcased in this
exhibition, this exhibit really encourages
creativity. It showcases the ways in which a
sort of standard design can be
reinterpreted, reimagined, remade throughout
the decades and throughout the centuries.
And as the curator of this exhibition, it
was important to me to also include several
examples of contemporary card decks that
were designed by artists working right now.
And were really made in the past ten years
because, as we can see, artists continue to
reimagine playing cards and many other
objects that we think we know.
So I think it's a really wonderful, creative
exhibition that I hope will inspire our
visitors to go out there into the world and
reimagine the everyday objects that are
around them.
And speaking of objects that we think we
know, I was actually really surprised to
read that playing cards have been around for
centuries and present in so many different
cultures. Can you share with us some of the
history behind this past time?
Historians and art historians can't pinpoint
the exact origin of playing cards because
their history is really marked by this
variety and reinterpretation that we've been
talking about.
But we think that they were used in China as
early as the 10th century, and we know that
around the 1400s, playing cards in various
forms were being used in Egypt and in
Europe. But it wasn't until printing presses
became more popularized and more accessible
that cards were standardized and widely
disseminated to the public.
So, for example, in the 18th century, we
start to see more codified examples of
playing decks such as this Paris pattern,
which is a pattern that emerged in France
and represents kings, queens and jacks -
it's one of the most familiar patterns to us
today. So this is a long history and the
design of playing cards, of course, is
influenced by the hierarchies that were in
society at that time and the noble figures
that were in society.
But there are also interesting influences
ranging from mysticism to astronomy and
history. We can think about tarot cards, for
example. So there's there's a lot to uncover
within this exhibition, and I hope that it
provides just a taste of the history, the
long and fascinating history of playing
cards.
Absolutely. And I know that you mentioned to
me that you personally love Dali's
surrealist work and his interpretation of
the playing cards. So which one is your
favorite in this collection?
Oh, it's a good question.
There's a number that I like, but I would
have to say that the ace of diamonds, which
is hung at the center of the exhibition so
you'll see it just as you walk through the
door is one of my favorites.
It depicts an ace card, but included is one
of Dali's famous melting clocks and that's a
motif that is recognizable as a surrealist
motif and has really come to represent the
strange quality of time as something that is
transient and sort of malleable.
Time doesn't always feel the same as we've
all discovered after living through the
pandemic for two years.
So I think that even though it's an old
motif, it has new resonance and continued
importance within art history, and it's just
a really fun image.
But there are so many other great examples
of Dali's interpretations of playing cards:
there's a jack who wears a boat for a hat, a
king whose castle is upside down, and
examples of strange but familiar objects
such as keys and drawers appearing within
the garments of the noble figures
represented on the face cards.
So there's really a lot to hunt for as
you're looking through these images.
And I know that the other cards on exhibit
that you were talking about that have been
made by artists working today, those are
some powerful cards as well.
Talk to us about what some of those playing
cards represent in the exhibit.
These playing cards are really wonderful and
they really are just a small selection of
the amazing variety that's out there today
when you Google or you go on Etsy and search
for contemporary playing cards.
Included in the display are playing cards
that are designed by Kyra Johnson, who
replaces the traditional face cards with
influential figures from American history
who have made strides in African American
and Black history and culture.
So figures from Malcolm X to Michelle Obama
. There are also cards in the exhibition that
feature colorful line drawings by Shantell
Martin. And these are really a celebration
of LGBTQ+ pride.
We have cards on view that illustrate
Japanese tattooing traditions.
And also one of my favorites is a deck of
cards designed by an artist named Rico Worl,
who celebrates and depicts images that are
central to indigenous cultures from the
Pacific North - I'm sorry - from the Pacific
Coast, so these are a deck of raven inspired
playing cards.
I love that when you think of art, sometimes
you think of something frames or sculptures.
So just to see this interpretation be on a
playing card that people love to use
everyday is so cool.
As curator of this exhibition, what are you
most proud of?
I think I'm most proud of the fact that we
were able to create this dialog between
Dali's interpretation of the playing card,
the history of playing cards, and these
contemporary playing cards.
Because although Dali is at the center of
the exhibition title, this is an exhibition
that is more broadly about the creative and
playful history of cards and the ways in
which cards will continue to be reinvented
years and years into the future.