Ask the Dali Guru, Joe Nuzzolo: A Weekly Conversation

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Mr. Nuzzolo is president of the Salvador Dali Society, Inc. and co-author – with Peter B. Lucas and Lawrence Saphire – of Salvador Dali Prints: The Catalogue Raisonne, to be released in early 2017. He chats below with Dali Society historian and blogger Paul Chimera, in another installment of our weekly feature, “Ask the Dali Guru.”

 

PC:  The Salvador Dali Society, Inc. has moved its headquarters from Redondo Beach, California to Torrance, California. Why the move and how does that affect your operations as the major U.S. dealer dedicated to the art of Dali?

 

JN: That was a while back. I purchased an 8000-sq. ft. solid brick building on Carson Street. The brick had been painted over, so we spent months using an environmentally friendly stripper to remove it. Now it’s back to its original look: red brick walls inside and an unusual cream-colored brick on the exterior.  I weld and do iron work, so I added nice details in iron. I always liked the buildings in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona; many of my ideas came from there. Most of our business is still all over the world, but the building makes for a very cool headquarters. Right now we have only a few dozen works hanging, as we’re in the process re-configuring the open space to hang some 200 works by Dali.

 

PC: Your definitive print catalog raisonne is due out early next year. Give us an example of how a collector will be able to use it to determine authenticity of Dali works they own.

 

JN: The book is very well researched and can certainly be used by Dali collectors to navigate the market. But I recommend that before someone enters into any financial transaction for a Dali print, they send that print to me for an evaluation. If you wish to buy something from a dealer, I recommend that as a condition of the purchase you insist the work be sent to one of we three authors (Joe Nuzzolo, Lawrence Saphire, or Peter Lucas) for an in-person inspection and subsequent opinion of authenticity. The dealer should not refuse. If they do, you have every right to be concerned.

Here are our emails:

Joe Nuzzolo – joe@dali.com

Peter B.Lucas – daliprices@aol.com

Lawrence Saphire – 16025@comcast.net

 

PC: Talk about the Dali Society’s Facebook presence. Is it true you have several million members of your Salvador Dali Page?

JN: Our Dali page on Facebook at present has just under 6,000,000 fans. We have an eclectic following from all over the world. We offer interesting anecdotes about Salvador Dali as well as history and information for collectors. It is not a forum for commercial activity. We do occasionally offer a work for sale on the page, but it’s not one of those Facebook fan pages that really fronts for a commercial entity.

We always have Dali in mind when we make our posts. We give consideration to his comical persona and some posts are quite humorous. An example is a recent picture of a dog dressed up as Dali, which had millions of hits. Other posts provide historical information about the artist, of which the public is likely unaware.  Based on the growth of the page and the response from fans, I’d say we have struck a chord with Dali aficionados around the world. The page speaks to the popularity not just of Dali’s work but also his cult of personality.  Here’s the link:

https://www.facebook.com/SalvadorDaliPage/

 

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