Salvador Dali. Red Thread and Pins

In the circular corridor of the first floor of the theater-museum in Figueres, there are several paintings depicting a red line or thread. This symbol is quite common in Dalí's works. Additionally, these paintings feature falling nails. Dalí painted these paintings with a red thread in 1982, during a tragic period in his life when his main muse and wife, Gala, passed away, and he was gravely ill. The thin thread descending from the storm clouds symbolizes the fragility of human existence, the fading vitality, and the mental connection with the deceased wife. In combination with the falling nails, the thread in the painting "Tension" conveys a sense of invisible threat and anxiety. The thread is stretched between heaven and earth (clinging to the branches of trees), representing the artist's own nervous system, which is on the verge of collapse due to loneliness and fear of death. In some of the paintings in this series, Dalí associates the red thread with computer circuit boards. Here, the thread acts as a conduit for information, a symbol of how new technologies connect humanity while simultaneously stripping it of its former spirituality, turning fate into a dry algorithm.

Salvador Dalí dedicated the painting Evarist Vallès to his close friend, the surrealist artist Evarist Vallès (1923–2000), who was also from Figueres and was actively involved in the creation of Dalí's Theatre-Museum. On the right, we see a rounded, hollow stone with a nail on top. Vallès often used similar biomorphic shapes and hollow stones in his artwork. Oil on canvas, 80x100cm.

The painting Las principales variables atmosféricas (The Main Atmospheric Variables), also known as Tensión (Tension), is an oil on canvas painting measuring 81x65 cm.

El camino de la enigma (The Path of the Enigma). In the lower left corner, a huge hollow structure dominates, resembling a pelvic bone or an ancient limestone outcrop. Oil on canvas, 139x92cm.