Tyler Coburn

Thumbprints and Other Takeaways, 1960 - 2010

Tyler Coburn & Salvador Dalí
Signed etching paper, sucking stones, Camembert, etching copper, pedestas

Installation views: Today I Made Nothing, curated by Tim Saltarelli, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York

Thumbprints and Other Takeaways begins in a period, near the end of Dalí's life, when the artist signed thousands of sheets of blank etching and lithographic paper. Some historians believe that in addition to using the sheets for photolithographs and prints of Dalí's previous works, Gala and his handlers also sold off blank, signed sheets.

I'm interested in the cynicism with which Dalí, in acknowledging the signatory act as inscribing value in most anything, effectuates a wildly unstable market for his works, which by present day is overstuffed with forgeries and the hucksters who peddle them.

Further complicating matters, Dalí signed his name in hundreds of different ways over his life, thus divesting even the signatory act of a stabilizing authority. One huckster published a record of the 678 supposedly legitimate signature variations, which I carbon-transferred onto blank etching paper. Each sheet has a different signature and operates as a takeaway. The entire piece is fraudulently credited as a collaboration between me and Dalí.