Surrealism and symbolism in Salvador Dalí's tarot deck
Legend has it that during the preparations for the James Bond film Live and Let Die, producer Albert Broccoli commissioned the surrealist master Salvador Dalí to design a tarot card deck. Probably inspired by Gala, who fueled his interest in mysticism, Dalí got to work. He was enthusiastic about the project and continued with it even when the agreement with the producer ultimately did not materialize.
His designs were published in a limited Art Edition in 1984, long sold out, making Dalí the first prestigious painter to create a completely new tarot card deck. Drawing on Western masterpieces from Antiquity to modernity (including some of his own creations), Dalí perfectly combines his knowledge of the arcane with his unmistakable wit. The result is a surrealist kaleidoscope of European art history.
TASCHEN revives the 78 cards in a new tribute to the inimitable deck designed by Dalí, accompanied by a booklet by the renowned German tarot expert Johannes Fiebig that includes an introduction to Dalí’s life and the making of the project, a detailed description of each card’s composition, its meaning and practical advice, step-by-step instructions on how to read the cards, and a jargon-free explanation that simplifies tarot for beginners.
Johannes Fiebig is a renowned writer in the field of tarot and a leading expert in the psychological interpretation of symbols. He published his first book in 1984. Since then, more than two million copies of his works have been sold and translated into several languages. He founded the publishing house Königsfurt in 1989 and was managing director of Königsfurt-Urania and AGM-Urania until 2018. Since then, he has been an independent writer based in Kiel.
