Dalí's Unique Ashtray and Air India's Cultural Connection Exposed

Bengaluru, Jun 23 (PTI) – At Bengaluru's National Gallery of Modern Art, two renowned European artists are sharing the spotlight: the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio and the celebrated Spanish surrealist, Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí, better known as Salvador Dalí. Among the intriguing exhibits is a ceramic ashtray, part of the 'Sanhita: A New Beginning' collection, showcasing 182 artefacts from Air India. Designed by Dalí in 1967, this ashtray was exchanged for an elephant, which was transported from Bengaluru to Europe. The ashtray features a unique design where an upside-down swan transforms into an elephant, with a shell-shaped center encircled by a serpent. Murali Nair, a passionate collector of Air India memorabilia, currently based in the Atlantic Ocean off Angola's coast, shared insights about this artefact via a WhatsApp call to PTI. He cited a press note and an image of Dalí with the ashtray, alongside Jot Singh, Air India's European public relations representative. Nair acquired this press kit on eBay, noting that it was likely distributed to overseas media. The ashtray is cited as the first 'objet d'art' created by an artist of Dalí's stature for an airline. It's believed Dalí crafted around 500 ashtrays for Air India to present to VIPs, including Prince Juan Carlos of Spain in 1967. However, another collector, Piyush Khaitan of NeoGrowth Credit and co-runner of airindiacollector.com, estimates the production number at 1,000. Nair himself has seen several ashtrays with numbers as high as 859. Nair's website, air-india-first-flight-covers-com, features a video of Dalí and his wife greeting the baby elephant in Geneva, sourced from RTVE, the Spanish Broadcasting Corporation. The elephant, likely later sent to the Barcelona Zoo, was transported from Bengaluru with a mahout to Geneva and then to Dalí's residence in Cadaqués. A video from the event reveals how the town mayor announced a three-day holiday in celebration and an Indian astrologer from Mumbai was flown in for the occasion. According to art critics, the ashtray reflects Dalí's 1937 surrealist painting, 'Swans Reflecting Elephants,' where swans on a lake appear as elephants' reflections. Elephants also appeared in Dalí's 1948 work, 'The Elephants,' depicting them with surreal, spindly legs. Y U Darshan Kumar, the curator of 'Sanhita' and the NGMA exhibition, explained their aim to show how Air India intertwined art with business strategy. The exhibition includes works by artists like Mario Miranda, R K Laxman, B Prabha, V S Gaitonde, Jatin Das, Arpana Caur, and Anjolie Ela Menon, along with posters and antiques such as jaali doors, collected by Air India since the 1960s. Subarno Patro, co-curator, mentioned that while it's unclear where specific items, like a large brass vessel, were displayed, Air India used these artefacts to adorn its global offices and lounges, reflecting India's cultural splendor. PTI JR ADB

Bengaluru, Jun 23 (