Exhibited: Galerie André Francois Petit, Paris 1967; ill. full page in the catalogue. Catalogue text can be accesed here: http://www.dado.virtual.museum/dado-artwork-waldberg.php)

We thank Mr. Pascal Szidon for his help in cataloguing this work.

Dado’s art is characterized by a duality – or a balance – between the grotesque and the beautiful. His paintings, often populated by characteristic monster-like creatures, have been compared to everything from Hieronymus Bosch's violent sceneries, Surrealism’s absurd play with the subconscious and Francis Bacon’s distorted bodies. However, Dado's expression is always his own, which has made him one of the most distinctive painters within European post-war art. Dado was born in 1933 in Cetinje, Montenegro, part of the former Yugoslavia. He grew up in the shadow of World War II, and after his mother's death when he was 11, he was sent to Slovenia. Here he grew up with his uncle, who was a painter. Art became important early on for Dado, and at 18 he was admitted to the art academy in Belgrade. After completing his studies, and thanks to the help of his teacher Marko Celebonovic, Dado had the opportunity to travel to Paris in 1956. After being engaged in various odd jobs, he was hired as a lithographer at Gérard Patris. He quickly learned French and came into direct contact with several of the city's leading artists, including Jean Dubuffet and Roberto Matta. Especially Dubuffet was impressed by the young artist’s work and introduced him to Daniel Cordier, who became Dado's close friend and the first gallerist to exhibit Dado’s work. In 1958, he had his first individual exhibition at Cordier's gallery, which became Dado’s public breakthrough. The move to France was of course important for Dado, but the decisive change of environment occurred when he moved into an old mill in Hérouval near the village of Gisors in Normandy in 1960. Here, Dado found his permanent home, where he for six decades created his unique art until his death in 2010.