Salvador Dali, El Mago, courtesy of Taschen, via another person
In the early 1970s, producers Albert R. Broccoli employed artist Salvador Dali To create a tarot deck for the upcoming James Bond film live and Let Die. Based on Ian Fleming’s 1954 novel of the same name, live and Let Die was released in 1973 – the eighth 007 film and the first starring Roger Moore. It’s a strange, mysterious Bond film, part an attempt at blaxploitation and part about Harlem gangsters, Caribbean drug cultivation and voodoo witch doctors. In one scene, a mental patient named Solitaire (Jane Seymour) reads a tarot deck. This was Dalí’s contribution to film.
Dalí began work on the deck, but it never made it to film. Allegedly, Dali’s fees were ultimately too highSo the producers went with another deck, witches’ tarot, Created by artist Fergus Hall. But Dalí continued to work on his deck, eventually completing it after more than a decade. Tarot was published in 1984 (less than five years before his death at age 84), and that original edition was sold out.
Dalí’s wife Gala was a Tarot reader, so perhaps this is one reason why he was attracted to the project even after the film commission fell through. He includes her in the deck as the Queen, while he portrays himself as the Wizard. (Obviously, He portrayed the last James BondSean Connery, as the Emperor, in a joke about being fired from the Roger Moore production… Looking at that card now, I don’t think it’s entirely clear that it’s Connery, but the idea is amusing.)
The Tarot is a full 78-card deck, with each card being an original work of art, usually a combination of gouache painting and collage/lithography. Dalí included references to major events in Western history; For example, the Ten of Swords card depicts the stabbing of Julius Caesar, while the Queen of Cups is a mocking barbarity of François Clouet’s portrait of Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France. Here are a few highlights:
Cards from one of the original Dali printed decks currently on display “Tarot!” Exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.
In 2019, Taschen was released A special, multilingual edition of the Dali Tarot: The complete 78-card deck and accompanying book written by Tarot expert Johannes Fiebig.
