Donati belonged to the circle of Surrealist artists, led by André Breton, active in New York in the 1940s. World War II had driven many artists from Europe, and New York became the headquarters for a "Surrealism in exile." Donati first traveled to North America in 1934, when he spent several months studying American Indian art in Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Canada. In 1940 he moved to New York, where he became closely associated with Breton, Marcel Duchamp, and others. As Inscription 4026 B.C. demonstrates, Donati frequently incorporated sand into his paintings of the 1960s, creating compositions that resemble in texture and color the fossils and stones that he collected.
Gallery label from 2009.