The ''Mae West Lips Sofa'' is a
surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
sculpture in the form of a
sofa
A couch, also known as a sofa, settee, or chesterfield, is a cushioned item of furniture for seating multiple people (although it is not uncommon for a single person to use a couch alone). It is commonly found in the form of a bench with up ...
by
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...
. The light red, sized seating furniture made of polyurethane foam coated with a red polidur coating was shaped in 1972 after the lips of actress
Mae West
Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...
, whom Dalí apparently found fascinating.
[Shelley, Landry]
"Dalí Wows Crowd in Philadelphia"
''Unbound'' (The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, or ...
) Spring 2005. Retrieved July 22, 2006. Dalí never intended for the sofa to serve a functional use. He also claimed that he partly based the design of the sofa on a pile of rocks near
Cadaqués and
Portlligat
Portlligat is a small village located in a small bay on Cap de Creus peninsula, on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean Sea, in the municipality of Cadaqués in the Alt Empordà Comarques of Catalonia, comarca, in Catalonia, Spain. The island of P ...
, where he stayed for many years with his wife,
Gala Éluard Dalí. The sofa was produced in 1973 by Bocaccio Design, known also as
BD Barcelona Design.
Edward James, a rich British patron of the Surrealists in the 1930s, originally commissioned the piece from Dalí. It is now part of the art collections at the
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located a ...
in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
, and was on loan to
Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
until November 2021. Another version is on display at the
Dalí Theatre and Museum in
Figueres
Figueres (, ; , es, Figueras, ) is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museu ...
,
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...
, Spain.
A version is owned by the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, having exhibited another example at the 2007 exhibition ''Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design'',
[https://vanda-production-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/2018/05/16/11/52/13/798fc4b5-8b32-43bc-afaf-bbc121be7bef/VA_MAEWESTLIPSAcquisition_PressRelease_FINAL.pdf ] whil
another version is on display at
Brighton Museum.
See also
*''
Lobster Telephone
''Lobster Telephone'' (also known as ''Aphrodisiac Telephone'') is a Surrealist object, created by Salvador Dalí in 1936 for the English poet Edward James (1907–1984), a leading collector of surrealist art. In his 1942 book '' The Secret Li ...
''
*''
Rainy Taxi''
References
External links
The Mae West Lips Sofaby Salvador Dalí and Oscar Tusquets Blanca at the design agency Tagwerc
{{Salvador Dalí
1937 works
Decorative arts
Furnishings
Salvador Dalí
Surrealist works
Cultural depictions of Mae West
Lips
Collection of the Dalí Theatre and Museum