The Mae West Lips Sofa is a surrealist sculpture in the form of a sofa by Salvador Dalí. The light red, 110 cm × 183 cm × 81.5 cm (43 in × 72 in × 32 in) sized seating furniture made of polyurethane foam coated with a red polidur coating was shaped in 1972 after the lips of actress Mae West, whom Dalí apparently found fascinating.[1] Dalí never intended for the sofa to serve a functional use. He also claimed that he partly based the design of the sofa[citation needed] on a pile of rocks near Cadaqués and Portlligat, 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.

The Mae West Lips Sofa is the centerpiece of an installation at the Dalí Theatre and Museum, Spain
On display at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2017

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 in Rotterdam, and was on loan to Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington until November 2021.[2] Another version is on display at the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain.[3] A version is owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum, having exhibited another example at the 2007 exhibition Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design,[4] while another is on display at Brighton Museum.[5]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Shelley, Landry. "Dalí Wows Crowd in Philadelphia" Unbound (The College of New Jersey) Spring 2005. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
  2. ^ Mae West Lips Sofa, Salvador Dalí, 1938 | Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
  3. ^ Pitxot, Antoni; Montse Aguer Teixidor; photography, Jordi Puig; translation, Steve Cedar (2007). The Dalí Theatre-Museum. Sant Lluís, Menorca: Triangle Postals. ISBN 9788484782889.
  4. ^ https://vanda-production-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/2018/05/16/11/52/13/798fc4b5-8b32-43bc-afaf-bbc121be7bef/VA_MAEWESTLIPSAcquisition_PressRelease_FINAL.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  5. ^ "Collections: Decorative Art". Brighton Museums. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019 – via Internet Archive.

External links edit

  Media related to Mae West Lips Sofa at Wikimedia Commons