The Mae West Lips Sofa (1937) is a surrealist sofa by Salvador Dalí. The wood-and-satin sofa was shaped after the lips of actress Mae West, whom Dalí apparently found fascinating. It measures 86.5 x 183 x 81.5 cm.
Edward James, a rich British patron of the Surrealists in the 1930s, commissioned this piece from Dali.
Famous quotes containing the words mae west, west, lips and/or sofa:
“Women are as old as they feel—and men are old when they lose their feelings.”
—Raoul Walsh, U.S. screenwriter. Frisco Doll (Mae West)
“Every man is in a state of conflict, owing to his attempt to reconcile himself and his relationship with life to his conception of harmony. This conflict makes his soul a battlefield, where the forces that wish this reconciliation fight those that do not and reject the alternative solutions they offer. Works of art are attempts to fight out this conflict in the imaginative world.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“For laughter frames the lips of death—
Death frames the Singer and the Song.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“There is nothing so slipperily alluring as sadness; we become sad in the first place by having nothing stirring to do; we continue in it, because we have found a snug sofa at last.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)