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:
“My advice to those who think they have to take off their clothes to be a star is, once you’re boned, what’s left to create the illusion? Let ‘em wonder. I never believed in givin’ them too much of me.”
—Mae West (1892–1980)
“All good biography, as all good fiction, comes down to the study of original sin, of our inherent disposition to choose death when we ought to choose life.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“O black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?”
—James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
“Ideology has shaped the very sofa on which I sit.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)