Face of Mae West Which May Be Used as an Apartment
Face of Mae West Which May Be Used as an Apartment
Salvador Dalí
1934–35, Gouache with graphite on commercially printed magazine page, 28.3 × 17.8 cm
Art Institute of Chicago

Mae West (1893–1980) was an American actress, playwright, singer, and sex symbol …… one of the most controversial movie stars of her day, who once quipped, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it"

This work by Dalí confounds the face of Mae West with the interior of a room and its furniture: Her nose becomes the fireplace, her lips the sofa, her eyes a pair of paintings on the wall, and her hair the draperies

Edward James, a British poet and patron of surrealist art, commissioned the first Mae West Sofas, which have since been copied, modified, revisited, reproduced and sold under different names by multiple furniture makers and designers

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