Mae West: Hello, Dalí

An industrial strength dosage of surrealism starring MAE WEST will spike the arts scene in London next spring. The show, Other Surreal Things, is slated for the Victoria & Albert Museum.
• • The exhibition will run from March 29 to July 22, 2007 in Great Britain.
• • Salvador Dalí's Mae West creations, a lobster telephone, a table with bird's legs, and a hat made from bouillabaisse will be among the highlights. Dalí is well represented among an array of 300 objects that explore the influence of surrealism on the worlds of design, interiors, clothes, film, and theatre. Dresses by Elsa Schiaparelli, the Paris fashion designer who collaborated with Jean Cocteau and Dalí, notably on a "Tear" and a "Skeleton" dress, will also be on view.
• • Ghislaine Woods, the curator, said: "Although there have been many exhibitions on surrealism, this is the first to explore the impact of the movement on design and the decorative arts."
• • More than 20 objects are being lent by the West Dean Foundation, the estate in Sussex owned by the late Edward James. James was the first English patron of the surrealists and filled his house, painted purple on the outside, with his collection of their works.
• • Genesis of the Mae West Lips Sofa (1937): Dalí had first painted The Face of Mae West (Usable as a Surrealist Apartment) in 1934. Later on, Edward James, a rich British patron of the Surrealists in the 1930s, commissioned this companion piece from Dalí. The Mae West sofa is the same color as the "shocking pink" lipstick shade inspired by the actress, and developed by the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
• • The most highly paid Paramount Pictures' star during the 1930s, Mae West's image (and drawings based on her face and shape) rapidly became part of popular culture. As the Brooklyn bombshell became a commodity, artists such as Salvador Dalí, perfumers such as Rochas, designers such as Schiaparelli, etc., naturally responded to her influential position in the media.
• • Around 1938, the Mae West Lips Sofa was designed by Salvador Dalí with Edward James, and made by Green & Abbott. This 20th century icon has a wooden carcase, upholstered in felted, woven wool fabric. The Mae West Lips Sofa was purchased by the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery from the Edward James Foundation in 1983.
• • Dali's fascination with Mae West was a long one.
• • Salvador Dalí [11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989] was a Catalan-Spanish artist who became one of the most important painters of the 20th century. A gouache now in Chicago illustrates his original plan executed during the early 1930s for a "paranoiac-critical room" based on the features of her face. When the Dalí Museum in Figueras was being constructed during the early 1970s, his Mae West Room was finally built to his specifications.
• • MAE WEST used to say, "I like two kinds of men: domestic and foreign." Therefore, it's assumed that Mae appreciated Dalí's dalliance with her image.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Illustration: The Face of Mae West (Usable as a Surrealist Apartment) • • 1934 • •
NYC
Mae West.