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Dali lip sofa on display

Updated Oct 1, 2024, 6:36pm EDT
Mae West Lips sofa, Salvador Dalí and Edward James. Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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One of the world’s most famous pairs of lips is going on display in the UK. Salvador Dalí’s Mae West Lips Sofa is part of an extensive collection of Surrealist art compiled by Edward James, a patron of the movement.

In the 1930s, James transformed his house into the UK’s only complete Surrealist space, commissioning several versions of Dalí’s sofa design, in which “the scarlet lips of Hollywood sex-symbol Mae West [are] reimagined as seating for a fantastical room-setting,” the Victoria and Albert Museum wrote. West Dean College will show the sofa in monthly public tours, alongside other Surrealist treasures including Dalí’s Lobster Telephone.

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