Mae West Lips Sofa [SEP] designer
Mae West Lips Sofa
The Mae West Lips Sofa is a surrealist sculpture in the form of a sofa by Salvador Dalí. The light red, 86.5 x 183 x 81.5 cm (34 x 72 x 32 in) sized seating furniture made of wood and satin was shaped in 1937 after the lips of actress Mae West, whom Dalí apparently found fascinating. Dalí never intended for the sofa to serve a functional use. He also claimed that he partly based the design of the sofa on a pile of rocks near Cadaqués
His refurbishment of Monkton House, in a part of the West Dean Estate, was a Surrealist dream. It was done in collaboration with the pioneering British decorator, Syrie Maugham, and has some of the most iconic Surrealist works on display, including the large Mae West Lips Sofa to which Dalí gave the form and colour of the actresses lips, and his Lobster Telephone in white. (The surrealist tradition at Monkton House was maintained when the Interior designer, Derek Frost, did extensive work to the house and designed more custom