The Mae West Lips Sofa is a surrealist sculpture in the form of a sofa by Salvador Dalí. The light red, sized seating furniture made of polyurethane foam coated with a red polidur coating was shaped after the lips of actress Mae West, whom Dalí apparently found fascinating.[1] 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 and Portlligat, where he stayed for many years with his wife, Gala Éluard Dalí.
Edward James, a rich British patron of the Surrealists, originally commissioned the piece from Dalí. The original five versions were produced in 1937–38, which are now held in the art collections of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Catalonia,[2] the Victoria and Albert Museum,[3] the Brighton Museum,[4] and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.[5]
The sofa was reproduced in 1973 by Bocaccio Design, known also as BD Barcelona Design.