Cat. no. OE
24

Vénus de Milo aux tiroirs

Venus de Milo with Drawers

Venus de Milo with Drawers

Cat. no. OE 24

Venus de Milo with Drawers

1936

Description

Unique Original Work
Date:
1936
Technique:
Painted plaster with metal pulls and mink pompons
Dimensions:
98 x 32.5 x 34 cm
Location:
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Through prior gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman 2005.424
Description:
This plaster sculpture, created by Dalí in 1936, takes as its reference the Venus de Milo in the Musée du Louvre. This icon of antiquity had fascinated the artist from childhood. In The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí he relates that as a boy he made a copy of this sculpture in clay, and how this first attempt at sculpture produced in him ‘an unmistakable and delightful erotic pleasure’. Later, in an interview he gave to Playboy magazine in 1964, Dalí explained that ‘With the addition of the drawers it is possible to look inside the body of the Venus de Milo to the soul: Thus Dalí creates a Freudian and Christian appearance in the Greek civilization.’ It is likely that this same plaster sculpture was part of an ephemeral installation at the exhibition Salvador Dalí 1939 held at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York.