Salvador Dali Telephone Lobster

Hand signed by Dali in 1975

Hand colored original etching with aquatint color.

22" x 30" on Arches paper.

Pencil numbered lower left corner.

This work is part of a series that pays hommage to great inventions.

Notice the line from the mouth of the model to the telephone in the distance.

Origin and inspiration:

Lobster Telephone (also known as Aphrodisiac Telephone) is a surrealist object, created by Salvador Dalí in 1936 with surrealist artist and patron Edward James. Dalí wrote of lobsters and telephones in some of his books. In one reference Dali demanding to know why, when he asked for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, he was never presented with a boiled telephone.

The TATE MUSEUM owns one of the original sculptures of this subject.

History:

Inspired by Dalí, Edward James proceeded in the 1930s to turn his country manor into a fantasy palace filled with every kind of strange and exotic object. As well as placing three of Dalí's sofas in the shape of Mae West's lips into his living quarters, James asked Dalí to 'make-over' his telephones as well. Dali suggested that James fill his rooms with what he called 'The surrealist object - one that is absolutely useless from the practical and rational point of view, created wholly for the purpose of materialising in a fetishistic way, with the maximum of tangible reality, ideas and fantasies having a delirious character.' He then conceived a truly unforgettable object, his irresistibly playful lobster perched atop a phone, which was also called the Aphrodisiac telephone at the time, a title in keeping with Dalí's wicked sense of humour and desire to baffle his public completely.

Dalí's Lobster telephone was not 'absolutely useless', however, but was in fact a perfectly functioning telephone. Edward James purchased four Lobster telephones from Dalí, with which he replaced all the original phones in his country retreat. One of these (a partial reconstruction) is now in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London;

The use of the crutch to hold up heavy objects or elongated body parts is seen throughout Dali's works. Dali quote: "I imagine sleep as a heavy monster that was "held up by the crutches of reality".

LADY GAGA BORROWED THIS IDEA FROM DALI AND HIS WIFE GALA.

Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol

Interview by Sarah Phillips

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 October 2011

I was working for Condé Nast and Mademoiselle magazine in New York and had a reportage way of shooting, even for fashion. It caught Andy Warhol's eye; he wanted someone to tag along to parties or to photograph him making silkscreens and movies, capturing his daily life.

For a 24-year-old Englishman, hanging out at the Factory was mind-blowing. I had no idea people lived this way; any time of the day or night, there would be something wild going on. I couldn't afford to get too whacked because I had to stay focused for my work, so I just observed. And a lot of what happened I couldn't photograph: there was no way you could publish those kind of pictures.
On this particular occasion, in the winter of 1964-65, I got a call saying we were to meet at the St Regis hotel: we were going to visit Salvador Dalí, my hero. I was thrilled. When we arrived at his suite, Dalí beckoned us in with a cane and no one spoke; opera music was playing so loudly that the room was vibrating. He grabbed Andy by the arm and plonked him in a chair, pointed at me to get my camera ready, then grabbed a huge Inca headdress, dramatically placing it on Andy's head.
It was pure theatre. Dalí was making Andy so nervous – which was unusual: it was usually him who made other people tongue-tied – that he was guzzling back wine. I'd never even seen him drink before. He kept looking as if he was ready to bolt for the door, and then finally he said: "David, we've gotta go."
There is nothing manufactured about the picture: things happened so fast it was almost like being a war photographer. We were there for no more than five minutes, and we never discussed the experience afterwards. That wasn't Andy's style, and I think he was genuinely shocked by the meeting. Suddenly the table had been turned and it was no longer me photographing Warhol, it was Dalí with Warhol.

Salvador Dali photos

Dali and Alfred Hitchcock

Dali on Whats My Line TV show

Dali creating hand signed lithographs in his studio

in the mid 1960's

Salvador Dali Fashion Show

1953 - Dali entered a Fashion Contest in New York. The theme was, "Woman of the Future." The dress that Dali had designed was so large it had to be photographed on the roof of "The Roxy." Here is one of the Phillippe Halsman photos of the event. In true Halsman fashion, the model is jumping.

Salvador Dali Dulcinea

Salvador Dali's Dulcinea the imaginary beauty conjured up by the main character of the story Don Quixote in Don Quichotte of La Mancha

Salvador Dali Battle with the Wine Skins

Salvador Dali created original lithographs in 1957

The subject was Don Quichotte or Don Quixote (Two spellings)

This is the image that depicts the part of the story having to do with the slashing of the wine skins.