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".
To this day this icon created by Dali is being used in fashion, print, film and online.
See example to the right, Lady Gaga borrows from Dali and his wife Gala.
