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Lot Essay
Conceived and executed in plaster in 1936, and cast in 1964 by Max Clarac, Vénus de Milo aux tiroirs is perhaps Dalí's most iconic sculpture. This cast comes form the collection of André-François Petit, the eminent Surrealist dealer who was a pivotal figure in the promotion of Surrealism in France and worldwide, especially from the 1950s onwards, when he opened his gallery in Paris. Petit personally befriended many of the artists who were central to the movement, amongst whom Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Hans Bellmer, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy. His friendship with them allowed him the gathering of an exquisite collection, feauturing some of the historically seminal works of Surrealism.
As a child Salvador Dalí had sculpted a terracotta version of the dining room of his family home. Later he admitted that the exercise 'gave me an unforgettable and delicious erotic joy' (S. Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, translated by H.M. Chevalier, New York, 1942). When, in 1936, he conceived the present work, it was Marcel Duchamp whom he chose to assist him in making the maquette. Dalí had very specific ideas in the realisation of this work and berated Duchamp while the latter was preparing a plaster cast of the sculpture, telling him it was supposed to be cast in bronze and then painted white to resemble plaster; 'C'est ainsi que quand quelqu'un voudra le soulever, il sera surpris, c'est plus lourd qu'il ne l'espérait'. Dalí considered the face of the original Venus de Milo its weakest attribute, an inadequate visage for such an archetype of feminine perfection. In his own interpretation, while the idealisation of beauty and the perfection of the antique is further ridiculed by the artist with the addition of the pompoms and of the drawers, Dalí's characteristic visual witticism is furthered by his intended trickery of medium.
The introduction of the drawers into the body of the Venus de Milo, the first and most significant in a long line of indignities to which the statue was subjected throughout Dalí's ongoing creative process, was a direct response to Freud's notions of the 'tiroirs de l'âme humaine'. Much of Dalí's most recognisable imagery is the stuff of dreams and of the subconscious workings of the mind, although Dalí resisted any attempt at direct analysis, preferring instead to allow the products of the human mind to manifest themselves in aesthetic reality. As he said of the present work, 'Avec les tiroirs, il est désormais possible de regarder l'âme de la Vénus de Milo à travers son corps'.
As a child Salvador Dalí had sculpted a terracotta version of the dining room of his family home. Later he admitted that the exercise 'gave me an unforgettable and delicious erotic joy' (S. Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, translated by H.M. Chevalier, New York, 1942). When, in 1936, he conceived the present work, it was Marcel Duchamp whom he chose to assist him in making the maquette. Dalí had very specific ideas in the realisation of this work and berated Duchamp while the latter was preparing a plaster cast of the sculpture, telling him it was supposed to be cast in bronze and then painted white to resemble plaster; 'C'est ainsi que quand quelqu'un voudra le soulever, il sera surpris, c'est plus lourd qu'il ne l'espérait'. Dalí considered the face of the original Venus de Milo its weakest attribute, an inadequate visage for such an archetype of feminine perfection. In his own interpretation, while the idealisation of beauty and the perfection of the antique is further ridiculed by the artist with the addition of the pompoms and of the drawers, Dalí's characteristic visual witticism is furthered by his intended trickery of medium.
The introduction of the drawers into the body of the Venus de Milo, the first and most significant in a long line of indignities to which the statue was subjected throughout Dalí's ongoing creative process, was a direct response to Freud's notions of the 'tiroirs de l'âme humaine'. Much of Dalí's most recognisable imagery is the stuff of dreams and of the subconscious workings of the mind, although Dalí resisted any attempt at direct analysis, preferring instead to allow the products of the human mind to manifest themselves in aesthetic reality. As he said of the present work, 'Avec les tiroirs, il est désormais possible de regarder l'âme de la Vénus de Milo à travers son corps'.