Salvador Dali, Venus de Milo with Drawers, painted plaster with metal pulls and mink pompons, Spain ca. 1936, The Art Institute, Chicago.
Salvador Dali was an extremely influential and eccentric artist. His works of surrealism and complexity are in museums around the globe, including Venus de Milo with Drawers. Placed in the Art Institute of Chicago, this memorable piece still turns heads today. It is considered one of Dali’s most imaginative works. The Venus de Milo with Drawers is a plaster reproduction of a renowned marble statue created between 130 and 120 BC. The original statue depicting the ancient goddess of love is in the collection of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. Dali designed for pompon-decorated drawers to be placed in the statue’s breasts, forehead, abdomen, stomach, and left knee. When the cool tones of the plaster and the mink bunches meet, it portrays the Surrealist’s focus in bringing together varying components to develop a new way of life and reality. The revolution of the Surrealist movement poked at the consciousness of the past’s artists and society, both current and previous, as seen in this statue. In 1931, Dali described this piece before alterations as useless and believed that it was created in a fetishistic way. He also believed that it portrayed the fantasies of an irrational figure. Dali’s essays were influenced by the thoughts of Marcel Duchamp and his usage of object-making as a part of the Surrealist movements. Due to his influence from Sigmund Freud, Dali thought of the idea as a female character changed into a dresser or cabinet. He called this an “anthropomorphic cabinet.” The Venus de Milo with Drawers shows Dali’s mind and how he dug deep into the mysteries of desire placed into the human psyche. Salvador Dali’s works allow for society to crawl into his mind and view his thinking process as he created his masterpieces.
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