THE National Galleries of Scotland yesterday announced it had acquired the Lobster Telephone, one of the most iconic works by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali, which will now go on show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
The small sculpture is one of the most instantly recognisable masterpieces of Surrealism, the art movement that emerged in Paris in the 1920s and explored the world of dreams and the subconscious mind.
It consists of an ordinary, working telephone, upon which rests a plaster lobster specially made to fit directly over the receiver.
HOW MUCH DID IT COST?
WHEN it was sold at auction in March, the Lobster Telephone fetched £853,000. Arts minister Michael Ellis put a temporary export ban on the sculpture to allow a UK organisation time to match the price, and the National Galleries of Scotland stepped in with support from the Henry and Sula Walton Fund (£753,000), and Art Fund (£100,000).
Henry Walton, who died in 2012, was a Professor of Psychiatry at Edinburgh University and his wife, Sula Walton, was an internationally renowned child psychiatrist. They were passionate devotees of the arts and left their art collection to the National Galleries of Scotland. They also established an independent, charitable fund, designed to help the Galleries acquire major works of modern art. Thus far, the Walton Fund has assisted in the purchase of works by Pablo Picasso, Jenny Saville, Toyen and Leonora Carrington – works which would otherwise have been outwith the Galleries’ reach.
WHY IS THIS WORK SO IMPORTANT?
LOBSTER Telephone was made in 1938 for Scots-born Edward James (1907-1984), Dali’s main patron in the 1930s. Only 11 of the plaster lobster receivers were made to fit to telephones at James’s house in Wimpole Street, London and at his country house, Monkton, in West Sussex. Four of the lobsters were painted red, and seven were painted white. The Lobster Telephones are now almost all in museum collections around the world: the Tate in London has a red version on a black telephone. This white version remained with the Edward James Foundation.
As the National Galleries explained: “The Surrealists loved the idea of unrelated objects coming together to create a new kind of reality, which subverted the rational and tapped into the subconscious. The bizarre combination of a phone and a lobster is at once absurd, repellent, fascinating and menacing, yet it is nevertheless a fully functioning phone.”
WHAT OTHER WORKS BY DALI AND TH E SURREALISTS ARE THERE IN SCOTLAND?
THE National Galleries of Scotland has one of the world’s greatest collections of Surrealist art, including paintings by Rene Magritte, Joan Miro, Paul Delvaux, Toyen, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington and others, and sculptures by Alberto Giacometti.
However, until now there has been no major Object Sculpture in the collection: they were quickly assembled for exhibition at the time, and were often simply discarded – so they are rare. Obtaining Dali’s Lobster Telephone is a huge coup for the National Galleries.
The artist’s most famous work in Scotland is his painting Christ of St John of the Cross which hangs in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Gallery.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here