The bronze sculpture Metamorphose Topologique de la Venus de Milo Traversee par des Tiroirs
(1964) is Dalí’s reinterpretation of the famous classical marble sculpture, dating from antiquity. In fact, the original and first Venus de Milo now on display at the Louvre in Paris, is one of the most famous sculptures of Greek antiquity and was unearthed on a Greek island during the 1800’s. The Venus / Goddess image, held a great attraction for Dalí who returned to reinterpret her physical form, numerous times thoughout his artistic career
Over two meters tall and weighing in at around 900 kilos, the bronze sculpture Venus Traversee par des Tiroirs was created using the process of ‘lost wax’, it is a mesmerizing reminder that Dalí worked by juxtaposing the fluid feminine form with a hard indifferent object like a drawers set the effect is instant and surreal.
Dalí wanted to exhibit the first bronze of this sculpture in 1964, in Japan, for an important retrospective. He then made three modifications to it, added a bust and created two differently sized sculptures. Dalí was constantly recreating, he would finish one sculpture and the immediately be on to his new masterpiece.
According to the Descharnes book ‘The Hard and the Soft, ’Dalí’s first sculpture was a clay copy of the Venus de Milo. He later recalled, ‘My first project as a sculptor gave me unknown and delicious erotic joy’.
This Venus is truly the most majestic of all of Dalí’s surrealistic homages to women.Dalí was obsessed with beauty as an ideal the majority of his feminine figures he named “Venus” the female absolute.Venus Traversee par des Tiroirs is certainly the strongest of his fantasmagorique prime donne as she displays her drawers, fully opened; her secrets are revealed for the world to see. She hides nothing, exhibits all, and, as portrayed by the artist, she cares not at all for the opinions of others. Venus is an eternal woman, rising above earthly situations, and is proud for all time.
One exemplaire is currently on loan from the Dalí Universe to the Museo d’Arte della Citta in Ravenna , Italy, entitled ‘ La Seduzione Dell’Antico- Da Picasso a Duchamp,da De Chirico a Pistoletto,’ running until June 2016.
Another examplaire of the Venus Traversee par des Tiroirs sculpture can currently be viewed in Liege, Belgium, at the Guillemin’s Station exhibition in a Dalí show entitled ‘From Salvador to Dalí’, which runs from February 27th until August 2016.
