Dali’s telephone rings out
SALVADOR Dalí’s Lobster Telephone has been acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland, and is set to go on display this week at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
The iconic sculpture, worth £835,000, is one of the most instantly recognisable masterpieces of Surrealism, the art movement that emerged in Paris in the 1920s, which explored the world of dreams and the subconscious.
The artwork consists of an ordinary, working telephone, upon which rests a plaster lobster, specially made to fit directly over the receiver.
The Surrealists loved the idea of unrelated objects coming together to create a new kind of reality, which, it is claimed, 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,” said a Gallery spokesperson.
The Lobster Telephone was made in 1938 for Edward James, Dalí’s main patron in the 1930s.
Eleven of the plaster lobster receivers were made to fit telephones at James’s homes. Four of the lobsters were painted red, and seven white.
Almost all the Lobster Telephones are now in museum collections around the world.
The idea for the Lobster Telephone dates back to a drawing Dalí made in 1935.
The National Galleries of Scotland has one of the world’s greatest collections of Surrealist art, including major paintings by René Magritte, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. However, until now there has been no major Object Sculpture in the collection
Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland said: “This major acquisition cements our position as one of the world’s greatest collections of Surrealist art.”
The King and I to be staged in Scotland
ACCLAIMED Broadway smash hit musical The King and I is to come to Scotland.
Having achieved a record-breaking season at the London Palladium, the multi Tony Award-winning production will now embark on a major UK tour from Spring 2019.
The appetite for the show is enormous. The cinema release of the live production of the show has become the biggest live event in cinemas of 2018 following last week’s first global screenings. In the UK the film took more than double the box office of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Tony Award-winning Bartlett Sher will once again direct the theatre production.
Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to teach his many wives and children. Songs include Getting to Know You and Shall We Dance.
The King and I, the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, January 28 - February 8, 2020
The Queen Arrives in Spades
THE ROYAL Opera House production of The Queen of Spades is to be screened in cinemas across Scotland.
Tchaikovsky’s opera explores romantic passion and the dangerous thrill of gambling and Stefan Herheim’s “stunning” production places Tchaikovsky himself at the heart of the action.
The live cinema performance is set for January 22 with an encore screening on January 27.
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