Lobster Telephone is a surrealist object

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

, created by Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....

 in 1936 with surrealist artist and patron Edward James

Edward James

Edward William Frank James was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement.-Early life and marriage:...

. Dalí wrote of lobsters and telephones in his book The Secret Life, demanding to know why, when he asked for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, he was never presented with a boiled telephone.

Description

The piece is a composite of an ordinary working telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 and a lobster

Lobster

Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...

 made of plaster

Plaster

Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...

. It is approximately 15 × 30 × 17 cm (6 × 12 × 6.6 inches) in size.

Possible interpretations

Dalí created this object with the specific intention of aligning the lobster's genitalia with the end of the phone into which one would speak, thus aligning the speaker's mouth with the lobster's genitalia. These were an example of sexual references through art, but represented through food items.

Sculpture exhibition

Five copies of the full colour object were made. One now appears at the Dalí Universe

Dalí Universe

Dalí Universe was a permanent exhibition of art works by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí which was housed in a 3,000 square metre suite of galleries at County Hall in London, England. It opened in 2000 and closed in January 2010. As stated on the website, it intends to re-open at a different...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

; the second can be found at the Museum of Telecommunication in Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

; the third belongs to the Edward James

Edward James

Edward William Frank James was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement.-Early life and marriage:...

 Foundation; and the fourth is at the National Gallery of Australia

National Gallery of Australia

The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...

. The sculpture was displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria

National Gallery of Victoria

The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...

 during the Salvador Dalí Liquid Desire exhibition. A fifth version is held by Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporation...

.

There were also six all-white versions which were produced, one of which is on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a fine art museum located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a campus that covers nearly 8 acres , formerly Morrison Park...

 and one at the Salvador Dalí Museum

Salvador Dalí Museum

The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, houses the largest collection outside Europe of the works of the artist Salvador Dalí and is located on the Downtown St. Petersburg waterfront.-History:...

 in St. Petersburg, Florida

St. Petersburg, Florida

St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...

. Another is held at Centro Cultural de Belém, in Portugal, and is owned by the art collector Joe Berardo. Yet another can be viewed at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) in Johannesburg, South Africa.