Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1086409 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

About the Author
Ingrid Schaffner is senior curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. She is the author of several books, including Essential Series monographs on Picasso, Matisse, Warhol, and Man Ray. She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Quite possibly the world's coolest funhouse!
Though Dali would eventually disavow his "Dream of Venus" pavilion from the 1939 World's Fair (over those pulling the pursestrings interfering with his vision), its place in history was forever secured as one of the earliest "art installation exhibits", or alternatively the most amazing carnival funhouse ever devised.

Full of bizarre imagery pulled from Freudian psychology and the depths of Dali's own mind, visitors were treated to topless models cavorting in aquaria and other tableaux of surreal landscapes such as a 36-foot bed topped with lobsters baking on hot coals, a taxicab containing a rainstorm and Christopher Columbus, and an undersea mummified cow. Apparently a psychotic dream-rant by B-movie actress Ruth Ford played on endlessly in the darkness as well.

Schaffner gives a brief textual description of a walk-through of the pavilion, followed by a history of the exhibition's development. Schaal's recently discovered photographs are the primary illustrations; they document both the exhibit space as well as behind-the-scenes shots of the models in costume fittings and the construction of the pavilion.

The book, while fascinating, does leave one wanting more; certainly other photographs and film clips documenting the pavilion exist, possibly also of its rehab in 1940 as "20,000 Legs Under the Sea" (!), which would have been interesting in addition to the Schaal photos. Schaffner also very briefly quotes contemporary descriptions of the pavilion, lengthier passages would have been nice. It seems she is focusing on newly-discovered material, but since so little of the old material is easily available, its inclusion would have been well-justified.

All in all, though, a beautifully produced volume on a rare melding of high art and carnival culture, the likes of which will undoubtedly never be seen again. Highly recommended.