Salvador Dali

Breathing Pneumatic Armchair

"Imagine an anthropomorphic chair that you plug into the wall which breathes at a programmed rate. This means that even from the therapeutic standpoint it is very desirable because we can easily put children to sleep as in a cradle. Instead of rocking them, we put them in a breathing cradle and the movement puts them to sleep. For the greater calm of the adults, instead of the rocking chair which one must activate by oneself, you sit down, and the chair breathes in unison or, on the contrary, in counterpoint to your breathing. This has the psychopathological effect of calming you and establishing an intra-uterine harmony, not only with the room, but with the whole cosmos, since we ourselves are linked to such movements, harmoniously connected with the cosmos itself."

 

This piece is a creation by the artist of a divine chair that would calm and comfort the sitter, breathing deeply as we do when trying to achieve a level head.

This work is part of the "Imagination and Objects of the Future" portfolio, which is full of Dalí's fantastical creations of futuristic luxuries and extravagances. The suite of 10 dry point etchings combined with lithography and collage were inspired by his extensive research on a variety of scientific topics, including physics, biology, and arithmetic. These encompass the concept of Dali imagining himself as the 20th century Leonardo da Vinci, giving to the world what he imagined the future would hold.