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Table

1934
Not on view
Little is known about the designer of this table, which is both a functional piece of furniture and a fantastical Surrealist sculpture. The glass tabletop rests improbably atop small balls balanced on the tips of three delicately tapering fingers, generating a sensation of tension and unease. Disembodied hands and gloves are recurrent motifs in Surrealist art, with the left hand, in particular, symbolizing the irrational. The cloudlike element from which the hand emerges also suggests a transition from the conscious to the subconscious world.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Table
  • Artist: Costa Achillopoulo (active in England, ca. 1930–75)
  • Date: 1934
  • Medium: Painted wood, gesso, glass, metal screws
  • Dimensions: 28 3/8 × 23 5/8 in., 35 lb. (72 × 60 cm, 15.9 kg)
  • Classification: Furniture
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, in memory of J. Stewart Johnson, 2006
  • Object Number: 2006.143a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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